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Factoid: The Ad Hoc Citizens Committee to Save the Varsity will meet again at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the basement of the Interfaith Center. The public is invited to attend.
They now have unity. They now have a plan. They even have a catchy name.
The only things missing from the equation for the Ad Hoc Citizens Committee to Save the Varsity - or Save Arts and the Varsity for Everyone (S.A.V.E.), as their new proposed moniker goes - are the old problems they've been facing since the start. Time and money.
But they're working on it, and at their meeting June 25 at the Interfaith Center, the committee made progress by specifying several strategies they could follow in trying to preserve the historic movie theater for community use, from encouraging the theater's owner, the Springfield-based Kerasotes Theaters, to donate the building to a community organization to subleasing the building until a further plan can be developed.
According to Hugh Muldoon, the director of the Interfaith Center who has convened the committee's four meetings so far, whatever plan that is put into effect needs to consider all the elements of the community and all the special interests that may become involved.
"This does need to be a collective effort with the whole community involved," Muldoon told the meeting of about 25 citizens. "This is very political. We have to be aware of that. We need to let people find their space and not be competitive. We need to think very inclusively."
In addition, the committee heard a report from Jessica Becker, the owner of Rosetta News, who had chaired a two-hour meeting the previous night to draw up a group constitution and establish a mission statement for the entire committee to follow. After reading copies of the proposed constitution this week on a listserv established by Becker, members will vote at their next meeting Wednesday night on whether or not to approve the document.
"Basically, this is a very formula, very structured, two-third votes kind of organization," Becker said of the proposed constitution, which establishes several executive positions to deal with future negotiations for the theater's use. "This is just the bare bones, just to get us started. It's very open to change."
However, with money short right now and concerns being raised on what an extended desertion of the building could have on its physical condition, many questions remain unanswered as to the theater's future. City councilmen Chris Wissman and Lance Jack, who both attended the meeting, said they hope to see the Council become more involved in the committee's actions and that all facets of the community will eventually rally around the committee's cause.
"What it comes down to is at the end of this, will we have a successful reclamation of the Varsity Theater," Wissman said. "There are people in the community who love the arts and have a lot of money."
