The Blue Ridge City Council voted last night to move forward with repairs to the screen at the Swan Theatre. Parks Commissioner and Blue Ridge City Council member Michael Eaton announced the city had received a check from the insurance company for $265,000 to repair damages to the screen incurred last spring during a storm. Prior to the storm, the city discovered it owns the buildings on the Swan property as well as the land through a reversion clause in the current lease. Mayor Donna Whitener and many council members feel the current lease is not valid for various reasons.

The decision to repair the screen last night, however, was not unanimous.

During yesterday’s morning’s workshop, Mayor Whitener expressed concern about the lease. She said she didn’t’ think the city was going to forward with the screen repair before a lease was established. In response, Eaton felt the city should build the screen first before the lease was settled, asserting that it can only be properly valued for the lease to be written appropriately. He also said the screen was not structurally sound and could pose a liability. Although Whitener wanted to settle a lease before repairs to the screen are done, she said she was not opposed to having the repairs completed. Eaton felt the screen should be built before the lease is signed in order to have an accurate value of the structure. For the mayor, though, the value of the repaired screen can be included in the lease before the repairs are complete and the screen rebuilt based on the information the city already has regarding the projected work on the screen.

“I’d like to make the motion that we go forward,”

Eaton said at last night’s meeting,

“sign the contract with Jerry Selby and go ahead and rebuild the screen that was damaged last year in the storm.”

Jerry Selby has agreed to rebuild the screen for the city. The motion was then approved: Michael Eaton, Rodney Kendall, and Wayne Huffman voted for the motion, while Rhonda Thomas and Harold Herdon voted against. Directly following the approval of the motion, Thomas made another motion.

“On that note,”

she said,

“may I make a motion that we also make sure that we have a contract on our new $265,000 purchase before we let the tenant (Steve Setser) start using this, until he has a contract for liability purposes.”

The motion did not receive enough votes for approval. Thomas continued, though, saying the city still does have plans to establish a new lease with Setser.

Previously, Mayor Whitener and Thomas have been proponents of establishing a lease with a fair market price. Currently, Swan Operator Steve Setser pays $500 a month to the city for rent of the land. Last night, when the topic of the lease came up, Thomas mentioned a price that seemed to give council members and the public in attendance a better idea of what market price would be for the Swan land and buildings.

“According to the projections Donna has, he (Setser) should be paying at least $1700 a month just for the screen,”

she said,

“the city is losing $1700 a month in revenue each month and you taxpayers may want to be concerned about that.”

Challenging Thomas, Eaton said that the money to repair the screen came from the insurance company, not taxpayers.

“It doesn’t matter,”

Thomas said,

“it’s still money the city could have, money that could go toward street repairs.”

The initial motion remains: the city will begin repairing the screen at the Swan Theatre, which will move forward with or without a new lease.

Council Member Thomas told FYN she feels the city should have had its paperwork prepared and the lease in place with Setser before the work on the screen was started.

“Nevertheless, Mr. Setser doesn’t have a valid lease,”

she continues,

“so if he does not want to work with the city, we will have the right look for a new tenant, especially after investing $265,000 in insurance funds after only having it (was) insured 3 weeks. I want what is fair to the taxpayers of the City of Blue Ridge. In addition, I want the Drive-In to be a successful, thriving business for whomever (sic) runs it. I work for the taxpayers and want to protect their money and properties.”

For his part, Eaton said he did not see what the problem was with having the screen repaired before the lease was signed.

“The storm occurred,”

he told FYN,

“the damage was done, the insurance company’s engineer determined replacement necessary, a screen company
with a long lasting and excellent reputation is available, the insurance company sends us a check, and our attorney approves of a completely workable contract with the builder.”

He added, though, the issue with the lease still needs to be resolved, but feels that it will be settled soon

. “In the end,”

he said,

“I’m glad it is passed and thankfully, this will be one less issue that we have floating around with when it comes time to work on the lease. This drive in issue has been a long one with many emotions riding high for everyone involved. This vote to move forward on the
rebuild of the screen is a major step to put at least one issue of the Swan to rest.”