What to do about The Grand?
On Tuesday, some members of the Oshkosh Common Council stressed they want to see more private financial support for the renovations and repair at The Grand Opera House before they will agree to kick in any more money toward the approximately $1.5 million project. You can read more about it here. In the meantime, what are your thoughts? Should the city take care of its responsibilities on a building it owns? Should there be more community and private service group funds used for the project? Is it time to sell the Grand and let a private organization operate it and, if so, what should be done with the building until such time as it is sold? Take our poll and tell us what you think.
posted by Cheryl Hentz at 1:55 AM
1 Comments:
[The following was received by Karen Bowen and published here with her permission, for which we thank her]
To the City Council:
The Grand is beautiful. Does anyone disagree with that? The city, and the community, have both put a lot of money, sweat and tears into this facility over the years, and we have have gotten so much back from the building and the people who have brought us magical performances and wonderful cultural events. Can anyone question that? Apparently, some have forgotten the contributions made by many private citizens the first time we went brought the building back from the brink. So what happens to the building if we don't take care of this project? Imagine the message we send to those considering moving here. Imagine the message we send to ourselves. Should we let this building become another sign of the "can't do" attitude that so many people think we have in this city?
Someone on the Northwestern blog said that we should let this building go because we let the Athearn Hotel go 40 years ago, and the Grand is no different. I have to assume that the city council of today is wiser than the city council of that era, and will try to work with the community to save this beautiful facility. I want to assume that the 21st century council is willing to go at least part of the way toward figuring out how to save this jewel!
Please, let it not be said of our city that "we don't know what we've got til it's gone." Let's work together again on a project that can continue to make us proud!
Karen Bowen
703 E. Irving Avenue
Oshkosh WI 54901
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