The show will go on
Posted Mar 8, 2011 03:40:34 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Cambridge council has approved a controversial performing arts centre that will require millions of dollars in loans.
The city’s final budget was approved to a chorus of boos by an 8-1 vote last night, thus securing the funding for a $14-million theatre for Drayton Entertainment as part of a new performing arts centre in Cambridge.
A boisterous crowd of about 150 people turned out for the meeting, many of whom were forced to stand while filling an overflow area outside council chambers. Mayor Doug Craig had to call the crowd to order on several occasions.
The city will invest $6-million in the project, $5.1-million of which will be borrowed. The remainder will come from upper levels of government.
That additional funding was one of the reasons councillor Rick Cowsill was the lone dissenting voice against the budget. In voting against it, Cowsill was also rejecting the theatre project.
“We didn’t have the copies of the Memorandum of Understanding from the feds or the province,” Cowsill said. “I understand today that we have access to the federal one. We’ve seen nothing from the province.”
Cowsill also expressed concern over dated due diligence reports, suggesting that the four year old documents don’t accurately reflect economic spin-off and tourism projections.
But his attempt at having the theatre project “red flagged” in the budget, or effectively deferred, was defeated when no fellow councillor came forward to second Cowsill’s motion.
The result was welcome news to delegate David Terry, who spoke in support of the project.
While most in attendance were vocally opposed to the theatre, Terry said that merely reflects the mood of the day.
“The Drayton project was perhaps the major electoral issue,” Terry stated. “And no one who opposed Drayton was elected.”
He suggests the funding from upper levels of government present a unique opportunity for Cambridge to create “a cornerstone” of the city’s future.
Throughout the three-hour meeting, delegations like Terry’s were booed roundly in the room. At the same time, those who opposed the project were often greeted with applause.
That was the case when Dale Wilkinson spoke. The former staff member with Theatre Cambridge punctuated her presentation by thrusting her right arm in the air and shouting “I oppose!”
Wilkinson said she’s seen live theatre try and fail in Cambridge through her Theatre Cambridge experience and she insists that “if the city builds it, they won’t come.”
Wilkinson is adamant that council does not have the community support it thinks it does for the project and she’s vowed not to let the decision dissuade her efforts.
“We can walk like Egyptians and we can revolt against this,” Wilkinson said defiantly. “We should have a say.”
The budget in Cambridge calls for a 3.55% tax increase, or about $36 for the average home.
Construction on the new performing arts centre is expected to start this summer with a target date of late 2012 for completion.
