Bye Bye Century Theatre
Century Theater is gone or at least it wants out of the lease. Hooray! As former Councilmember Goodspeed pointed out when the lease was under consideration, the former city manager gave away the farm to convince them to anchor his retail development north of the recreation center. Nelson needed a replacement for the expanded recreation center that the voters killed. Unfortunately the vast majority (7 to 2) of the City Council supported him and massive commitments were made by the City.
It is a true blessing that Century’s new owner, Cinemark, has asked for the lease termination. The City will save millions by accepting unless the City Council offers the same expensive incentives to a new anchor. The staff and their private developer had previously contemplated an alternative to the theater. I wish them good fortune, but keep the incentives reasonable. I hope they remember that they are using money from the General Fund that finances almost all municipal operations save the Water and Sewer Utility Fund.
I have written many times about the theater since last October. My earliest posting dealt with the false, bogus, political, campaign ploy: The official groundbreaking. I had information that only 20% of the required plans for the building’s construction had been submitted and I passed it along to you. The senior staff and some of our elected officials knew the truth but choose to deceive you for political gain. Since then I have had to counter false claims about the theater posted on the City’s official web site several times. I did not obtain the smoking gun of proof until earlier this year but I am not disclosing it still today.
I hope the City will let them leave after recovering the hard costs it incurred per the lease. The City should be entitled to the staff’s time spent reviewing the plans that came in earlier this year. The Council and its lap dog, NURA, purchased only one parcel of land that was really needed according to the terms of the lease. The cost for the parcel in question was just over $382,000. The City also paid an outside consultant $9,700 to address some issues in the plans submittal. I am sure there were some other expenses but I hope the City Council will be reasonable in its request.
The City Council now has the opportunity to move on in its development plans and hopefully convince the voters that it has done its best as steward of the city’s future.
It is a true blessing that Century’s new owner, Cinemark, has asked for the lease termination. The City will save millions by accepting unless the City Council offers the same expensive incentives to a new anchor. The staff and their private developer had previously contemplated an alternative to the theater. I wish them good fortune, but keep the incentives reasonable. I hope they remember that they are using money from the General Fund that finances almost all municipal operations save the Water and Sewer Utility Fund.
I have written many times about the theater since last October. My earliest posting dealt with the false, bogus, political, campaign ploy: The official groundbreaking. I had information that only 20% of the required plans for the building’s construction had been submitted and I passed it along to you. The senior staff and some of our elected officials knew the truth but choose to deceive you for political gain. Since then I have had to counter false claims about the theater posted on the City’s official web site several times. I did not obtain the smoking gun of proof until earlier this year but I am not disclosing it still today.
I hope the City will let them leave after recovering the hard costs it incurred per the lease. The City should be entitled to the staff’s time spent reviewing the plans that came in earlier this year. The Council and its lap dog, NURA, purchased only one parcel of land that was really needed according to the terms of the lease. The cost for the parcel in question was just over $382,000. The City also paid an outside consultant $9,700 to address some issues in the plans submittal. I am sure there were some other expenses but I hope the City Council will be reasonable in its request.
The City Council now has the opportunity to move on in its development plans and hopefully convince the voters that it has done its best as steward of the city’s future.
posted by Gene Wieneke at
9:00 PM
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