Donna Demente has asked the Waitaki District Council to reconsider its push to ‘‘commercialise’’ Oamaru’s historic precinct as a proposed rent hike threatens the future of her Grainstore Gallery. At a public forum in the council chamber this week, Demente outlined her submission to the council’s annual plan, asking councillors to consider the ‘‘contribution’’ she had made to the community as she called for rent relief. Her landlord, the Oamaru Whitestone Civic Trust, last year informed her that from June 1 this year her weekly rent would increase from $100 to over $400 for the 490sq m gallery space and additional ‘‘mezzanine spaces’’ she has occupied for the past 30 years. Demente said the quadrupling of her rent left her contemplating closing her gallery in Harbour St. She asked Mayor Mel Tavendale and councillors to reconsider what she said was a push from the council on the trust to ‘‘commercialise’’ the entire precinct, at the cost of what she said gave the area its ‘‘beating heart’’.…