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Contract Let For Endeavour Park Pavilion

Friday 25 May 2012, 2:39AM

By Marlborough District Council

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PICTON

The next step toward Picton’s new $3.1M community recreation and sports facility at Endeavour Park has been taken with the announcement that Blenheim firm T.H. Barnes & Co. has won the tender to build Stage One. Earthworks at the site are already underway.

The multi-function pavilion will be known as the Port Marlborough Pavilion.

Construction is expected to take more than 40 weeks with the pavilion ready to be used before next year’s winter sports season begins.

The pavilion will be the largest conference venue in Picton with capacity to seat 200 people.

The District Council has worked closely with Picton’s clubs and organisations to settle on the final design.

The two-storey pavilion has full changing rooms downstairs with a meeting room and office space upstairs along with a kitchen and bar facilities.

Chairman of the Endeavour Park Pavilion Society Inc., Graham Gosling, says the size and design of the pavilion will mean all kinds of events and organisations will be able to make use of it.

“It will be a multi-sport facility as well as an asset for the whole Picton community – not just the sports codes. It’s going to do for Picton what the Giesen Stadium has done for Renwick; give the whole community a very accessible and useful venue,” he said.

Graham Gosling says it’s a thrill to know that work is underway.

“It’s taken a lot of effort to get to this stage but the community will quickly realise what a great resource it’s going to be and I’m sure they’ll be right behind us for the second stage of the project,” he said.

The Marlborough District Council is meeting $2.8M of the cost of Stage One, partly by way of Picton rates revenue and partly through its Reserves Development Fund. The Endeavour Park Pavilion Society has raised $350,000 and Port Marlborough is providing $100,000 over five years in return for naming rights.

Financial support has also been committed by New Zealand King Salmon and the Canterbury Community Trust has providing financial backing. A section sold for the fundraising was donated by three Picton businessmen, Keith Harrop, Roger Cloudesley and Keith Denham.

Marlborough District Council Assets and Services Committee chairman Graeme Taylor says the pavilion is the next step in the development of Picton’s sports facilities after the park itself had a $2M upgrade in 2006-07, which included major earthworks, drainage and topsoil and turf improvements.

Stage Two of the Endeavour Park development would likely include squash courts and perhaps a gymnasium. However funding for any such development has yet to be secured.