The Chatsworth Agricultural Society is making a big leap for their new pavilion this week.
The new community pavilion will be getting its walls erected on Friday and Saturday (April 11 and 12) weather permitting.
Past president and Director for the Chatsworth Agricultural Society Sharrie Brick says that volunteers are ready to close off the new building, which will contain a kitchen as well as washroom facilities to help the new pavilion become an event venue and social hub.
“We’ll be able to host lots of great events there, and other people will too,” says Brick. “The facility will be available to the community and we’re really looking forward to the community having a place to gather and have events and social times.”
The new pavilion is being constructed on the site of Chatsworth’s former arena, which closed in 2017 due to structural issues. It was demolished in 2019.
In May of 2024, the society had decided the project was possible. The group then aimed to raise $260,000 to construct the new facility.
Brick says that the support has been an important part of this project.
“We’ve had wonderful donations from the community, we’ve had a farm credit grant that has been very helpful,” she says. “So we have really been able to raise the money in that length of time to finish this project. People are still coming forward with offers and donations, and certainly time has been donated by many people.”
She says that people are still coming forward, looking to donate items such as picnic tables.
The society is hoping that construction will be completed this spring, and open for use before the end of June.
In addition to the Halloween in the Village event in October, and Christmas in the Village in December, community groups have already been asking to use the new pavilion for events once it’s complete.
“It will just be so nice to have a place that we can tuck in under. We’re going to have curtains on the sides of the building that can be put down when the weather is not that great, so that’s really going to extend the life and the use of the building.”
The pavilion will take up approximately 3200 square feet, providing plenty of sheltered space for year-round use.
The former arena site will also have other amenities in time, including green space around the pavilion’s location, and a memorial garden.
