Margaretville Pavilion Ribbon-cutting is Saturday
Community is invited to celebration in the village
park
Village officials, community volunteers and a design/build team of professors and students from Parsons, the New School of Design, will be on hand this Saturday for the premier event at the new Village Pavilion in Margaretville. A ribbon cutting, a show of classic and antique cars, and dancing to the tunes of Blues Maneuvers are all on tap for the free event, open to anyone who lives in, works in or visits the Village of Margaretville. A chicken bar-b-que will be available at the new bar-b-que pavilion, built as part of the project and the fees collected for chicken halves and dinners will benefit the Community Christmas Project.
Village officials, community volunteers and a design/build team of professors and students from Parsons, the New School of Design, will be on hand this Saturday for the premier event at the new Village Pavilion in Margaretville. A ribbon cutting, a show of classic and antique cars, and dancing to the tunes of Blues Maneuvers are all on tap for the free event, open to anyone who lives in, works in or visits the Village of Margaretville. A chicken bar-b-que will be available at the new bar-b-que pavilion, built as part of the project and the fees collected for chicken halves and dinners will benefit the Community Christmas Project.
“This is a real community celebration,” said
Margaretville Mayor Bill Stanton in announcing the
event. “It took hundreds of people to make this
happen and many of us were not sure we’d see this
day. We’ve already thanked the team from
Parsons who really came through for us. Now
it’s time to thank the community for supporting and
contributing to this effort.” Stanton said that
Saturday’s event is a collaboration between the
Village, the Citizens Initiative for Community Spaces
(CICS), the M-ARK Project and the Greater
Margaretville Chamber of Commerce.
Activities are scheduled to get underway at 3:00 at the Village Field on Saturday when Denny Herzburg showcases a portion of his antique car collection. The cars will not be displayed in the event of bad weather but all other festivities will go on rain or shine. The ribbon cutting is scheduled for 4:00 followed by the chicken bar-b-que which will help raise funds for the Community Christmas Project which creates happier holidays for individuals and families throughout the area.
Blues Maneuvers will take the stage at 5:00 and play into the evening for singing and dancing. The popular local band is expected to draw visitors from adjacent communities as well as from Margaretville with free parking and admission for all who attend.
The ribbon cutting will officially open the pavilion, not only for public use, but also for reservation by private citizens who wish to hold weddings, reunions, or other celebrations at the field. The Greater Margaretville Chamber of Commerce is expected to use the facilities September 29 for its annual Cauliflower Festival. A committee of CICS members will meet during fall months to develop and present ideas for other types of activities that might be scheduled on the field in the future.
The pavilion project is the first major accomplishment of CICS, a year-old revitalization group made up of full- and part-time residents of Margaretville and the surrounding area. Members forged a unique collaboration with Parsons the New School for Design and helped shepherd the pavilion through the design phase, then agreed to raise all the necessary funds for the project’s construction. To date, over 90% of the funds have been raised.
“Mayor Stanton asked us to make the pavilion our top priority,” said CICS Founder David France. “We’re thrilled we were able to accomplish this on such short notice, and to present the village with this gorgeous new pavilion. France added that a formal community dedication of the pavilion is scheduled for the springtime, at which all donors will be recognized. “We are still raising the last of the funds we borrowed to do the project and we are still seeking grants and donations,” said France. “We expect to ‘burn the mortgage’ so to speak in the spring and to officially thank everyone who donated money.” France noted that more than half of the loans received to guarantee construction of the pavilion have already been repaid and that CICS and the M-ARK Project have two years before the last note must be repaid.
While CICS members worked throughout the last year to get consensus on a pavilion design and raise funds to build it, the M-ARK Project stepped up to guarantee the effort and manage the details of the construction throughout the summer. M-ARK Board President JR Lawrence noted that “it was a real leap of faith for us to promise that we would provide any funding not raised by CICS and provide any construction services needed to complete this project once our students left. But we knew it was important and we knew that without that sort of commitment, the Village could not agree to the contract to move forward.” Lawrence noted that M-ARK Project staff worked hard on every phase of the project from fundraising to construction. “This was a new sort of venture for us because we have never done this type of collaboration with other entities in the past. It was a great learning experience and we look forward to working with CICS, the Chamber and other community organizations on future collaborations.”
Parsons students who designed the pavilion and worked long hard hours building it this summer will return this weekend to celebrate with the community. The students, who rented apartments or stayed with local family hosts, have all expressed deep appreciation to the community for giving them the opportunity to spend the summer on this project and for the hospitality the community displayed. Students were treated to special dinners and parties by the Margaretville Rotary Club, Mayor Stanton, by Village Board Members, the M-ARK Project and the Chamber, and by several different CICS members and supporters throughout the summer.
Their work included construction of a massive wooden and steel structure designed to withstand a 100-year flood event and a separate and much smaller pavilion to be used primarily for cooking. Wherever possible, the facilities were constructed with sustainable materials, bought locally. The Parsons designers expect it will last at least 50 years.
The construction, funded by hundreds of donations still being collected and construction loans guaranteed by Ken Pasternak and the M-ARK Project, did not cost a single dollar of taxpayer funding according to Margaretville Mayor, Bill Stanton. In addition to Pasternak, whose foundation first gave a $30,000 challenge grant then added another $20,000 when the original challenge was met, major funding sources included the A. Lindsay and Olive B. O’Connor Foundation, the Margaretville Telephone Company, The Crossroads Foundation, the Pulver Family of New Kingston, and the Peter R. and Cynthia K. Kellogg Foundation.
Additionally, once the construction began, major donations from Rudd Hubbell and the Hubbell Companies, Mike Hinkley at Hinkley Electric and Wadler Brothers in Fleischmanns kept the project moving on time and on budget. “Without these community businesses stepping up, we could not have completed this project,” said Lawrence. “It was a real community wide effort and we at the M-ARK Project will always be grateful to the local business owners who helped guarantee such a great result.” All of the major donors, and the hundreds of other contributors will be honored at the dedication in the spring.
Activities are scheduled to get underway at 3:00 at the Village Field on Saturday when Denny Herzburg showcases a portion of his antique car collection. The cars will not be displayed in the event of bad weather but all other festivities will go on rain or shine. The ribbon cutting is scheduled for 4:00 followed by the chicken bar-b-que which will help raise funds for the Community Christmas Project which creates happier holidays for individuals and families throughout the area.
Blues Maneuvers will take the stage at 5:00 and play into the evening for singing and dancing. The popular local band is expected to draw visitors from adjacent communities as well as from Margaretville with free parking and admission for all who attend.
The ribbon cutting will officially open the pavilion, not only for public use, but also for reservation by private citizens who wish to hold weddings, reunions, or other celebrations at the field. The Greater Margaretville Chamber of Commerce is expected to use the facilities September 29 for its annual Cauliflower Festival. A committee of CICS members will meet during fall months to develop and present ideas for other types of activities that might be scheduled on the field in the future.
The pavilion project is the first major accomplishment of CICS, a year-old revitalization group made up of full- and part-time residents of Margaretville and the surrounding area. Members forged a unique collaboration with Parsons the New School for Design and helped shepherd the pavilion through the design phase, then agreed to raise all the necessary funds for the project’s construction. To date, over 90% of the funds have been raised.
“Mayor Stanton asked us to make the pavilion our top priority,” said CICS Founder David France. “We’re thrilled we were able to accomplish this on such short notice, and to present the village with this gorgeous new pavilion. France added that a formal community dedication of the pavilion is scheduled for the springtime, at which all donors will be recognized. “We are still raising the last of the funds we borrowed to do the project and we are still seeking grants and donations,” said France. “We expect to ‘burn the mortgage’ so to speak in the spring and to officially thank everyone who donated money.” France noted that more than half of the loans received to guarantee construction of the pavilion have already been repaid and that CICS and the M-ARK Project have two years before the last note must be repaid.
While CICS members worked throughout the last year to get consensus on a pavilion design and raise funds to build it, the M-ARK Project stepped up to guarantee the effort and manage the details of the construction throughout the summer. M-ARK Board President JR Lawrence noted that “it was a real leap of faith for us to promise that we would provide any funding not raised by CICS and provide any construction services needed to complete this project once our students left. But we knew it was important and we knew that without that sort of commitment, the Village could not agree to the contract to move forward.” Lawrence noted that M-ARK Project staff worked hard on every phase of the project from fundraising to construction. “This was a new sort of venture for us because we have never done this type of collaboration with other entities in the past. It was a great learning experience and we look forward to working with CICS, the Chamber and other community organizations on future collaborations.”
Parsons students who designed the pavilion and worked long hard hours building it this summer will return this weekend to celebrate with the community. The students, who rented apartments or stayed with local family hosts, have all expressed deep appreciation to the community for giving them the opportunity to spend the summer on this project and for the hospitality the community displayed. Students were treated to special dinners and parties by the Margaretville Rotary Club, Mayor Stanton, by Village Board Members, the M-ARK Project and the Chamber, and by several different CICS members and supporters throughout the summer.
Their work included construction of a massive wooden and steel structure designed to withstand a 100-year flood event and a separate and much smaller pavilion to be used primarily for cooking. Wherever possible, the facilities were constructed with sustainable materials, bought locally. The Parsons designers expect it will last at least 50 years.
The construction, funded by hundreds of donations still being collected and construction loans guaranteed by Ken Pasternak and the M-ARK Project, did not cost a single dollar of taxpayer funding according to Margaretville Mayor, Bill Stanton. In addition to Pasternak, whose foundation first gave a $30,000 challenge grant then added another $20,000 when the original challenge was met, major funding sources included the A. Lindsay and Olive B. O’Connor Foundation, the Margaretville Telephone Company, The Crossroads Foundation, the Pulver Family of New Kingston, and the Peter R. and Cynthia K. Kellogg Foundation.
Additionally, once the construction began, major donations from Rudd Hubbell and the Hubbell Companies, Mike Hinkley at Hinkley Electric and Wadler Brothers in Fleischmanns kept the project moving on time and on budget. “Without these community businesses stepping up, we could not have completed this project,” said Lawrence. “It was a real community wide effort and we at the M-ARK Project will always be grateful to the local business owners who helped guarantee such a great result.” All of the major donors, and the hundreds of other contributors will be honored at the dedication in the spring.