Panida board discusses sale of Little Theater
Panida board members look over old plans for the theaters -- many of which have never been fully realized due to funding issues, at a town hall meeting Monday.
Photo by RACHEL SUN
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Editor's note: This article was updated to correctly attribute a comment by Tari Pardini.
After preliminary discussions with community members, the message to the Panida Theater’s board members was clear: Don’t sell the Little Theater.
Over the past two fiscal years, the Panida has been in the red by around $50,000, said Tari Pardini, board treasurer. Even with the help of grants and fundraising, the theater, and particularly the Little Theater, has struggled.
Of the two theaters’ many expenses, one of the biggest is a roof repair for the Little Theater estimated at roughly $126,000. Another, among a lengthy list provided to visitors at the meeting Monday night, is the need to replace the Panida Theater’s marquee — an increasingly expensive enterprise as neon gas becomes less readily available.
In short, the board told attendants, trying to work out how to finance both the main theater’s continuation and the Little Theater was “overwhelming.”
Board members noted that because of the current real estate market, should the theater sell they would be able to find many, if not all of the necessary repairs for the main theater. Estimates for the Little Theater’s sale from two different realtors ranged from $700,000 after repairs to the roof to $1 million outright.
One way to look at the Little Theater, said board chair Keely Gray, would be to see it as an 18-year investment.
“As the board we are responsible for the financial operation and well being of this theater financially,” she said. “This is an extremely lucrative thing. This is something that's an investment that was made 18 years ago that's now quadrupled in value. That’s a good investment.”
However, the board has not made any official decisions at this time, Gray said — and would not without input from the community. Still, although the board has not put the Little Theater on the market, several noted concerns for the overall well-being of the Panida. Fundraising enough for the marquee and the roof would be a monumental effort, Gray said.
Even with the tantalizing promise selling the Little Theater could bring, numerous community members, including several former actors and volunteers, said they wanted to see a fundraising campaign first.
Carol Deaner, president of the Pend Oreille Arts Council, said her group was concerned for the future of community arts programming that’s currently run through the Little Theater.
"I we get rid of the Little Theater, are you going to allow us to come to this theater and do some of [those] wonderful things?” she said.
Dyno Wahl, another member of POAC, said she believes it would be possible to fundraise for both the roof of the Little Theater and the marquee.
“Nobody wants to have any regret about doing something rashly, or something that you might regret,” she said. “ I've seen some things that were definitely done for short term financial gain, that definitely were not playing the long game, and [people] ended up regretting [the] decisions to just have a stop gap, a Band-Aid fix.”
Stephen Drinkard, another community member in attendance, said as a grant writer he wanted to see the theater take a year and work on fundraising.
“I think you guys need to plan about 150 different paths and ignite each one and let each one go on its way,” he said. “Talk with the city of Sandpoint. The city of Sandpoint should invest in this place.”
Drinkard, along with several other community members, said during the 30-minute discussion with the board that he didn’t see the housing bubble bursting anytime soon.
The board noted they would continue to have discussions about the potential for a sale and fundraising. Several attendants volunteered to serve on a fundraising committee.
“Hearing all of this from all of you gives us a lot of hope. Because it's like, ‘OK, there's ideas, there's things we can do,’” Gray said. “So if any of you in there have experience with grants or experience with capital campaigns, nonprofit experience, all of that, we need you. Please help us.”