‘‘There's been a real baby boom in Central Otago full stop,'' Alexandra Plunket committee president Tracie Handford said.
Figures released yesterday by Otago Plunket reveal 349 babies were born in Central Otago from July 2007 to June 2008 compared with 299 the previous year.
The statistics show 50 more babies have been born in the past year in the region from Millers Flat to Oturehua and Wanaka.
The latest statistics show 147 babies were born in the Upper Clutha (Wanaka and Hawea), compared with 124 the previous year, and 103 were born in Alexandra and Clyde compared with 86 a year earlier.
The Alexandra rooms barely had room for the 14 committee members to have meetings, she said.
‘‘There's just not the space,'' Mrs Handford said.
Plunket would like to be able to host larger functions along with renting out the rooms for meetings.
Children's birthday parties could also be held in the rooms for those in the community who didn't have the facilities.
Along with a new playground, planned renovations include taking out a wall to make a large function room and modernising a room for the Plunket nurse.
Along with renovations, there was a need to invest in staff.
‘‘It's put a lot more pressure on our Plunket nurse with the hours she's got,'' Mrs Handford said.
‘‘More funding for her to have more hours would be good or for another part-time nurse,'' Mrs Handford said.
‘‘As a parent, I definitely think it would be nice for them to have more hours and the Karitane nurse - it would be great,'' Mrs Handford said.
Work gets under way this weekend to make way for the new playground behind the centre.
Delta and the Masonic Lodge trust have given $8000 for the playground. A further $7450 for building renovations has been raised from a garage sale and an expo but Mrs Handford said the expo was more about thanking the community for support, as was the tea party on Tuesday.
