Leonard Fant says the Colonnade's first step in dealing with the recent news of funding cuts from the county is to remain calm.

Fant, the chairman of the Catoosa Foundation for the Performing Arts which oversees the Colonnade on Benton Place Campus, said the board will meet the first Monday in February to begin deciding how to make up for lost funds.

The Catoosa County Board of Commissioners on Jan. 16 voted to phase out Colonnade funding over the next two years. Fant says that gives the board time to decide if it can raise rental rates enough to make up the loss or obtain additional donations.

They're (cutting the funding) slowly, and maybe the elephant will die slowly," he said.

Now, the question is whether the Foundation that formed to raise money for theater performances inside the Colonnade wants to be responsible for raising additional money every year just to keep the facility operating at the same level, Fant said.

Financial impact

Colonnade general manager Dee Bridges said the facility's operating budget for 2006-07 is $450,000. In October, the county will cut the Colonnade's annual funding from $105,000 to $52,500. Funding will be cut in half again the following year, but the Colonnade will receive funding only for the first three months of the year.

Bridges said counties in most other Georgia counties don’t require their civic centers to be self-sustaining.

“The other centers like this all receive help from whoever owns them,” she said.

The Colonnade was built with sales tax dollars and will continue to be county-owned with county-maintained grounds. Commission Chairman Bill Clark said the board’s plans are for the Colonnade to pay general maintenance expenses on the facility but for the county to do the labor.

When the commission voted to cut funding, Clark said he would give the savings back to property taxpayers. He said running the facility shouldn’t be the county’s job.

Some people say the funding cuts could have implications beyond just maintaining the facility and keeping its doors open. Kim Parrish, managing director of The Community Players, said the group could have to find rehearsal facilities elsewhere if the overseers try to rent the Colonnade out more often to make up for lost funds.

“It will affect our rehearsal space and it will affect our rates, I’m guessing,” she said. “We will no longer be able to be a priority unless we bring in lots of money.”

Parrish said The Community Players, along with Higher Art Theater Productions and Humble/Swan Productions, offers 12 shows a year at the Colonnade.

Chamber cuts

The commission's vote to have the Catoosa County Chamber of Commerce negotiate a lease with the Foundation for office space in the Colonnade effectively eliminates any county funding for the Chamber.

Chamber President Martha Eaker said the county had given the Chamber $40,000 in 2004 and had tentatively budgeted to do so again in 2005. The county faced a tight budget at the time, so the Chamber signed an agreement to lease office space in the Colonnade for free instead receiving the $40,000.

Clark said the county earlier this month simply exercised its right to terminate the lease by giving a year’s notice. It was to run through 2010. Unless commissioners change course, the Chamber won't receive any financial support from the county after January 2008.

"I'm in hopes that they'll cut some kind of a deal (to lease office space) with the Colonnade before then but they don't necessarily have to," Clark said.

Fant said the Foundation hadn't discussed the matter with the Chamber as of early last week, and Eaker said the looming lease termination won’t affect operations this year.

“We are just business as usual and if it comes that we need to negotiate with the Foundation, I’m sure we could do that,” she said.

Commissioner Jim Emberson cast one of two votes against cutting off Colonnade funding and Chamber support. He said he hopes the county reverses course on the funding decision.

“I’ve had numerous phone calls and concerns raised by citizens in the county,” he said. “Personally, I think we’re sending the wrong message…This is a service type situation.”