Panida Theater Board Discusses Potentially Selling the Little Theater

The Panida Theater board has recently met to discuss the selling of the Little Theater, Bonner County Daily Bee reports.

Over the past two fiscal years, the Panida has been in the red by around $50,000, according to board treasurer, Foster Cline. One of the major expenses is the roof repair for the Little Theater, which is estimated at roughly $126,000.

The board said that trying to work out how to finance both the main theater's continuation and the Little Theater was "overwhelming."

"As the board we are responsible for the financial operation and wellbeing of this theater financially," said board chair Keely Gray. "This is an extremely lucrative thing. This is something that's an investment that was made 18 years ago that's now quadrupled in value. That's a good investment."

The board has not made any official decisions at this time, and will not without input from the community. Numerous community members, including several former actors and volunteers, said they wanted to see a fundraising campaign first.

Dyno Wahl, a member of the Pend Oreille Arts Council, said she believes it would be possible to fundraise for both the roof of the Little Theater and the marquee.

"Nobody wants to have any regret about doing something rashly, or something that you might regret," she said. " I've seen some things that were definitely done for short term financial gain, that definitely were not playing the long game, and [people] ended up regretting [the] decisions to just have a stop gap, a Band-Aid fix."

The board noted they would continue to have discussions about the potential for a sale and fundraising. Several attendants volunteered to serve on a fundraising committee.

Read more on Bonner County Daily Bee.

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