The Senior Citizens club membership has dwindled significantly and they do not have an operational budget for the kind of restoration project needed to repair all the damage. The Senior Center had offered to sell the building to the Jesse James Players for a pittance and then use the rest of their operational fund as a starter fund to make the repairs. At the August meeting the Jesse James club members agreed that they should hire an inspector to generate estimates on how much it would take to gut and then restore the building from the damage and the mold & mildew infestation. At that meeting they also agreed to go forward with the spooky trail planning and execution.
Just before the spooky trail got back on the road, Wollmann and Gnadt contacted Jesse James Players members with the disheartening news that renovations in the building could cost up to ¼ million dollars or more. Neither group, Senior Citizen or the Jesse James Players, has that kind of funds for a project of that magnitude and the mold and mildew has made the air quality so bad that the building is unsafe to use.
“I want to stress that this is nobody’s fault,” said Wollmann. “The Senior Citizens have been nothing but great to us, and a pleasure to work with. The sad upshot is that the Jesse James Players don’t have a home right now.”
“We don’t know what to do, or how to go about doing it,” said Gnadt. “There are a lot of ideas floating around, but we don’t have a direction.”
“And meantime while we try to figure it out we don’t have a home or a place we can put on productions and rehearse,” said Wollmann.
So looking for alternatives and solutions is most certainly on their to do list.
“If anyone has ideas, we’re all ears,” said Gnadt. “We’d welcome fresh input, sometimes a fresh perspective is just what we need.”
Meanwhile they have seen real evidence of the capacity of local Garretson area residents to bring some solid talent to performance art.
“We’ve got a lot of talented people who can do some pretty amazing things, so whatever happens we’re going to find a way to showcase those talents so that people can enjoy them together,” said Wollmann.
Wollmann said that she’ll be participating in the upcoming Plains Speaking People event and that afterwards they’ll plan for a dinner event with the Spooky Trail cast and crew, and plan what comes next for the group.
