ST Vincent de Paul CEO Paul Trezise has praised the generosity of the Goulburn community in the aftermath of Monday night’s fire.
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The blaze completely destroyed the Vinnies retail store, leaving no salvageable stock. Donation bins were also damaged.
Since the start of the week, some 60 people have dropped into their secondary Verner St store to donate winter clothing, bedding and cash.
Significant donations to Crookwell and Yass St Vincent stores during the week saw a truck tasked to collect the goods. Offerings of support have also come from Canberra.
The donations have given purpose for the dozens of volunteers previously based at the retail store.
“The community has been very generous in responding to our call and offering to help,” Mr Trezise said.
“We have had the chance to have a good look at the shop and it’s confirmed there is nothing salvageable from it. Between the fire damage, water damage and smoke damage, the stock and all contents are completely ruined. That was what we feared from the start.”
Insurance assessors and property owner, Robert Rampton, will go through the building early next week for a final word on the condition of the building.
Mr Trezise said the organisation would begin investigating other properties to reestablish their retail store.
“We’ve started to look at that because we would like to reestablish as soon as possible. We are talking to the building owner about how long it would take him to reestablish his site in Auburn St, it looks as though that will be quite a long time,” he said.
“He has got some options that he would like to discuss with us about temporary locations and there are other options we are looking at ourselves.”
Ultimately, he said it was still too early to confirm what the Society would do, but it would be at least three months before a secure retail store was up and running.
The immediate priority continues to be gathering enough donations to help the conference group throughout winter.
“As we get closer to knowing what we are going to do with the shop, we will put out a call for more general donations to reestablish stock for the shop. That’s all in the longer term,” he said.
Meantime, the Post understands discussions are well underway to find a permanent home for the City’s Centrelink and Medicare staff. Last week, Service NSW hosted the departments. An announcement is expected to be made early this week.