New hall $1.7m closer

All Saints' church hall is transforming from ashes into a $2.4 million asset.

The congregation has raised about $1.7m towards rebuilding the hall that was torched by arsonists in 2007.

The last of the three teens involved in the arson was sentenced in the Palmerston North District Court yesterday.

Lachlan William Holdem, 19, was sentenced to 10 months' home detention and ordered to pay reparation of $10,000.

Vicar John Marquet said justice had been served but it would never replace the 132-year-old hall, which was the oldest European structure in Palmerston North when it was destroyed.

Rev Marquet recalled watching helplessly as the home of a dozen community groups burnt to the ground more than two years ago.

Firefighters battled against the 40m high flames for several hours but nothing could stop the inferno.

Rev Marquet said the sentences handed down to the teens were "even-handed" and gave a sense of closure to the church community.

"The angry reaction and sense of loss has dissipated over the years."

Vicar's warden and former Palmerston North mayor Mark Bell-Booth said the project has created some excited Anglicans. Some parishioners have pledged six-figure donations towards the new hall, and a donation of $300,000 has come from the Catherine Lily Brown Trust.

The money will create a community facility with meeting rooms, a kitchen and bathrooms, with a covered walkway leading to it from the church, Mr Bell-Booth said.

"It is important to us that the building is debt-free so community groups don't have to pay to use it.

"At the moment there is a lack of community facilities in the central business district area."

Drawings and pricing is expected to be finished by the end of the month, with the building due to start by July.

- © Fairfax NZ News