Board of Aldermen — 9/12/17 Page 28
weigh in against it. | will say that nobody was speaking against an arts center. This is not really a referendum
on should we have an arts center. It’s a referendum on should be bond $15 million to commit to a project, as
some speakers said, is a business. We’re publicly funding a business operation. | appreciate, | really do, the
used car analogy. | think it’s a pretty good one. The only difference is we are spending someone else’s
money. We're not spending our own money to buy the used car. We’re not putting our own money. This is
public money. | think spending public money, we have perhaps a higher obligation.
I’m concerned about a couple of things | learned tonight for the first time. One is that we seemed to have
steered, accidently or intentionally, | don’t know, things seem to get steered very easily, steered the consultant,
it sounds like, the minutes seem to reflect that, to the Alec Shoe Store building. Consultants, in my experience,
listen very carefully to what the customer says. They want to provide what the customer says. Granted they
said we can’t do the 2,000 seat auditorium, that’s fine. We stuck with them, they stuck with us. They agreed
that they would go where we steered them. I’m concerned about that. We hire a consultant to help us
objectively determine where we should go. If that was steered, I’m concerned.
Secondly, | wasn’t around when the Court Street theatre transaction was made a number of years ago but
those who have shared the history make it sound very much like the situation we are facing today. | don’t
know why that failed. To some extent, there’s some success there. But there was a lot of enthusiasm, maybe
not a lot of money donated at the time. | don’t know what the circumstances were, but an arts operation, |
think, requires a lot more than enthusiasm. It does require the enthusiasm, and | want to especially thank John
Roache who gave $100 tonight too because that is what it takes. | had a conversation with the woman who
runs the Capital Center for the Arts. They don’t get any money from the government. They don’t get a dime
from the City of Concord. It’s all fundraised. | spoke to the gentleman who runs the Palace Theatre. What |
understand from him is they started with a significant pot of money and then went for other assessments. |
don’t know all the details but that’s the trend of his message that | got from that gentleman.
The pro forma financials and all the paperwork that we have seen have the $4 million endowment. | had a call
from someone today that is in Ward 3, who is a big patron of the arts, donates a lot of money every year. He
wants to see this, but he is very concerned about the way the financials are set up here. He said where are
you going to get this $4 million and he said the $4 million is not going to produce $160,000. You need $6
million to produce $160,000 a year. Not only is he a patron of the arts, but the money that he gets to give to
the arts he makes by being a financial analyst and managing funds. It is very hard to convert that $4 million
into the $160,000 according to him. Both people at the Capital Center for the Arts and the Manchester Theatre
used the same kind of phraseology saying it is a business. It’s a difficult business. It takes a lot of work. |
think they have enthusiastic supporters, but it takes a lot of work. The pro forma financials show that not only
are we getting money from the endowment but there’s a continuing requirement for general fund raising.
Maybe to sponsor programs from corporate entities or maybe just people who are willing to give more than just
the ticket cost. These places are supported by ticket sales; they are also supported by a lot of giving.
| don’t object to the rationale that was shared that can we jump start this in some way. | think maybe we can.
I’m not sure we need to do $13 million. And, how long is it going to raise the $4 million? How long do we
keep Alec Shoe Store at 201 Main Street without the $4 million being raised and without it having anybody in it.
What's the cut off time? A year down the road? Two years down the road? | don’t know. But, in the end, this
is a business. | like an arts center. | want to see it. That’s what tears me on this. | want to see something
happen here. | think downtown needs it. There’s no doubt in my mind that the Palace Theatre and the Capital
Center for the Arts have helped those communities. No doubt, but | don’t want to see it go the way of Court
Street which, for whatever reason, didn’t seem to work out quite right. | think we need to get whoever is going
to run the thing in place ahead of time so they are onboard if anything is going to be outfitted to make sure that
is the right space for them to operate a theatre in. Because again, for whatever reason, maybe just based on
enthusiasm bubbling up from the community and the fact that the store was suddenly available, other factors
but, we steered it. This is such a serious endeavor, | think we cannot steer it. I’m deeply hesitating for these
reasons, and | thank you for your time.
