Board of Aldermen — 9/12/17 Page 27
We are in the position right now with this theatre of buying what | consider to be a used car, and I'll give you
the analogy. When a person knows what types of vehicle they want, but they don’t know where to buy it or
what to look for, | say look for the car. The reason | say that is because if you have a particular vehicle in mind
with the internet you can go and search. | want a Chevy Malibu with this type of features, miles. They will pop
up in different places. You can look at the pictures and decide if this is a deal you want, something you don’t
want. Every once in a while, though, when you're in the position, you say, ahah, that’s it. There it is. That’s the
car | want! | have friends call me and say | saw this car. It will be Monday night. What are you doing next
weekend? What do you mean next weekend? You saw the car online tonight. That means we have to go
tomorrow. Why? Because it is a used car, man. It’s the only one that’s on the lot that’s like that. It’s nota
brand new car. It is a used car. If that’s the car you want and we go there and you like it, you are going to
drive away with it because there is only one of them. It’s opportunity. You’ve got to take it when it comes.
We're at that point with this performing arts center. We have a building that is in the perfect location. It’s
coming up at the perfect time right when the city is studying where to put a performing arts center. We have
the footprint. We have the location. We just need to take that opportunity and do it. Some people will say,
Ben, we don’t have the financing. Some of my friends will say, wait, | don’t have the financing in place. | don’t
know if | can do this. That’s okay. Don’t worry about it. Put a down payment on it. Put a $500 deposit and
they will hold that car for you. You will figure it out. We will call the bank. We'll make sure that we can get you
a loan that you can afford on that car. We are doing the same thing here with this resolution. The same exact
thing. The car is Alec Shoe Store. The car is that building. We're going to put a down payment on it. The
option is $2 million to purchase it. We'll spend the $2 million; we'll get the building. We will secure the
building. We cannot do anything else until $4 million from the community is raised. We hold onto that building,
the community clearly supports this. They come out and they raise $4 million. When they do that, we say
great job. You really are behind this, and we move forward and build that theatre. If for some reason the
community doesn’t get behind it, and everything falls part, the city can turn around and sell the building. We're
not going to take a loss on it either because it is a beautiful property right in downtown. Or, we could use it for
something else.
The point is the opportunity is there. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. It’s something that when you get the
chance, pull the trigger. This ordinance is funny because | wasn’t even there at the meeting when this came
up, but | couldn’t have worded it better. It’s perfect. What it does is it says that the City, itself, is going to
commit to this project and then it turns it over to the community and says now it is your part. Raise that $4
million and then come back to us and we will do the rest. That’s exactly the way we should be doing things in
government. That’s exactly the way we should be doing projects in the future that we want to get the public
buy-in on it. Put the down payment down and let the community do the work.
The community can’t come up with $2 million over night, but the city can. We can tonight by voting yes. Let’s
give these folks in the audience the opportunity to show us that the support is there for the theatre. Let’s give
them the opportunity. Let’s vote yes. This is not a hard decision because in the end, if it doesn’t come
together we can walk away from the property, but we can’t or what we shouldn't do is walk away from this once
in a lifetime opportunity. Thank you.
Alderman Wilshire
| would like to just say thank you to everyone who came out. My vote is for everyone on this paper, on these
pages, that’s who | am voting for. | am a representative of these people. The four or five people that did get
up and speak against it, didn’t sway me but you people did. | agree with everything that Alderman Lopez said,
everything Alderman Clemons said, and | am behind this 100 percent so thank you all.
Alderman Schoneman
I’m grateful too to all the folks who came out. At the committee meeting last week, | said | hadn’t heard from
too many. I’ve heard from a lot more, and | really appreciate that. As folks in the audience here, maybe
around the horseshoe, maybe listening at home can imagine, | have heard from a lot of other people too who
