On Monday 18 February, the Kāpiti Coast District Council’s pop-up Waikanae Library service will begin running from the Mahara Gallery.

Group Manager Place and Space, James Jefferson, says the move to the smaller of the Gallery’s two exhibition spaces, will provide a more pleasant visit for customers while the Mahara Place improvement works take place.

“The Gallery space suits the size and nature of the pop-up services, and it means we can keep the service operating throughout the Mahara Place improvement works. The pop-up opening hours will also be extended from 10am to 2pm to 10am – 4pm on weekdays,” says Mr Jefferson.

“We know a move isn’t ideal, and might be a little confusing for people, so we’re doing everything we can to let people know and we’ll have plenty of signage in place to steer you in the right direction.”

Mr Jefferson says with the Mahara Place improvement works going on, there might be some disruption over the next couple of weeks and possibly some changes to library operating hours.
“We’re doing our best to keep things as normal as possible while we arrange for the move, but we’ll let people know if there are any changes. The pop up will close its doors for the move on Wednesday 13 February so staff can move the pop-up over to the Gallery.”

“A big thanks to the Mahara Gallery for making the space available to us, and also to library staff and the community for their patience as we continue to work on more permanent solutions.”

Mr Jefferson says staff continue to explore all available options for providing library and customer services in Waikanae.

“As we’ve stressed before, providing library and customer services in Waikanae is a top priority for Council and we’ve been exploring a range of medium term options which would allow us to do this.”

“This has included looking into leasing various premises, as well as relocatable containers or buildings. Things are progressing, and we hope to be in a position to share more information in the next few weeks.

“Having a medium term solution in place gives us the time to carefully investigate options about Waikanae Library in the long term. Availability of funding will be part of this. We need to make sure we’re taking the time to get this right and we’ll keep everyone in the loop as we progress.”

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