Robyn Edie/Stuff
Thelma and Keith Froude, with Lindsay Gutsell, right, fear Main St, Otautau, may become a ghost town with Earthquake Prone buildings rules. They are pictured outside the Froude’s Otautau mechanic business, which the family have owned for more than 50 years.
A group of Otautau main street building owners hope that banding together may soften the blow of paying for earthquake prone building assessments.
They fear Otautau, Riverton, Winton and Wyndham may become “ghost towns” as building owners struggle to meet the costs to get buildings up to earthquake standards.
A hundred and twenty buildings on the main street of the four rural Southland towns are now identified as priority, need to be assessed by an engineer and brought up to earthquake standards in 12-and-a-half years.