Our Past Is Present March 20, 2018

March 20, 2018

            You are reading “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.

It’s Tuesday and that means our program today will be about the Opera House, which has been in existence for 120 years.  We learned last week that voters rejected the bond issue to restore the Opera House.  As we continue to work through the document written by the late Rob Stevens in order to share some of the history that helped get us to the “Gem on the Prairie” known as the C.L. Hoover Opera House, this is what Rob wrote:  Mayor T. Michael Fegan, “who was again elected mayor on April 21, 1987, believes the elephant should not be shot yet.  I never thought it not passing at the polls was the end,” he said.  “We’re a long way from the final chapter of the project.  All avenues have not been explored.”

            “He thinks the biggest obstacle of the 1986 vote was the size of the price tag.  “A more affordable and private/public blended type of funding may be the answer,” he said in an April 17, 1987 interview.  He said his first priority is to “clean up the exterior… make it more marketable.  We need to pull together who do not want to see it just sit there.  We fixed the roof and have a $20,000 clock… we do not want to stop there.”

            Fegan feels once the outside of the building is improved, then another concept can be designed for the inside.  Possibilities include offices and a scaled down performing area that was planned by Peters Kubota Glenn.  Excluding a resident-theater group would eliminate needs for storage and a dual-purpose stage further reducing costs.  Fegan said there is limited grant money and labor-assistance programs available to help initiate the project but his main focus of funding is a mix of private and public funds. Richard Pinaire feels the Junction City Little Theater was the greatest loser, by dropping its interest in the project.  “JCLT lost, it hurt its credibility when it went out front to raise money and then backed off.  People, like me, are very upset.  The Opera House could still be the home of JCLT in the future… I am hopeful JCLT will see it’s in its best interest.”  That concludes Rob Stevens’ writing about the conflicts, efforts, disappointments.  We know that eventually our community came together yet again to raise funds and restore the beautiful building for amazing performances at our C.L. Hoover Opera House. 

            Thanks for reading “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.