A bold deadline, indeed

Editorial

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Those involved with the attempt to renovate the Historic Wayne Theatre set a new deadline last week.

It is a bold one with potentially grave consequences.

Members of the Historic Theatre Board asked city officials for yet more time to put together a plan to bring the theater back and come up with the money to do it with the caveat that if they were unsuccessful, they would give the property to the city.

The clock is now ticking for the historic structure which once dominated the skyline of downtown Wayne. They have one year to pull off their ambitious project.

This self-imposed deadline is both a call to action and an acknowledgement of the concern from city officials that this might be another in a long line of postponements of the inevitable.

The people involved with the restoration of the theater now have quite an uphill battle to fight. They acknowledge the difficulty in generating the $4.5 million estimated to fully bring the theater up to code and construct a new front that will serve a variety of uses and ensure its long-term viability.

They have an advantage, too, in that the momentum is growing for their cause. The deadline will help that, too, we think. It will show the community that they mean business. It will show the community that they don’t intend to hang around if their effort sadly proves futile. It’s also an acknowledgement that they admit the mistakes of the past and that they’re going to work harder than before.

On the surface, it’s easy to see they mean business.

There is more activity at the theater now than there has been in decades. Another benefit concert is scheduled for this weekend and other fundraisers are in the works, too.

They know they’ll need more than a few concerts and some plastic piggy banks distributed in several stores and restaurants throughout the community. Those are more to generate awareness than anything else.

Hopefully, the community is now aware of the project and the effort it will take to bring the theater back to life. It’s a good goal at a time when the City of Wayne is at a crossroads. Efforts continue to revitalize the downtown area and the theater could be a large part of that. It will just take a concerted effort from everyone in the community.

What do you think?

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