False alarm nets payout

It may be observed that the Wayne Theatre, that epicenter of local political unease, persists in standing, its shiny new façade overlooking West Main Street in Waynesboro. This evidently is the product of something otherworldly, since by now the old brick edifice should have crumbled to mortar and dust.

This is hyperbole, cut precisely along the lines of that in which some officials apparently engaged in lining up city money for the theater’s renovation. The city is expected to contribute $1 million toward the $8-million project. That has spurred public opposition, which began mushrooming two years ago, when the City Council approved by a one-vote margin kicking in $300,000, a move this newspaper supported.

Here is where facts and circumstances melt to muddle:

The vote came after former Mayor Tom Reynolds “stated that if the roof of the Wayne Theatre were not repaired in a timely manner, the structural integrity of the building would certainly fail,” according to council minutes from an April 23, 2007, meeting.

Reynolds also cited city code: “Owners of historic landmarks or contributing historic buildings and structures shall not allow them to fall into a state of disrepair so as to endanger their physical integrity or the public health and safety.” The language of breathless urgency appeared in a resolution on spending for the Wayne a week later. That document cited “a failing roof structure that is currently compromising the structural integrity of this historic landmark.”

A week from today, 28 months will have gone by since the 3-2 approval of that resolution, and yet the roof has not been replaced, nor will it be anytime soon. The building, in fact, is “sound enough for work to continue on the restoration [though] the roof still leaks,” The News Virginian reported Friday, attributing the paraphrase to Clair Myers, executive director of the Wayne Theatre Alliance.

Before the work on the roof begins, work must be completed on the fly loft and wings, which Myers said would cut the building in half. If the roof repairs were made sooner, “we’d just be throwing the money away,” Myers aid. “The smart thing to do was to do the front façade and then get ready for the whole project.”

We don’t dispute the intelligence of delaying the roof replacement until other work is complete. That’s a subject for engineers. On this, we take Myers at his word.

But what of that sense of impending doom cast about in a pair of public meetings before the elected representatives of this city in April 2007? The roof, the building and the sky were falling. Then, with a snap of the fingers and the allocation of the cash, poof, the crisis vanished, just not the leaks.

And there’s more. The $300,000 from the city triggered another $300,000 from the feds: Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, one of Congress’ tight-fists, picked up earmark money for the theater. Goodlatte seldom does this but said he went for earmarks in the Wayne’s case because the theater had the council’s backing.

It’s likely the facts would not have altered the vote. Reynolds and councilwomen Lorie Smith and Nancy Dowdy were ardent backers of spending on the Wayne regardless of the status of the roof. Nor is there anything to suggest that the failure to invest immediately in a roof replacement connotes impropriety. The resolution ultimately directed money to the project generally, not the roof specifically.

Still, there abides the echo of discordant tones, one of high-pitched alarm for an exigency that turns out not to have existed and the other soft and low, taking form in an explanation that explains nothing. The sound jars. And the murmuring over the Wayne persists, with cause.