The Southland Museum and Art Gallery in Invercargill is to be closed due to earthquake safety concerns.
The Invercargill City Council held an extraordinary meeting this morning following a review of a seismic assessment of the building, and decided to move staff out of the building.
A sign would go up from today saying the building was earthquake-prone, meaning people could make their own choice to enter, and it would be shut from Thursday.
The building belongs to the Southland Museum Trust, but the 41 staff working there were employed by the council. The onsite i-Site would be relocated, though no site had been identified yet.
The council would begin a consultation process regarding the direct impact to employees based at the museum.
The council's chief executive, Clare Hadley, has responsibilities under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 to provide a safe work place, and considered it an unreasonable risk to continue to allow staff to occupy the building in the long term.
Ms Hadley said today the decision to withdraw staff from the building had not been taken lightly.
“While we acknowledge this will be a difficult time for staff, and a period of uncertainty, we simply cannot take any chances with the safety of our employees.”
The council had been advised in 2013 about the state of the building, legislation had since changed and a peer review recommending the move had come through about two weeks ago.
Most of the collection would stay in the building in the meantime, while a plan was worked on.
During the next few weeks options would be considered regarding services which needed to continue within the museum, and how to make arrangements for staff to be able to continue these services.
They would include consideration of the welfare of tuatara, which was a priority.
Toni Biddle, Southland Museum and Art Gallery Trust board chairwoman, said the board was devastated at the closure.
“Our thoughts are with the staff who provide an exceptional service to our locals and visitors. They are assets to our museum and we are all deeply saddened during this difficult time.
“The trust board is working incredibly hard on a solution with our immediate priorities being the wellbeing of staff, tuatara and our collection,” Ms Biddle said.
“The museum is iconic to our people and community and the trust board is determined to find positive solutions for this asset, and our community moving forward.
“I believe all people who love the museum, as we do, deserve that,” she said.
The board today agreed a move was necessary and it would look at relocating the museum's collection to secure, appropriate temporary premises.
It agreed it should work with the Invercargil City Council to find what options existed for retention of staff for the relocation and ongoing cataloging of the collection, and to work with the Regional Heritage Committee to see how best to progress a regional storage facility.
The council agreed that, in conjunction with other funding and management partners, it was committed to the future existence of a Southland Museum and Art Gallery, in whatever form may eventuate from discussions.
