Rescue Plan for Hydro Grand Hotel

She’s old, she’s ugly, she’s empty and her owners don’t love her anymore Just look at her, is that the way you would treat your 99 year old Mother Of course not you would nurse her to make sure she lived to be 100 and then you would treat her like royalty The old girl in this story of course is not your Mother she’s just a heap of old bricks and mortar. Her owners believe she has no value and so they are about to perform euthanasia on her. If you don’t want to witness the murder of one of Timaru’s oldest and greatest icons then here is a rescue plan Stand on the Piazza, look at the Hydro Grand Hotel and take note of how her owners have treated her and then take the stairs or the lift down on to the rose garden below. Go into the rose garden gazebo and read all the names on the wall. These are the people who helped build the Trevor Griffiths Rose Garden. Contact all these people who made the rose garden possible and ask them if they would make a further donation or offer their labour to give the 99 year old Hydro Grand Hotel a facelift. If the outside of the Hydro Grand was painted in bright modern day colours what a lift it would give to the spirits of the people who visit the Bay Yes, the Hydro Grand Hotel is deeply wounded but it’s not dead yet. All she needs is the right people with the right attitude who care about our history and who realise that modern buildings can never replace the original. I believe that together we could restore this great icon into something special that all Timaru both young and old could be proud of. I have done my small bit by writing this letter, now what are you going to do about it?