09/25/2006 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Minutes of the Regular Meeting of Council September 25, 2006 Page 22 For a further point of clarification, Mr. Saponaro reminded everyone that this is not Fairmount's project. It has never been Fairmount's project. It was not billed as Fairmount's project and if Fairmount does not choose to be a part of the Village, the Village has to still decide what they are going to do. It is purely a feasibility study. To top this as we should go to Fairmount and see what they are going to do is not a part of the equation. We either look to do that or we don't. Fairmount has nothing to do with that. Council President Buckholtz appreciated Mr. Saponaro's clarification. Council President Buckholtz added that the meeting he went to last week was a collection of people working in the arts and culture field all through Cuyahoga County. There is a guy, Tom Schorgl who will be coming out at the proper time, not for a while, to give a presentation. There are approximately 104 different organizations that take into account funding mechanisms, grants and awards. This is not Fairmount's job to do that. If they have funding or grants and awards, fine, bring it on. No one at this table would be in a position to turn down anyone that wants to kick into a project of this magnitude. There are dollars out there. If we pass Issue 18, there will be a lot of dollars out there. This is something that we will all pursue, people that potentially would use the space, people like us who own the space. There are places to go to pursue those dollars. It is not someone else's project, it is our project. Mayor Rinker reminded everyone that we are using this as a public facility. The sanctuary was billed as a sanctuary. We want to make it an auditorium. We need to do enough but not more than what we need to make it a functioning auditorium. Some of the cosmetic things that we can do can go a long way. The issues would be the stage, lighting and sound system. We will look at that as a fundamental part we have to do. Those are the required courses. We can-get into elective later on. Dr. Parker stated that he did not think anyone felt that Fairmount would be funding this project. They appeared to be the driving force behind it. Mr. Saponaro stated they were not. Dr. Parker added that it is a great thing. Perhaps with all of their resources and knowledge, they could give us ideas and information as to how you can go about funding this. Mr. Saponaro stated he can give them this information with no problem, but in reading the Finance and Caucus Minutes, it was very clear that members of Council felt that this was Fairmount's driven project and it was not. The Architectural Review Committee was assembled by this Council to review renovation to this space, certainly not by Fairmount. Fairmount has nothing to do with it. We cannot come to a municipality and say, would you put together a committee to determine if you are going to build a theater for Fairmount? Whether Fairmount uses that facility or not, it was a good feasibility study. What it did was it made sense to look at. This is not a small amount of money. You are going to take this to a level of all of these different compliances, ADA and what-not, you are going to be spending dollars. Now we have the ability to look at that, we have to look at what our needs are. We have a benchmark now. To be clear as a stakeholder, the Fairmount Center for Creative and Performing Arts is just one of many groups that could utilize that space., Council President Buckholtz added that they are not the only game in town. They are building three theaters in the Detroit-Shoreway area, an almost blighted area. They are building three