INTERMISSION IS OVER
NOW BACK TO THE SHOW
After months of uncertainty, the Cordell City Council has decided who will begin operating the Washita Theatre
Following a council meeting earlier this week, council members unanimously voted to grant the Cordell Chamber of Commerce the operating lease of the theater.
This decision comes after the council voted to begin accepting lease bids late last month. It was announced at the meeting that the Chamber of Commerce had been the only one to submit a bid.
“I’m excited! We actually get to do something in town again,” Chamber of Commerce Secretary Sarah Lau said. “We’re hoping to get it open as soon as possible so we can utilize it to the best of our abilities while the kids are still out of school.”
The Chamber had recently spent some time in an attempt to get the city to allow them to lease the theater. Concerns about the theater’s cleanliness, among other things, caused some reluctance amongst council members in the past.
The city hired a crew to go through the theater to properly clean it and has made some repairs to things such as the bathrooms.
Now that the chamber has acquired the theater lease, Lau says they plan to get to work on opening it as soon as they can.
“Tuesday morning I’ll send off all the contracts for the broker so we can get all the licensing for the movies. It takes about two to three weeks for those so hopefully sometime near the first of August is when we’re going to try,” Lau said.
Looking ahead, Lau spoke of plans to bring people into town such as businesses incorporating “date night” deals during the weekends.
“We’ll be bringing people from out of town into Cordell to show them what we do. We’re hoping to maybe show the businesses in town that we’re trying to bring people here to shop, to do things,” Lau said. “I do know a couple of businesses that have even talked about maybe staying open a little later on a Friday night which would help out the residents too. It’s kind of more of a community effort in that sense, which that’s what we always wanted to do, to begin with.”
Earlier this year, council member Sheri Parsons expressed eagerness to lease the theater and pushed for the council to make some sort of motion to begin the process.
“I would just like to encourage our town to get behind the Chamber and go to the movies. If you’re thinking about renting it on whatever [streaming service] you have, think again! Just get in your car, drive downtown, and pay for the movies there,” Parsons said. “It’s going to be a fun night. Put that on your radar for entertainment. Let’s make this work for them and for all of us.”
Other council members, such as Steve McLaughlin had expressed concerns in the past on the ability of the theater to make a profit and support a salary.
However, making a profit is not Lau’s primary concern whereas bringing people into Cordell is.
“We’re just hoping to bring something into town that people want to do. We know we’re not going to make any money. That’s not what we were trying to do. We just want to bring something into town, just like we do with all of our events.”
Parsons also echoed this sentiment in saying that she felt encouraged that people can come into town for a movie and stay for some food at places such as Slice 183.
“Sometimes people won’t just drive to town to eat, but boy they’ll come to town and say, Hey, let’s go to the show and grab a bite to eat,” Parsons said. “We’ll have that to offer. So I’m just really excited about that.”
Overall, Lau said the Chamber is aiming to have the theater open “right before school starts” as there are still things that need to be done on the legal side of things.
“I do want to thank the city council for doing all of this. And I do want to thank the chamber board for going with my crazy idea that we could do this, and we can! We’ll do it.”