Power trust offers Tūrangi St John a lifeline - if community approves

St John paramedic Prue Young and first responders Will Shirer and Lance Glassey in the section where a new ambulance garage will be built next to St John Tūwharetoa's existing Tūrangi station. File

Half a million dollars is a lot of money to find and no one could blame the St John Tūwharetoa area committee members if they found the task ahead overwhelming.

But St John Tūwharetoa , which serves the southern Lake Taupō area, may have been thrown a lifeline by the King Country Electric Power Trust.

The area committee has the stressful, and some might say almost insurmountable task of raising around $500,000 for new earthquake-proof garaging for its ambulances and first response van. Its ambulance station in Ohuanga Rd, Tūrangi does not meet Building Code IL4 standards, which must be operational immediately after a disaster.

St John Tūwharetoa has had basic plans drawn up for an IL4-standard ambulance garage with space for three vehicles, plus a medical bay for cleaning and restocking. The garage will be sited on the empty section next door to the current ambulance station and be linked by a covered walkway.

With the support of other St John committees around the country who responded to St John Tūwharetoa's pleas for help, the area committee cobbled together $146,000 to buy the section next to the station and have the house there moved off.

But there is no money available from either central government or St John head office to build the new garage and the Tūrangi-Tongariro community is small and not particularly wealthy.

St John Tūwharetoa needs $500,000 for an earthquake-proof building to house its ambulances and first response vehicle.

Enter the King Country Election Power Trust. The trust, which has representatives from around the King Country including Sandra Greenslade from the Tūrangi-Tongariro area, has $55 million invested which generates around $1.3 million of income annually that it has always distributed to its beneficiaries.

The beneficiaries are all power consumers in the King Country - 4500 in Taumarunui, 4500 in Tūrangi and 1000 or so in Ohakune. They receive an annual credit on their Lines Company bill of between $50 and $120 depending on the size of their bill, although people who save power at peak times are disadvantaged by receiving a smaller credit.

But now the trust is considering doing things differently by instead paying the dividend in lump sums to community projects. The new facility is desperately needed - the St John area committee would struggle for years to raise the money and it would benefit the entire community.

The model of a lump-sum distribution for community-wide benefit is already being followed by the Rotorua Energy Charitable Trust which has donated $111 million in the Rotorua area over 25 years to causes ranging from health, children, education, employment, community causes and the environment.

King Country Electric Power Trust chairman Adie Doyle says the trust's vision is to make a significant difference to the lives of its consumer beneficiaries and so it was looking to do things a little bit differently this time.

King Country Electric Power Trust chairman Adie Doyle.

"Sandra Greenslade has brought to the attention of the trust that St John Tūwharetoa area committee is in need of a new St John garage to house their ambulance.

"We were looking to distribute about $120 per household to the Tūrangi area next winter, however an alternative is instead of that payment we could essentially pay for that new garage - in other words, there would be no need to fundraise in the community.

"If the community is on board, then in lieu of that payment next year, we could basically write a cheque and get the job done."

Mr Doyle said the trust would look at doing the same in the Taumarunui and Ohakune areas if there was a worthy cause that the community wanted help with, otherwise in those areas it would make its annual distribution as normal.

St John Tūwharetoa area committee chairman Fraser Lake says the committee would take years to raise the $500,000 needed for the IL4 garage so when Mrs Greenslade came to a meeting to float the idea of it being funded by the trust, committee members were emotional.

"Everyone was very close to tears. Seriously, we were just absolutely gobsmacked. This is a monumental mountain we have to climb to raise that sort of money in Tūrangi but the trust doing this, it's contributing on behalf of the whole community to get the job done."

Turangi District Women's Club president Raewyn Beasley (centre right) gives St John Tuwharetoa chairman Fraser Lake a hug and a cheque for $3700 towards its new ambulance garage in April.

Mr Lake said if the trust would commit to donating the money, the area committee had raised enough that it could get the working drawings done, prepare tender documents and let the contract so that building could start as soon as the money arrived.

"It would make an unbelievable difference."

The King Country Electric Power Trust is asking for community feedback on its intention to fund the project instead of making an annual distribution. Send feedback to info@kcpowertrust.co.nz, call or text Mr Doyle on 027 495 3308 or trustee Sandra Greenslade on 027 353 7711 before November 18.