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Last week St Patrick’s College Kilbirnie opened its new artificial turf.
Wellington City Council covered $800,000 of the floodlit artificial turf’s $1.7 million bill. The responsibility for finding the remaining $900,000 to fund the artificial turf has been accepted by the St Patrick’s College Foundation.
Some avenues of revenue generation have already been identified. The Marist St Pat’s Rugby Club, which will be a prime user of the turf, is committed to a contribution of $300,000. The College’s parents’ association will provide $50,000.
The College is facing further major expenses; in the wake of the Christchurch earthquakes, the school, which was built on reclaimed land, has been assessed by engineers.
The assessment shows there is a need for $8 million worth of seismic work on the land and the buildings.
Last week’s opening of the artificial turf was attended by Attorney-General and St Pat’s old boy Chris Finlayson, Mayor Celia Wade-Brown and several Wellington City councillors, including John Morrison, the driving force behind the venture, and Paul Eagle who is an old boy of the college.
They were welcomed by a student haka and the formalities ended with Archbishop John Dew blessing the facility.
The artificial turf will be available for use by pupils and local sports teams, including the Marist St Pat’s Rugby Club.
St Pat’s rector Fr Paul Martin said the field would help students train more often.
“That’s our only field, in terms of our own college space. Therefore if the weather was no good, we had nowhere for the kids to train.
“The option of being able to train at night is a huge plus for us.”
Source
- The Wellingtonian
- The Cornerstone
- Image: MSP
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