By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
City Manager John Sheedy during the city council’s most recent meeting gave updates on several ongoing city projects, including efforts to re-establish commercial air service and work on the Paul Poag Theatre.
“First I want to talk about the airlines a little bit. We are bringing you (tonight) a contract for a consultant that we feel very, very strongly about. It’s very encouraging, and we believe that this consultant is going to absolutely help us achieve our goal of re-establishing air service, so we’re excited to bring that to council tonight,” Sheedy began.
He next addressed the closure and ongoing work at the Paul Poag Theatre for the Performing Arts.
“I wanted to talk about the Paul Poag because as I am sure that everybody knows, we found some hazards, some fire hazards, some life safety hazards that are very concerning for us, so we felt that we really had no option other than to do what we would have done had it been a private business, which is we have to close it down. We thought about it very seriously, as far as how are we going to address this, but at the end of the day, there was really no way around it, considering some of the major fire safety concerns that we identified. We’re attempting to get the facility back where, primary, the most risky, fire safety violations have been addressed,” Sheedy said.
He noted major work has already been done since the theater was closed.
“Staff’s been doing great. They’ve all been out there, 40 people, there were a lot of people down there today (Feb. 14), at the marquee at the Paul Poag. We were able to have city staff remove that marquee. We were very concerned about the state of the marquee. It’s old. You could look up, and there is a lot of rotting wood in it, and additionally, there were two air conditioner units up on top of that marquee and the marquee in some places was actually starting to separate from the building, so we were just very concerned. We wanted to put safety above all else,” the city manager told the council.
Sheedy also addressed work that needs to be done before the building can reopen.
including efforts to re-establish commercial air service and repairs to the Paul Poag
Theatre for the Performing Arts, as Mayor Al Arreola, left, listens, during the city
council’s Feb. 14 meeting. (Photo by Karen Gleason)
“We’re going to look at different things where we’re going to reduce some of the load from the stage curtains and lighting for egress, repairing the fire alarm panel and the system. We’re reviewing inspections of the standpipe and fire suppression system. We have an electrician in there that’s working on some open circuits, some short circuits and open vaults and replacing exposed wiring. We’re also checking water supply and scheduling flow tests so that we can get current to code. We know that there will be some other items that we’ll try and address as well. That’s going to depend on the availability of funding,” he said.
Sheedy said his staff is also reviewing the building’s ADA compliance and establishing a list of mid-term and long-term goals for work at the theater. He said his office is also working with individuals and groups whose events had been scheduled in the theater to help them find alternate locations.
Sheedy also spoke about contacting Amtrak to discuss traveler amenities at the city’s Amtrak depot, an item the council had discussed at an earlier meeting.
“The council had directed me at our last meeting to reach out to Amtrak. I got on a conference call with them and several staff and it was very encouraging. We were told point-blank that an awning, a canopy, was something they felt like they could help us with and so they were very positive. Unfortunately, four days after that, I received word that now they couldn’t do a canopy or an awning because it wasn’t part of the original project,” Sheedy said.
“However, we now have heard that Amtrak management is going to be here on March 1, so we’ll be visiting with them, and I understand that they are very amenable again to the canopy or the awning, and I’ve also reached out to the Amtrak ADA coordinator, and we’ll stay in contact with her,” he added.
Sheedy also gave updates on construction work at Brown Plaza and on the SENTRI lane south of the Del Rio Port of Entry.
“On Plaza Brown, we want to report that we’re very, very happy at this moment. We’re pretty far ahead of schedule. I asked staff to give us a quick update, and there’s many things that weren’t even scheduled to be completed until later this month. We have things from April that are already completed. So I don’t want people to think that that means we’re going to be open for Cinco de Mayo, but we’re certainly where we need to be right now,” Sheedy said.
“One final thing: Our SENTRI lane project is going on at the port of entry. We’ve been struggling with traffic control down there. We are going to be taking some additional traffic control measures. The main thing we want to do is remind our citizens to please use caution and be safe. Don’t get in a rush and just try and follow the traffic as much as you can, try and pay attention to what the traffic is doing, but please, just ensure that you’re paying attention when you go across the bridge at this time,” the city manager said.
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