New West Theatre gets compensation
New West Theatre was granted $23,500 by city council on Monday to compensate the theatre company for disruptions to its fall season due to ongoing construction delays at the Yates Memorial Theatre, but the grant was far less than New West had previously asked council for last month.
At the previous September meeting, council balked at the company’s first ask of $48,500 to compensate for the costs associated with having to cancel its fall production of “Million Dollar Quartet” due to ongoing construction delays.
One reason for council’s reluctance to pay out the $48,000 plus were the obvious benefits and upgrades the Yates construction will provide the theatre company when it is complete, and the money the city has poured into the project to make it so. But more aggravating for some council members was the theatre company’s reported operating surplus of $100,000, and its endowed funds totalling about $250,000.
Coun. Rob Miyashiro again pressed New West general manager Derek Stevenson to account for these funds at Monday’s council meeting.
“The reason why we have to have an operating surplus as an organization is because we often don’t receive ticket sale’s funding until after our show is done,” explained Stevenson. “But we have to pay all of our performers, and everything involved in the show has to be paid in advance.”
“I get that,” said Miyashiro, “but what is your accumulated earnings over time?”
Stevenson confirmed there was a substantial restricted surplus.
“But a large portion of that is invested with an endowment with the Lethbridge Community Foundation,” Stevenson explained, “which is about $250,000. That is in there to grant us money annually to help with our operating costs.”
In the end, Miyashiro and the rest of council were satisfied that the troupe should receive a refund for its rental of the Yates for its production of “Million Dollar Quartet,” totalling about $11,600. They also decided the troupe should receive about $11,000 to make up for its shortfall from the last fiscal year remaining after last year’s budget allocations, and also $900 for the cost of having to rent an alternative venue for “Night Life 2.0” after being unable to access the Sterndale Bennett Theatre due to ongoing construction there.
Coun. Belinda Crowson said the decision for council to compensate New West Theatre was the right one.
“When it’s our actions as the City that impacts other organizations, what’s our responsibility? Organizations have a responsibility to run in a fiscally responsible way on their own, but when we somehow impact an organization I think we have a different responsibility,” she said.
Follow @TimKalHerald on Twitter