In late 1998 the Hataitai Scout Hall was hit by the Wellington Serial Arsonist. the building sat in its somewhat smoke damaged sooty condition for a year while decisions were made by the district regarding the future use of the building. It was finally decided to demolish, looking at the prospect of spending a large deal of the insurance payoff on having the building removed.

Dave did a bit of talking around the area and it was decided to take the mammoth project on with an approved budget of up to $1500 for a completely clear site.

Dave, Ants, and Jeff (OO Rovers) sat down and worked out a plan of attack:

A few weeks before we did the big weekend a small group of us went in and ripped out the linings. we achieved heaps including ripping the tow bar off Bazs work van with the hugely overloaded trailer, however Daves beast managed fine!!

Friday night the three of the arrived and ripped the iron roof, and guttering off, with in hours they had attacked the window frames, doors and the building as left as little more than a shell.

The following morning it was all hands on deck and things slowly fell off, luckily we found the water Toby which was one of the big concerns. The day carried on and there was less and less left to do. Sunday everything was down and it was site tidy-up, the only ting left standing was the floor ready for the recycler to come and take away in the following week.

Overall countless huge trailer trips to the tip were made and a couple of truckloads of wood went to the rover Lodge at Brookfield for our fire wood supplies. It was a huge weekend with a great effort being put in by all involved.

The following weeks were spent with Dave and Dan digging out the 70 odd piles and then taking them all at once to the tip, not a good thing either for the car or the trailer but we made it with 2 minutes to spare before closing!!

At the end of the day we spent only $400 on the whole project due mainly to the big effort everyone put in.

Thanks to all involved for making such a great effort in a worthwhile service project.