The Salem City Council Tuesday night agreed to seek a $261,025 Community Development grant for renovation of the outside of the Salem Community Theatre.
Theatre Board President Drew Johnson says the outside facade has seen major deterioration.
“Many people have been able to see over the last several years, the freeze-thaw cycle has cracked what is otherwise cast concrete,” Johnson said. “There’s just no way to repair it, it has to be replaced. There would be an extensive removal of the broken pieces, and a specialized company comes in, measures, and casts new replacement pieces that would be put in place.”
Johnson says the project would also include replacing plaster on the inside of the lobby area of the theatre building that has cracked and been repaired several times.
Since the marquis has to be disturbed to complete the outside renovation, Johnson says the theatre board may undertake a fundraising project to improve it.
“We’re looking at trying to digitize the marquis in such a way that it still looks historic, but then we could run ads or change the view without what we do right now, which is literally going up a ladder with letters.”
Johnson says the public has been great to donate to the theatre to allow all of the improvements that have been made inside the building.
There is no local share of money required for the grant according to Brooke Frederick of the South Central Regional Planning Commission who presented the grant proposal to the city council.
In joining the rest of the city council in voting yes, Mayor Nic Farley noted the importance of the theatre in bringing cultural events to the community as well as giving many Salem Community High School drama students a second home.
