An earlier initial structural assessment indicated it met only seven per cent of the new building standard.
Earlier the Tararua District Council estimated it would cost up to $280,000 to bring the building up to code, with refurbishment costs extra.
"Youth services are desperately trying to find alternate accommodation, but finding an affordable building which is not an earthquake risk is very difficult," Mr Hynes said.
"We were offered a place in other premises, but at a cost of $40,000, which we can't afford. Youth Services relies on grants, so to try and find $40,000 to rent another building is impossible."
Community board chairman Ross MacDonald said it was a pressing problem, something people probably didn't realise.
"The work of youth services can't stop," he said.
Over the past few years various options have been put forward to ensure the future of the historic building, including a suggestion in 2014 for council to sell it for a peppercorn sum to a charitable trust. The charitable trust never eventuated.
In 2016, council chief executive Blair King said if the council spent $300,000 to $400,000 on earthquake-strengthening on the building, there would still be questions surrounding whether it would be fit for purpose.
The TCYS board is now putting together a submission to the council regarding the
service's future.
"Perhaps a purpose-built facility on the Carnegie Centre site would be an option," Mr Hynes said.
For Dannevirke's Barbara Ferguson, the loss of another historic building in the town will be sad.
"I had hoped they were considering strengthening and it just grieves me to think it could be demolished," she said.
"A building like this is truly important for later generations. An awful lot of damage has been done in the name of progress and we don't look back and treasure what we have.
"Other buildings around New Zealand are being earthquake-strengthened, why not here?"
Carnegie's legacy:
The Allardice St building, built to house Dannevirke's library in 1907, was gifted to our town by American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.
Born in 1835 to poor parents in Scotland, Andrew Carnegie became the richest man of his age. His family migrated to Pennsylvania in 1848 and he immediately started work, at age 13, in a textile mill, earning $1.20 a week.
He rose to become a great and astute industrialist, a doyen of the steel industry which he launched in Pittsburgh in 1873.
In 1901, at age 65, he sold the Carnegie Steel Company to JP Morgan for the astronomical sum of $480 million and devoted the rest of his life to philanthropic activities and writing.
Carnegie believed the rich had a moral obligation to give away their fortunes.
One of his life-long interests was the establishment of free public libraries to make available to everyone a means of self-education.
New Zealand acquired 18 Carnegie libraries, putting it fourth on Carnegie's gift-list behind the USA, the UK and Canada, and well ahead of Australia, which got only four libraries.
Of the 25 New Zealand towns, boroughs and district councils which approached Carnegie for library grants, the fortunate 18 to receive funds were Dannevirke, Balclutha, Gore, Dunedin, Alexandra, Fairlie, Timaru, Hokitika, Westport, Greymouth, Levin, Marton, New Plymouth, Hastings, Cambridge, Thames, Hamilton and Onehunga.
However, Carnegie's money came subject to a number of conditions. A council had to certify that the proposed library site was debt-free and guarantee to provide an annual sum towards upkeep of the library.
Carnegie donated US$207,607 to New Zealand library buildings, equivalent to NZ$5 million today.
Only two of the New Zealand buildings, those in Marton and Balclutha, remain in use as libraries. Ten have been restored but are used for other purposes, while six have been demolished.
Dannevirke's Carnegie Centre:
As in many other small New Zealand communities, a library was organised in Dannevirke soon after European settlement of the area and in common with others of its kind, it struggled to survive, lacking both finance and space.
A letter to the editor in a local paper in 1902 prompted the council to consider writing to Andrew Carnegie, but cultural concerns moved very slowly in early Dannevirke.
No specific action was taken until 1905, when the council suddenly found itself faced with large costs if the existing subscriber library was to continue. Carnegie responded promptly and offered a grant of £2000.
The foundation stone was laid on May 2, 1907. Eventually the building was opened on May 27, 1908. As in other New Zealand Carnegie libraries, the entrance was flanked by double Corinthian columns with fluted shafts.
Tablets of marble recorded the gift to the people of Dannevirke and for the first time in New Zealand, a Carnegie library was heated by piped hot water.
An earthquake in 1934 destroyed the ornamentation along the library's parapets and later the brickwork was plastered over.
In 1984 a new library was built and the existing building was renamed the Carnegie Community Centre.
