A special meeting of the Board of Aldermen was held Tuesday, March 26, 2019, at 6:33 p.m. in the
Aldermanic Chamber.
President Lori Wilshire presided; City Clerk Patricia Piecuch recorded.
Prayer was offered by City Clerk Patricia Piecuch; Alderman Patricia Klee led in the Pledge to the Flag.
The roll call was taken with 14 members of the Board of Aldermen present; arriving after roll call were Alderman
Harriott-Gathright at 6:36 p.m., Alderman Klee at 6:39 p.m. and Alderman Tencza t 6:57 p.m. Alderman Ken Gidge
was recorded absent.
His Honor, Mayor James W. Donchess, arrived after roll call at 7:00 p.m. Corporation Counsel Steven A. Bolton
was also in attendance.
President Wilshire
Alderman Gidge did let me know that he was unable to join us this evening. Tonight we have a presentation on the
Performing Arts Center with Tim Cummings, Director of Economic Development.
PRESENTATION
Status Update on the Performing Arts Center with Tim Cummings, Director of Economic Development
Tim Cummings, Director of Economic Development
So good evening, for the record Tim Cummings, Director of Economic Development. As a matter of course of
business | come regularly once a month to provide this body with an update relative to the progress and status of
hopefully the future Performing Arts Center on 201 Main Street.
The last time | was before you, | provided you with some draft floor plans; this evening the bulk of my conversation
with you is going to focus on what we believe is relatively finalized floor plans. Of course there will be always minor
tweaks and adjustments as we go. But this represents what we believe is the bulk of how the building would be laid
out from a floor plan standpoint. So | will walk through the various floor plans that have been developed and they
are currently out right now being analyzed by the sub-consultants and getting cost estimates done and hopefully we
will have some information back soon relative to how these floor plans work for us.
Also as | walk through | want to make sure | mention that Wednesday night, tomorrow, is a big meeting for the
Performing Arts Center Steering Committee; happy to have all of you attend if you are so inclined or interested.
That meeting will be a healthy discussion about the exterior as well as a continuation of the interior. We are making
our way through schematic design, we are on schedule and hoping to conclude schematic design by mid-April.
With that being said, this is the basement level here up in the on the screen in front of you, | just want to point out
this area right here is the lobby of the basement level. That has what we are looking at to be a monumental
staircase. This staircase would carry us all the way through the building all the way up to the top floor. So you
have restroom facilities aligning one wall, you have a common hallway, you have gallery event space of
approximately 2,000 square feet in one corner. This is un-programmed space underneath what would be the
seating area or the main floor of the Performing Arts Center above it; so this almost 3,000 square feet of un-
programmed storage space as of right now.
Then you have some back of the house type uses, mechanical, technical, supervisor, a green room, various types
of storage, dressing rooms and what not. So this is how the basement level, this would be subgrade is laying out
for us right now. So continuing on to what would be the orchestra level; this would be where you’d have your main
seating if you will. So you’d have almost 500 seats telescopic seating in the main stage area right here. This line
represents the old building that 1920’s, 4 floor structure and this is the traditional 201 Main Street Alec Shoe
structure. This would be the stage area right in along here again, telescopic seating which could be pulled back
and this becomes all useable, multi-functional type of space.