Metropolis asks Arlington Heights to throw them a life saver ...

With ticket sales down, Arlington Heights will likely lend the Metropolis Performing Arts Center money to cover operating expenses this fall.

The recognizable downtown Arlington Heights theater has fallen on hard times, leaving it without enough working cash to cover expenses over the next month or so, theater officials said.

?It?s been challenging,? said Phil Collins, president of Metropolis? board of directors. ?Sales have not been what we hoped for a number of our events.?

With the threat of losing the theater looming, the village board preliminarily voted to loan Metropolis $75,000 to be paid back by the end of the fiscal year on April 30, 2012. The deal still has to go through the full board next week.

?We need to find a way to keep Metropolis open,? said Trustee John Scaletta, who knows the downtown landscape well as the manager of the Arlington movie theater.

Metropolis and Arlington Heights village staff proposed three options, including a loan, increasing the annual subsidy or creating a Metorpolis reserve with money from the village?s arts and entertainment fund.

Annually, the village gives Metropolis $150,000 from the arts and entertainment fund, that was set up in 2005 when the village purchased the theater building at 111 W. Campbell St., making it Metropolis? landlord. The controversial move was funded by a 0.25 percent sales tax on served food and beverage.

The theater has always operated on a shoestring budget, but summer sales were particularly tough, said Jim Jarvis, Metropolis? outgoing executive director.

Jarvis is expected to depart from his stewardship of the theater in two weeks, compounding the theater?s problems by leaving it without an executive director

Beyond slumping sales, the theater had to unexpectedly replace its stage floor and thrust stage and is also facing escalating liability insurance costs and dwindling enrollment in its School of the Performing Arts.

The organization has undergone a number of cost-cutting measures and is pushing for more donations, including consolidating positions, reducing health insurance and production costs, Jarvis said.

He could not guarantee the company would turn around their business performance.

?I don?t think anyone can promise that in the performing arts field,? he said.

To build cash, the theater is counting on shows selling well for the rest of the year, Collins said, but it still has bills to pay right now.

?We?re being asked to help in a situation nobody likes,? Village Manager Bill Dixon said.

But trustees struggled with the thought of handing over more money to theater. Trustee Norman Breyer argued that anything beyond a loan would be a tough sell to the people he represents.

?How do we face the taxpayer in this trying time?? Breyer said.

Mayor Arlene Mulder vehemently defended Metropolis. She called the theater an ?economic engine? that draws people downtown, and though it may not make money, it makes money for the restaurants and shops surrounding it.

According to surveys, the average theatergoer spends about $25.60 at local restaurants and stores when they attend a show, Jarvis said.

Still, trustees ultimately were not comfortable with anything other than a loan.

?I don?t think it?s appropriate for me to vote to just give you money,? Scaletta said. ?It needs to be a loan.?

Theater officials said they asked for a loan from the village because banks would not loan them money since they have no collateral.

The conversation stung particularly with Dixon

?I?m just disappointed we?re here and that this has happened,? he said.

Source: http://triblocal.com/arlington-heights/2011/10/11/metropolis-asks-arlington-heights-to-throw-them-a-life-saver/

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