Theater seeks city money for $25,000 improvement project

Aiming to enhance aspects of its facility, The Maryland Theatre has requested city money toward an estimated $25,000 improvement project.

The theater has proposed to update its two stage-level dressing rooms as well as make some updates to its first-floor women’s restroom, and replace the stage curtain and some carpeting.


Theater representatives asked the Hagerstown City Council Tuesday for an undetermined amount for the project that would be more than its annual city operational contribution of $9,000, but were met with a skeptical council not yet willing to foot even a portion of the bill.

“In funding years in which agencies have to fight to even maintain their annual contributions, it is a little difficult for me to digest an additional contribution outside of your annual contribution,” Councilwoman Ashley C. Haywood said.

Unlike other organizations to which the city provides funding, the theater does not keep the council in its loop, with its plans and financing, Councilman Lewis C. Metzner said.

“I don’t know about anybody else here, but I’ve never seen the bathrooms in the back stage of The Maryland Theatre ... never seen the women’s room,” he said. “Seriously. And we have never seen all the things that you are describing to us that have been done, and so we don’t feel part of it.”

Updating the dressing rooms, curtain, carpeting and women’s restroom are part of a larger list of capital projects the theater’s building committee had targeted for improvement, said Benito Vattelana, president of the theater’s board of directors.

Some work that has been done to date includes replacing the roof, exterior repair, and heating and air-conditioning improvements, said Ron Bowers, building committee chairman. The theater has raised about $350,000 for capital improvements, he said.

Vickie Hrabal, of Oak Hill Interior Design LLC, worked on the design for the project. Hrabal also sits on the city’s Historic District Commission.

She said the wallpaper in the women’s restroom has been torn, lights in the dressing rooms do not work, and the counters are deteriorating.

In planning the project, the theater was conscious of the economic climate, Hrabal said. Alternatives like Silestone countertops and paper ceiling were used instead of the marble and tin that would be historically accurate for the theater, she said.

The project estimate provided to the city from Oak Hill Interior Design totaled $16,878.66, including:
• Three Delta Victorian faucets: $516.88 each
• Cherry cabinetry for the dressing rooms: $2,050.19
• Cherry cabinetry for the women’s restroom: $833.61
• Silestone countertops for the dressing rooms: $3,000
• A new stage skirt: $983
• Wallpaper for dressing rooms below the chair rail: $392
• Wallpaper for dressing rooms above the chair rail: $1,099.60
• Ceiling fan for left dressing room: $450
• Ceiling fan for right dressing room: $375

An additional $7,800 was estimated for Eco Construction LLC of Hagerstown to complete the project.

Councilman William Breichner asked to have the city’s engineering department look over what the theater has proposed before the council decides on the request.

City Administrator Bruce Zimmerman, who also sits on the theater’s board, said the city has left-over project money in its capital improvement program fund that could be used for the project.

Vattelana and Bowers said they will arrange to have the council tour the theater soon.

Councilman Forrest W. Easton was absent from the meeting.