Plans for the Mansfield Theater seat replacement and ceiling repair project are progressing, but lacking funds.
Tom Hazen and Sylvia Tarman of the city finance office updated the City Commission during their March 18 work session on projects that had been funded through the State-Local Infrastructure Partnership Act that the Montana Legislature approved in 2023.
Of those projects, staff was seeking direction on the Mansfield projects, which had a funding shortfall when commissioners approved the $995,190 seating contract in December.
At the time, staff said they recommended awarding the contract despite the overage of $345,190, plus $12,000 in design fees to Nelson Architects.
Mansfield seat project progressing, staff looking at fundraising options
During the March 18 work session, staff said that combined with the ceiling portion of the project, the city is looking at a $389,890 shortfall of available funding for the Mansfield projects.
Staff said during the work session that they were still working through contracting with the historic plaster contractor for the ceiling, a project that requires a lot of scaffolding, and staff are trying to do that in conjunction with the seat replacement.
The ceiling “really is not looking great and structurally is not great,” Sylvia Tarman, city project manager, told commissioners.
It’s a facelift that the theater hasn’t had in some time, Tarman said.
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Staff said during the March 18 meeting that they’re working on plans to fundraise to cover the project shortfall.
In December, staff told commissioners that the shortfall would be covered by remaining COVID relief funds and staff was working with the contractor and suppliers to trim the project cost if possible and exploring fundraising options to reduce the impact on COVID funds.
In the March 18 presentation, the breakdown of funding for the project did not include COVID relief funds.
Mayor Cory Reeves asked what the city will do if staff can’t raise the additional funds.
Tom Hazen, city grants manager, said that was the “crux” of the discussion.
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Hazen said they’re also considering another $90,000 to improve the theater stage. Right now it’s good for a few years, then could do a $10,000 resurface and get another decade out of it. If they do the larger improvement, the city could get another 90 years out of the stage, he said.
Tarman told The Electric after the meeting that the stage was brought to their attention a few months ago and isn’t an immediate need so it wasn’t included in the existing projects. She said if they secure enough funding to complete the stage, it can be done after the seating project unless conditions are favorable to do it at the same time.
Hazen said during the March 18 meeting that staff were developing proposals to make asks of about six or seven corporate entities in the community, saying they’re the “usual suspects” with their names already on buildings or facilities in the community.
Then they’ll approach individual donors who have made significant contributions in the community and have their names on facilities across the state, Hazen said.
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He said they’re planning to do this fundraising over the next six months since it’s a tight timeline.
During the Mansfield advisory board’s January meeting, Owen Grubenhoff, Mansfield manager, said the theater calendar is blocked out from May 20 through the first week of October for construction.
Grubenhoff said he’s hoping it doesn’t take that long but they can’t book shows and risk the work being incomplete.
The convention center will also be closed for the summer since it will be used to store the theater seating during demolition and installation.
The theater currently has 1,780 seats with 917 on the main floor, 282 on the lower balcony and 581 on the upper balcony, according to the city.
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Grubenhoff told the advisory board in January that staff was going with deeper and wider seats, but trying to maintain about 1,500 seats.
The city was allocated $755,461 of SLIPA funds and commissioners approved the package of projects for SLIPA funding in March 2024 and ratified contracts with the Montana Department of Commerce in September 2024 for the project.
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The project includes the replacement of auditorium seating installed in 1938 with newer more comfortable seats that still maintain historic character. The project was identified as a potential priority use of ARPA funds in 2022, and was eventually a second tier project.
The previous commission decided to wait until the city received notification of the result of an application for the Montana Historic Preservation Grant application. The city was awarded a $250,000 grant.
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Staff told commissioners in December as they voted to approve a contract totaling more than available funds that they’d begin a fundraising campaign.
In February, Hazen and Tarman told the Mansfield Advisory Board that they’d start making donation asks the following week.
Hazen told commissioners during the March 18 meeting that if they were okay with the proposed funding levels presented, staff would start making asks.
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The Mansfield board suggested time limits on donations, but Hazen said that if a corporate entity, business or individual offered to pay for the whole project, his thought was that they could have the naming rights as long as they wanted.
The city does not have a citywide policy for naming public facilities, at least not one city officials have been able to provide when The Electric asked about such a policy in 2023 and again this month.
City code does have a provision for naming city parks.
The Great Falls Public Library board adopted a naming policy in 2021 when a request was made to rename the building for Alma Jacobs.
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Great Falls Public Schools has a naming policy for district facilities.
City Manager Greg Doyon told The Electric, when asked about a city naming policy, that he thought it should be project based due to differences between them in terms of scale, scope, funding needed, venue and anticipated support.
The city had some discussion about that when it retained Bannack for the indoor aquatic center fundraising, Doyon said.
The Park and Recreation Department accepted a $1 million donation from Scheels in 2023 in exchange for 20 years of naming rights.
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In any case of selling naming rights for public facilities, Doyon said staff should make sure commissioners are aware and on board, and that whoever is making the ask is clear about what a donor gets in exchange.
Hazen said the city will prioritize the seat replacement and ceiling projects first for funding, then the stage.
If they exhaust available resources and don’t fundraise enough, Hazen said staff will make another request for downtown tax increment financing funds.
Commissioners already approved $309,800 in TIF funds toward the project. The city is using those funds as the required city match to the state SLIPA funds.
If they still don’t have enough, staff will then come back to commissioners for a discussion, Hazen said.
Hazen said staff were considering a mailing campaign and was planning to approach the Great Falls Symphony to see if they were interested in partnering.
He said during the March 18 work session that staff would meet with potential donors and would try to take someone from the Mansfield advisory board so it wasn’t just city people making the ask, and included a nonprofit entity to lend “extra legitimacy.”
The Mansfield advisory board is a city advisory board and it’s members are appointed by the city commission.
The Mansfield Center for the Performing Arts Foundation is a private foundation that is down to three members who have been looking to dissolve the organization for months as they have other demands on their time and only about $5,000 in the bank.
The foundation’s desire to dissolve was discussed during a November meeting of the Mansfield advisory board.
In December, Hillary Shepherd and Dusty Molyneaux of the foundation attended an advisory meeting to further explain their desire to dissolve the foundation, a discussion that continued in this year, and was reported by The Electric.
Shepherd told The Electric last week that she had not been contacted by the city regarding any of the fundraising plans or participating in that process. She said she had offered months ago to help connect city staff with donors who would potentially support painting the theater, but had heard nothing further on that and had told city staff she was not able or willing to be further involved in the fundraising effort.
The city’s advisory board discussed the fate of the foundation in a January meeting and again in their March 21 meeting.
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During that meeting, Owen Grubenhoff, the Mansfield manager, asked if the advisory board members were willing to help recruit foundation members for a formal transition.
He said that the foundation membership needs to be separate from the advisory board, as currently required in the foundation’s bylaws.
Grubenhoff said that the city advisory board doesn’t meet in the summer so they can come back in August with some foundation membership recommendations and if there’s no interest by then, they’ll consider the effort to revive the foundation dead.
Commissioner Joe McKenney said that a capital campaign was a good idea and the important thing was staff was trying something different.
He said time will tell if it works, but that he wouldn’t be surprised it it works.
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Tarman told The Electric that city staff is setting up a city fund, under their capital improvements category, to hold donations to the theater process.
She said the city will use all of the SLIPA grant funds first to complete the existing projects.
If the city raised additional funds, Tarman said staff plans to complete the stage improvement project.
If they raise funds beyond that, she said the city will hold those funds to complete any other capital improvements inside the theater and will communicate that to donors.
Tarman told The Electric that staff considered time limits on naming rights, but if a donor was willing to provide significant funding, they didn’t want time limits to be a deterrent.
