Go Fund Me page set up to help save community theater

A nearly 100-year old theater in Montpelier is up for sale. Many in the community are sad to hear it might close its doors for good.

The Centre Theatre, on Washington Street in Montpelier, was originally the Rich Theatre. The building has been there since 1920.

Currently, the theater is owned by a family in the Salt Lake area. The man who owned it for years kept it going as a service to the community, but he recently died. So his son decided it was time to sell.

Because the theater doesn’t turn a large profit, if sold, it likely would not stay a theater.

So Charles Horikami decided to take action when he heard it was for sale.

“Think about it this way – if we don’t have a theater, what do we have?” Horikami said. “We have a bowling alley, which is also for sale. And if we don’t have that, if we don’t have anything in Bear Lake, why do people want to come and stay?”

Horikami said the bowling alley, Jolara Lanes, was put up for sale the night he started the Go Fund Me for the Centre Theatre.

Horikami added that by having to leave town to find that missing entertainment, that means Montpelier’s community business is going elsewhere and it could have a domino effect on other businesses in town.

Studebakers Pizza has been neighbors with the Centre Theatre for 27 years. Brian Jensen, the manager at Studebaker’s, said being next door has been good for business and he would be sorry to see it go. He said the community needs it. And he said it might affect Studebaker’s business too.

“I think it would definitely probably slow it down a little,” he said. “When some of those good movies come out that people like to see, we wouldn’t have that traffic coming through with people stopping in and getting pizza before they go to the movie.”

Horikami has started a Go Fund Me page to try and raise the $150,000 asking price for the theater.

“I’m a numbers guy,” he explained. “I see something happening and my first thought is, how can we divide this up? How can we make this work? What are the numbers behind this? And Bear Lake County is about 6,500 people. $150,000 dollars, we divide that by 6,500 people, that’s $25 per person.”

Horikami said he encourages people to donate because it really is beneficial to keep the theater open in the community.

“If we don’t have a theater, we have to drive to Preston, to Soda Springs, or over to Afton. And if you go to Soda Springs, a round trip cost is going to be about $12. Two trips to Soda Springs to the movie theater, you’re already paying that $25. You do one and a half trips to Preston – $25. One and a half trips to Afton – $25. So if you even go to the theater once in the rest of your life, it’s to your benefit to actually fund our theater.”

Emily Keetch’s family has managed the theater for 30 years and said it’d be hard to say goodbye.

“It’s been like a second home to me so it makes me sad to see it up for sale,” Keetch said.

But, she added, having it stay open also comes with its challenges.

“It’s kind of a double edged thing,” she explained. “I would love to see the theater continue working but I’ve also seen the backside of it and I know it’s not just as simple as coming up with the money to buy it because there’s so much more that goes into it. It is an old building and requires a lot of upkeep and unless something changes with the tenants, it’s not making enough to cover all of that.”

Horkiami said many people have been wondering if they donate, then what?

He said it’s still in the early stages, but right now, one idea is to buy it with the community funds and make it a community-run theater. He said they are working with an accountant to try and establish a non-profit organization for the community theater, with community board members, a mission statement and all. Then because it is a theater and does make some money, the non-profit group would lease it out to a for-profit company to run, under the umbrella of the non-profit community group. He said that’s all things that they are working on now to make possible.

Horikami said if they get a good amount of money raised but haven’t hit the $150,000, another option might to work with a local bank to get a loan and use whatever community funds have been raised so far as a down payment.

He said it’s only been up about a week and so they are still working out the kinks, but he wanted to get started on the fundraising.

Horikami also clarified that if you donate, and they can’t make any sort of purchase of the theater, all money would be refunded to the donors. If the donation was anonymous and they can’t figure out who a certain donor was, those monies would be donated to the local middle school instead.

To donate or see the Go Fund Me page for the theater, go here.