Hato Hone St John starts work on Pahiatua station site

David Lea, chairman of the Bush subcommittee for the fundraising committee for St John Ambulance Station in Pahiatua, says there will need to be more fundraising to complete the project.

Hato Hone St John Pahiatua is excited to announce that work on its new ambulance station at 1 Tui Street will get underway in the coming weeks, beginning with dismantling of the old Repertory Society-owned building on site, with construction of the new station set to start in the second half of next year.

Terry Blacktop, chairman of Hato Hone St John Central Region Trust Board, says the local community will start to see builders on site before the end of September.

"We're excited to now be able to take action on this long-awaited project and we're keen to keep Pahiatua informed of progress.

This building at 1 Tui Street has been owned by Pahiatua Repertory Society. It was an aluminium joinery and a softgoods wholesale manufacturing factory prior to that.

"The building design is now in for resource consent. Once consented, we hope to be able to break ground at the beginning of the second quarter, 2023."

Once plans are finalised, the Pahiatua fundraising team will look at efforts to add to the funding already raised by the community in previous years and recently augmented by the sale of the previous site at 6 Tui St.

"We have a supportive, tight-knit community that wants to see their ambulance station reinstated locally and we thank them for their work to raise money towards a new one thus far," Mr Blacktop says.

"The St John ambulance operation for this township was relocated to Woodville in January 2020 as a result of the poor standard of the existing building in Pahiatua, so we do look forward to having an operational station in due course."