The Rakaia Salmon needs a facelift – and cash to fund it.
Ashburton District Council’s open spaces manager Ian Soper said a structural and maintenance assessment showed the 12m high statue needs a lot of work.
The good news is, the work can be done on-site, he said.
“The work can be done in situ so it won’t need to be cut down and transported.”
However, it will need scaffolding erected and plastic wrapped to contain the fibreglass work, he said.
The upgrade is unbudgeted work and, once quotes have been obtained, a report will come to the council “to see where that sits financially”.
The statue, built in 1991 with funding from the Rakaia Lions Club, was gifted to the council around 18 years ago.
The area around the salmon was redeveloped between 2020 and 2021.
The project received a $739,945 grant from the Tourism Infrastructure Fund, $20,000 from the Rakaia Lions, and the council funded the remaining $198,000.
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The bulk of the project budget was spent on a new public toilet facility.
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