The final curtain was brought down on the Town Theatre Monday night.
The Highland Town Council voted 3-2 to stop the project, save for salvaging the marquee and box office. Councilmen Mark Herak, I-2nd, made the motion to terminate the project, taking no further action or devoting funds toward it.
Council President Dan Vassar and Councilman Bernie Zemen, issued impassioned pleas to save the theater, with Zemen recalling all the various businesses that disappeared from the town over the years. He became emotional at end of his comments.
“We can work together. There are 24,000 people in Highland, and everyone has one share of stock in it,” Zemen said. “I’m not ready for Father Time and Mother Nature to take the building away.”
Councilman Steve Wagner, who with Councilman Konnie Kuiper and Herak voted for Herak’s motion, said he supported the theater but not its public funding.
“If a private developer came in, I would be supportive,” Wagner said.
Vassar then challenged the three, as well as the social media naysayers, to get out in front with redeveloping the area and called for a lot less accusations on social media.
One of the biggest detractors, Terry Fuqua, of Highland, said he appreciated the three who voted against the theater and that they made the right decision. Dario Garcia, 9, on the other hand, said he thought the theater “would’ve worked.”
“My sister was in a few plays, and I think she would’ve like it, too,” he said.
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Redevelopment Director Cecile Petro said the town has directed her department to come up with a Plan B for the area, which is in great need of an overhaul. She knew the vote was going to be “close.”
“I feel bad for all the volunteers who were preparing to operate the theater. That’s disappointing,” Petro said. “We were always going to purchase the properties in that area, so it wasn’t just the theater. Now, we’ll try to get a private developer.”
Clerk-Treasurer Michael Griffin said at the Jan. 23 study session that the now $3.2 million theater project would’ve cost a homeowner with a $150,000 house $8.63 per year, and up to a dollar less for those who haven’t yet hit the property-tax circuit breaker. The original cost estimate from architectural firm VOA was approximately $1.9 million in 2014, which included the roof, audio-visual equipment and furnishings.
When the council voted in October 2014, the estimate given was between $1.8 million and $2.5 million to be funded via the City of Hammond’s repayment of the bond used to demolish River Park Apartments in Hammond’s Hessville section, tax increment financing and a new bond.
Mike Maloney, a member of the Town Theatre Board, said the town spent $269,000 total on the project — $29,000 to VOA for the original estimate, $232,000 to Morris Architect Planners and $8,000 to the Libman Group.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.