Plans to be developed for royal theater
Published 10:15 pm Wednesday, September 20, 2017
The Hogansville City Council voted unanimously to approve a contract for Carter Watkins Associates of Monroe to create a master plan for the royal theater.
Mayor Bill Stankiewicz said the plan will include three options — using the theater for both city hall and an arts center, using it as only city hall or turning the theater into a full performing arts center.
The cost of the work is $58,250, but the city may be able to recoup half of it through the Fox Theater Institute, an outreach program that assists in historic preservation.
“The scope of services requests that a plan be developed for all three of those options,” Stankiewicz said.
Nothing is set in stone about recouping half the funds, but the city feels good about its chances of receiving a grant from the Fox Theater Institute. Regardless, the city will use SPLOST funding to pay for the work, whether it’s the full amount of half.
The theater was built in 1939 and city hall moved into the building in 1988.
One of the most recent plans was for city hall to move into the old Hogansville library building once a new library was built, but an architect reviewed the library building, and said it’d be a tight fit.
The city also looked at moving into the old PNC Bank building on High Street, but Stankiewicz said that move ran into resistance and has not taken place.