The epilogue of the City of Platteville Arts Board will increase funding for the renovation of the Platteville Community Auditorium.
The Common Council voted Feb. 26 to apportion about three-fourths of the $8,502.41 in leftover Arts Board funds to the Platteville Community Auditorium and its renovation efforts.
“The auditorium is in need of many improvements,” said Cheryl Schmieder, president of the Friends of the Community Auditorium. Schmieder said improvements to this point had been done by volunteers with no tax money.
Former Arts Board member Marilyn Gottschalk asked that the council “make the auditorium a space that is compatible with multiple uses by the entire Platteville community.”
Gottschalk said the Platteville Community Theatre is donating money for a new stage floor.
“We desperately want the Nutcracker back on our stage but they can’t dance on a bumpy stage floor,” she said.
The council voted to send $800 to Rountree Gallery and apportion $800 for Municipal Building arts purchases.
The council also voted to send $900 to the Main Street Program for the Music in the Park Series and for a proposed mural walk.
Main Street executive director Jack Luedtke requested $4,500 in city funds. Luedtke said the Music in the Park series “needs to be continued and nurtured.”
“Music in the Park was run through the Parks and Recreation Department,” said District 2 Ald. Eileen Nickels. “I would say there were difficulties with that, and Main Street has taken it over.”
Luedtke said the Main Street program is developing a brochure for the Downtown Art Walk that will incorporate the downtown murals, and will eventually incorporate the three bicycle-rack designs (see story, page 3A).
At-large Ald. Patrice Steiner had originally proposed that $500 go to the Main Street Program and $400 to the city Tourism Committee.
District 4 Ald. Ken Kilian amended Steiner’s motion to send the Tourism Committee’s $400 to Main Street instead.
“The Tourism Committee has money coming in every year,” said Kilian, noting that the committee controls more than 70 percent of the city’s room tax proceeds.
