Despite the building being out of commission, the celebration must go on.
That is the attitude of those involved with the Westside Community Centre for the 2013 Winter Carnival. The Town of New Glasgow, with a financial contribution from the Westside Community Centre Board, is currently in the middle an extensive renovation of the centre which prevents it from hosting it’s annual winter carnival in the building as usual.
“The inability to have a building at our disposal has been somewhat challenging when it came to planning a winter carnival,” said new president Tara Proudfoot, “However we see it as short term pain for long term gain so it’ll be worth the wait for all residents. For this year, we just wanted to have a scaled down event on Saturday night with our intention to return the Winter Carnival back to its past glory with a larger event in 2014.”
Saturday, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., residents are invited to visit the Westside Community Centre for numerous activities including (weather permitting) an outdoor skate, sledding on the hill, a fundraising BBQ and fireworks. Any changes due to adverse weather will be posted on the centre’s website: westsidecommunitycentre.ca
The renovations to the community centre are going to cost about $230,000 and is being done by local contractor Higgins Construction of Trenton. They centre will see upgrades including everything from a new pitched roof, covered porch and bathroom to insulation and electrical upgrades.
The town has said the goal is to improve the functional use of the existing building.
Initially the project was expected to be completed the end of January but now the board is looking at a goal somewhere around the middle of March now.
The Town of New Glasgow is contributing $115,000; $60,000 is being contributed from the Westside Community Centre Board over 10 years; and $55,000 is being contributed from the Province of Nova Scotia.
“We’re pretty excited about it,” said board member Marcel Elliott.
