Photos by Mary Peterson.
Warren will officially celebrate its new Town Green Pavilion this weekend with a free concert by the Vermont Jazz Ensemble. The celebration takes place Saturday, September 13, at 5:30 p.m. and people are invited to bring a lawn chair or blanket and a picnic dinner to enjoy the concert by the Vermont premier big band.
Since completion in May of this year, the pavilion has been the site of library programs, informal usage by people taking zoom calls, having lunch, relaxing, and at least two impromptu weddings with Sandra Brodeur officiating as Justice of the Peace. The vision for a multi-use outdoor community space has fully come to life.
In July 2023 Warren residents Dayna Lisaius and Marie Schmukal launched a campaign through the Vermont Department of Housing and Community Development’s Better Places program to create a permanent structure on the Warren town green to serve as a focal point and accessible outdoor community space. With the financial support of over 100 individual donors and organizations such as the Friends of the Warren Library and the Warren School PTO, the financial goal was reached and matching funds from the state’s Better Places program were secured.
After many discussions over the final design and a couple rounds of requests-for-proposal, the Warren Select Board chose Warren builders Corrigan & Klein Artisan Builders to build a post-and-beam structure based on the design submitted by Warren Village resident Alice Cheney. The end result is a structure with live-edge beams inside to give it a little bit of funkiness, organizers said, making it a true Warren original.
In addition to financial support, the project also received letters of support from the Warren Select Board, Warren Public Library board of trustees, Warren United Church, Warren Arts Commission, and the Warren Historical Society.
The funding campaign was sponsored by the Vermont Department of Housing and Community Development’s Better Places program in partnership with the Vermont Department of Health, the Vermont Community Foundation, and crowdfunding platform Patronicity.
