Dramatic reveal

A cover will drape the façade of the Wayne Theatre until the front of the brick structure is illumined in a ceremony tonight in Waynesboro, but inside and beyond hard work remains, and around the project, political winds still swirl.

The unveiling of the new façade marks the completion of the first phase of an $8 million project that has molded political alliances, spurred council clashes and stirred passions among voters in elections throughout the second half of the last decade.

A year of work remains and $1.4 million still is needed to finish refurbishing the historic edifice facing West Main Street in the heart of downtown. 

That work includes restoring the theater’s roof, the root of an old wound that festered again this week during a council work session.

The council, under a previous majority more than two years ago, approved $300,000 in city money for the Wayne after former Mayor Tom Reynolds said the money urgently was needed to repair the roof.

In fact, a resolution, passed 3-2 on April 30, 2007, backing the money for the Wayne, cited “a failing roof structure that is currently compromising the structural integrity of this historic landmark.”

Two years and almost four months later, the roof has yet to be repaired, a sore point for Vice Mayor Frank Lucente, who opposed the 2007 resolution along with Tim Williams.

“I just don’t understand why if that money was needed because the roof needed to be repaired so badly that it hasn’t been done,” Lucente said Thursday.

The building is sound enough for work to continue on the restoration but the roof still leaks, said Clair Myers, executive director of the Wayne Theatre Alliance,  formed in 2000 to drive fundraising for the project.

Work on the roof has not started because the fly loft and wings, which would essentially cut the building in half, still must be built, Myers said.

The money wasn’t used for the roof because if repairs were made to it, and then it was cut in half for the subsequent work, “we’d just be throwing the money away,” Myers said.

“The smart thing to do,” he said, “was to do the front façade and then get ready to do the whole project.”

Responding to Lucente, Myers added: “His money has not been wasted one way or the other.”

Lucente, at Wednesday’s council work session, sought to tie the Wayne to discussion about the incomplete streetscape project, which theater officials ardently back. Councilwomen Nancy Dowdy and Lorie Smith accused Lucente of playing politics with the streetscape project and said the theater was irrelevant to the discussion.  Lucente said that with little traffic downtown, the streetscape should not be a priority, especially when few businesses would benefit from it.

“I understand it would be good for the Wayne Theatre to have that streetscape,” Lucente said. He remains opposed to any more money being spent on the theater. Williams and Councilman Bruce Allen took similar positions, leading to the conservative faction’s election victories last year.

Myers called Lucente’s response to the streetscape “disturbing.” Failing to finish that project on West Main Street from Wayne Avenue to Church Street would impact the ability of people to go in and out of the theater, Myers said. He expects the Wayne will open by 2011.

Dowdy said she sees the theater as an economic development venture.

She, along with Smith and then-Mayor Tom Reynolds, supported allocating the $300,000 from the city for the roof repair. The money, Dowdy said, represents what she said is her trust that the alliance’s board of directors and those doing the construction work are the ones best able to determine what the phases of the work should be.

If the alliance somehow doesn’t live up to a performance measures agreement and the theater’s ownership reverts back to the city, Dowdy said, “it will become a multi-million dollar investment for us.”

“I don’t feel like we’re risking the city’s money,” Dowdy said.

Myers added that the $2.3 million already pledged in the capital campaign does not come from the city, but from private individuals, corporations or foundations.

The façade work cost about $500,000, and the alliance has spent about $1 million so far to cover the cost of architectural plans and consultants working on the project.

Myers said that once the capital campaign is complete, the alliance could go to a financial institution and borrow money against the historic tax and enterprise zone credits, which are reimbursed once a certificate of occupancy is issued.

Interior work is under way inside the Wayne, including the demolition of the balcony and the installation of new steel work to support the new balcony. Myers said new entrances would also be cut from the parking lot into the theater. Work will also continue on the lobby, and an interior lobby area in the gallery.

“You will be able to come in off the parking lot on the west side and you will be able to see straight through the theater,” Myers said.

At that point, Myers said the fly loft and wings of the theater would be built, which will be “probably a four story building that we’re going to have to build back there.”

All that work, including the roof, is estimated to cost $1.5 million, he said.

The new façade, Myers said, will look nearly identical to the one on the building when it opened in January 1926, only now there will be more lighting.

“This is a major investment in downtown,” Myers said. “If we had anybody else coming in from the outside putting in an $8 million project on Main Street, there’d be joy in the City Council and they wouldn’t be worrying about a streetscape. They’d be trying to do it right away for them.”