One of Tauranga's most important emergency services in the event of a natural disaster will get a $4 million upgrade because it is not earthquake safe.
Tauranga St John service will be given funding towards the project from this year's Tauranga Police CIB Charitable Trust Auction.
St John central region district operations manager Jeremy Gooders said the original 1980s building had failed to meet new earthquake safety requirements and they had been trying to find funding for a new safe station since.
The new building would meet an IL4 standard - assigned to buildings with special post-disaster functions, such as an earthquake.
"Not only do we need the new building because of all of the growth we've had, we need to keep functioning should an event of that nature occur," Mr Gooders said.
The building would be demolished and the new station built in its place.
Mr Gooders said the revamp was long overdue.
Much of the original building was built in the 1980s, with another part added in the 1990s.
"Tauranga was much smaller back then. We were much less busy, with much less staff," Mr Gooders said.
"We were providing less community facilities but now we've grown in all sorts of ways."
When the original station was built, the St John team was made up of six full-time staff and several volunteers.
Today there are 22 full-time staff and about 40 volunteers. The station was also home for the various services St John provided the community such as Caring Caller, first-aid courses and St John youth development, he said. Mr Gooders said the new building had been a project for some time but the funding from the charity auction had given it the green light.
St John building project trust chairman Richard Cashmore said businesses within the ANZ Business Centre on Cameron Rd had put together a working party, with a representative from each company taking part in the project for the new premises. "The skills and enthusiasm of the group will culminate in a wonderful asset for our city," Mr Cashmore said.
Detective Sergeant Peter Blackwell, who headed the Tauranga Police CIB Charitable Trust Auction, said the Tauranga community would be "very lost" without St John.
Other recipients from the auction would be the Acorn Foundation, Decision Reach Out (Toro Mai) Trust, Kathleen Kilgour Centre, Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Association, Te Tuinga Whanau Support Services, Amped 4 Life and Merivale Primary School.
It's not all about emergencies, St John also:
• Transports patients for arranged hospital admissions and to hospital outpatient clinics
• Transfers patients between hospitals or from hospital to home
• Assists police and fire services by providing medical cover in emergency situations
- Source: stjohn.org.nz