A healthy insurance payout is on its way but emotions are still running high a year on from the devastating fire that permanently altered the face of Roxburgh’s main street.
Waitangi Day 2025 will be etched in the minds of many Teviot Valley residents as the day the town hall and cinema burned down.
Today, the weed-covered site sits empty, its fate to be decided at next month’s council and community board meetings.
Events have been scattered to other towns’ halls and the screening of films restricted to the occasional, weather-dependent outdoor session.
Fourteen fire appliances and two command units from as far as Dunedin were called to the February 6 blaze in the more than 110-year-old building, home to the cinema, which was one of the longest operating in the world at that stage.
Flames were seen shooting up to 10m in the air from the building’s roof, nearby properties were evacuated and a large crowd gathered to watch the emergency response during the afternoon.
Despite the firefighters’ best efforts the building was lost and no cause was determined.
Insurance negotiations have been lengthy and in the interim a steering group was appointed by the Teviot Valley Community Board to collate the community’s ideas for a replacement building.
Community board member, district councillor and steering committee representative Curtis Pannett said the steering group members were a deliberately diverse bunch.
Business owner Sally Smith, teacher Sarah Moore, musician and former draughtsman Alastair Monteath and Roxburgh cinema committee member David Weatherall were appointed in August to be a conduit between residents and the community board and council.
Late last year the steering group controversially raised the submitted idea of investigating alternative sites for the new town hall, prompting a public furore.
While the council ran its official engagement via an online poll and drop boxes at the Roxburgh service centre, others, including Teviot Valley community board member Gill Booth, conducted their own informal polls.
A meeting in Roxburgh on December 11 to discuss the possibility of considering other sites was heated, to the point community board chairman Mark Jessop was even called a ‘‘w.....’’ when he stood to address the meeting.
At the end of the meeting an informal poll showed the vast majority — 80-15 — of those attending did not want to consider any changes.
At a district council meeting the following week, however, it was reported that in polling since the meeting opinion had swung in favour of at least looking at other options and the council approved the investigation of both the present and alternative sites for a new building.
Recent planning work, including a draft Teviot Valley Community Plan, would be included in the investigation, which was expected to cost between $20,000 and $30,000.
A high-level report will be presented to the community board and the council next month.
Roxburgh Entertainment Centre and improvements committee chairman Curtis Crawford remains adamant the original site is the only option and disputes the claims of a change in public opinion.
‘‘There are many memories on this site for so many different generations of Teviot Valley residents so there is a fair few of us insulted by the talk of shifting sites and being made out to the minority when, in fact, those in favour of shifting are in the minority,’’ he said.
‘‘We’re not trying to create controversy for controversy’s sake, but Teviot Valley’s a broad church, and there’s people that want exactly what they had and want it now and then there’s people that say, ‘no, this is a unique opportunity to stop and actually go, what do we want for the building, and where do we want it’ and we’re going to probably take into account both sides.
‘‘That’s what we’re doing.’’
Since the original hall was built society had changed and while some people had an emotional connection and historic sentiment about that building it was important to consider future residents as well those living there now, he said.
‘‘People go, ‘oh, you can’t plan for 100 years’ ... but we’ve got to have an eye to a 100-year building and make sure it is fit for purpose best we know how at this point in time.
‘‘One of the things I see is that we’ve got to do it properly — consult, engage with people once we know where we’re building it and [create a] multifunctional building that’s going to get used as much as possible for the whole valley for the next 100 years.’’
Getting the best payout from insurers had taken time but was worth it.
‘‘My answer to people that say we should be half-built by now is, well, A, not possible, and B, yeah, we could be further along, but you’d be dealing with a much smaller budget and you’d probably get a less desirable building for the community because you just wouldn’t have the same amount of money that you’re going to have,’’ Cr Pannett said.
Mr Scoones says the council has not yet received the full insurance payout of about $6.4million but expected to in the next month.
So far they had received $4.2m, which included demolition and site clearing costs and the indemnity value, he said.
‘‘Our insurers have verbally confirmed that the full payout will be made and we expect to receive the remaining balance within the next month.’’
The council engaged its own quantity surveyor after the insurers initially offered less than the full insured value.
Cr Pannett said the rebuild would happen and it would be great.
‘‘At the end of the day, we’re going to get a great building no matter where it is or no matter what it looks like and I think that’s the thing to keep in mind.
‘‘It is going to happen and it’s going to be great when it happens, but we don’t want to sell the whole project short by rushing off the starting blocks and not looking at everything.’’
Mr Crawford said some people had said they would not donate to the rebuilding fund until they knew it was going on the original site.
Moving pictures were first screened on the site in 1897 in what was then the Roxburgh Athenaeum Hall.
The cinema was the world’s second-longest running.
Guinness World Records stated the longest continuously operating cinema must occupy the same site.
A cinema in Iowa, the United States, holds the official title, after it provided proof of having operated about seven months longer than Roxburgh, which failed to find enough evidence to secure the title.
The Central Otago District Council owned the building and owns the land but the cinema was operated by a volunteer-run charitable trust whose profits return to the theatre.
- The Roxburgh Entertainment Centre project steering group will hold a public meeting at 5.30pm, Thursday, at the Roxburgh Memorial Hall.
