Rival group plans bigger steam museum | Wairarapa News | Local News in Wairarapa

A plea has gone out to Masterton district councillors to hose down any thoughts of committing more money to the lacklustre Jubilee Fire House project to give a new group time to mount a takeover bid for museum space in Dixon Street.

Friends of the Jubilee ? a group of about 15 people ? has thrown off its cloak of anonymity to reveal it is in the market to build a larger, and much more workable steam museum incorporating the 117-year-old Jubilee Fire Engine.

Spokesman Don Hodge said the Friends are confident they can secure up to five other vintage or veteran fire engines, the jubilee engine and the old Masterton Borough steamroller as permanent exhibits.

He said the intention would be to fire them up as working exhibits and the group would have no qualms about having the engines on display at major carnivals or events.

Members want to act swiftly to put a halt to council plans to vote more money ? perhaps up to $28,000 ? to the existing Jubilee Society for shifting the Jubilee Fire House from Chapel Street to the new museum site in Dixon Street.

Mr Hodge, who is an auto electrician, said the Friends were adamantly against moving the fire house and instead had plans to build a new, purpose-built museum on the Dixon Street site.

He said that would give four times the display space and was priced to be not much more than what was now intended,

"We are looking at between $98,000 and $128,000.

"It is going to cost $80,000 to move the firehouse about 500m and it's not the right type of building anyway."

Mr Hodge said the existing firehouse was "an animal of a building".

"It's been a sick puppy for a very long time.

"It's unappealing and, with a spiral staircase leading to the upstairs part, it's actually dangerous.

"They can't even get the Jubilee Fire Engine out of the building without dismantling it first."

Masterton people were owed a much better community facility that was more exciting, that was open much more often and financially more viable.

He said the Friends had tried to get the existing society interested in its plans and had sent them information.

"They tabled it, filed it and didn't discuss it.

"We were appealing to them to take a reality check but they rejected it."

Mr Hodge said the Jubilee Society had been offered other fire engines in the past but had turned them down because there was no room in the firehouse to exhibit them.

As a result one, a Bedford S, had languished for years in a disused woolbuyer's shed.

Likewise the old borough roller only surfaced for parades and was spending the rest of its life in mothballs.

"Our museum would make sure there was much wider appeal and our ambition would be to see the front door mat worn down by the number of people going in and out," Mr Hodge said.

The Friends want the council to hold off from agreeing to bail out the Jubilee Society to the tune of up to $28,000, a decision due to be made next Wednesday.