The renovation of the seating and ceiling in the Mansfield Theater that was approved last year is facing a lack of funding as costs continue to rise. In order to continue the much needed repairs, the city is looking to community donors.
WATCH:
The Mansfield Theater was finished in 1940, and has seen little updates since. Many of the seats as well as the ceiling tiles have remained, and age has taken a toll. The mechanics and padding of the seats is requiring more and more repair, and the ceiling has seen tiles fall to the ground and leakage. The project would replace the aging seats and ceiling, making the seats wider and more comfortable for visitors, while still maintaining the historical character of the room.
Tom Hazen, the Grant and Project Administrator for the City of Great Falls explains, “There'll be some color differences in the patterns and on the fabric of the seats. We're also going to have new carpeting put in. So if you're really familiar with the Mansfield Theater, you're going to walk in and say, ‘That's a little bit different, and that's a little bit different’, but it's not going to be glaring differences, and the ceiling should look almost identical.”
Through multiple funding streams, utilizing the State and Local Infrastructure Partnership Act, the Montana Historical Preservation Grant, and TIFF, which is downtown tax increment financing, the city gathered around $1 million for the project. These funds are not associated with the City’s general fund.
Hazen explains, “These aren't funds that are funded by taxes. They aren't funds that would otherwise go to pay for public safety or anything like that. These are grant funds, state allocations and downtown revenue resources. And we've got, like I said, about a million. We thought that, at the time when we were starting to put this together, that would be sufficient funding.”
As costs continue to rise, the project now requires an additional $400,000. The city is now looking to private donors to cover the gap. Hazen says “Unfortunately, as with many of these capital projects, inflation and an uncertain economy, and other factors have driven costs through the roof. So, we're going to go out into the community and try and raise some money that way to cover those differences.”
An additional $80,000 would also allow for the aging wood of the stage to be replaced as well, which Hazen says will need to be replaced within the next decade. He explains, “This stage is almost as old as the rest of this room, and we're coming to a point where we can do a certain amount of upkeep and keep it usable, but we're ending the lifespan of the actual wood that's in this stage.”
The City plans to begin and complete construction on the seating and ceiling by the end of this summer.
