At a snail’s pace

By Joe Pinchot
THE HERALD (SHARON, Pa.)

SHARON, Pa. March 18, 2008 11:43 am

— A licensing agreement with public television stations has heightened the Vocal Group Hall of Fame’s visibility nationally.
The hall’s Web site, www.vocalgroup.org, gets more than half a million hits a month, and officials receive e-mails asking when the next induction ceremony will be and the museum will be open.
“These are very, very good signs,” said hall President Bob Crosby, who has volunteered his services to the hall for six years.
Unfortunately, Crosby is not a magician. He can’t turn good signs into bricks and mortar. He has made some progress in renovating the Columbia Theatre and the former Phoenix building — where the hall of fame, a piano bar, a banquet facility and offices would be located — but concerts and museum exhibits still are a long way off.
The public television deal — in which hall merchandise is used for pledge drives — has brought in new dollars, but they get eaten up in the $10,000-a-month expenses associated with the buildings, including mortgages and utilities.
“It’s not enough,” Crosby said.
If he could get the buildings open, he could generate revenue, Crosby said. He can’t get the buildings open without revenue.
If the vocal hall had a theme song, it’s title would be “Catch-22.”
If only the hall’s building activities could mirror the success of the Truth in Music effort. Headed by Jon “Bowzer” Bauman, the Truth in Music Committee has secured laws aimed at outlawing groups that pass themselves off as the originals in 18 states, with legislation pending in another 12, including Ohio.
“We’re doing really fantastic with Truth in Music,” Crosby said.
The hall hopes to celebrate its 10th anniversary this year with a five-day induction ceremony that would honor the classes of inductees from 2005, 2006 and 2007. Plans are to keep the event local — the last ceremony, in 2004, was held in Wildwood, N.J. — but no dates and places have been firmed up.
Again, the problem is money. Crosby said he needs $200,000 to $250,000 for inductions. The state appears to be ready to pony up $50,000, Crosby said, but this allocation has been pending for more than a year. The Shenango Valley Foundation is willing to front the money and be repaid by the grant, when it is released, and the Mercer County Convention and Visitors Bureau would grant another $50,000, Crosby said.
State Rep. Mark Longietti, D-7th District, Hermitage said he’s been assured by state officials the hall will get $25,000 soon, with another $25,000 coming from the next budget cycle.
That leaves the hall $100,000 to $150,000 short. Officials could press on and hope to recoup the remaining funds through the induction concerts and other activities, but the hall could stand to owe whatever it cannot raise. Officials still are paying off the 2003 inductions.
If the hall could get the money for inductions paid up front, then it could use gate receipts from tickets sales at the induction concerts for whatever officials please, such as renovating its buildings.
Crosby said nearly a year ago that the state had promised $250,000 for Columbia renovations, with another quarter-million available if the hall could match the money.
Even then, Sharon Mayor Bob Lucas and a spokesman for Gov. Edward Rendell called the announcement premature.
“The governor likes to make those announcements,” Lucas said last week, and no announcement has been made.
“We kind of pulled back from that because we have this large project going on,” Lucas said.
The large project is a $24 million, five-year effort to revitalize downtown Sharon, centered on Shenango Avenue Associates’ plan to build an $8 million, eight-story, mixed-use building at Pitt Street and Shenango Avenue.
City officials hope the Shenango Avenue project can be used as a match to secure state and federal funding for other projects, including a riverwalk, renovating the city’s parking garage, a street extension, green spaces and renovation money for the Columbia, Lucas said.
The hall also has been put on the list for $5 million in Regional Capital Assistance Grant money, which is state money funded by a bond issue for economic development projects. The program has no money, but Rendell wants to increase the program’s cap to generate new funds, Longietti said, adding that some Republican officials oppose the proposal.
Longietti, who served on the Save the Columbia Theatre Committee that existed before Tony Butala bought the theater for the hall of fame, said he recently toured a theater in Easton, Pa., that has become an economic force in an area that is roughly the same size as the Shenango Valley.
“They’re holding 120 shows a year and have a very active community theater,” Longietti said. “I think what they’re doing could be a model for what they’re (Crosby and Butala) doing in Sharon.”
Even if any of these proposals come to fruition, they do not meet Crosby’s current needs. He has been relying on weekly help from residents of Sharon Community Corrections, a halfway house, to remove debris, paint and put up dry wall at the Columbia and the Phoenix building. What he needs are electricians and plumbers.
“We’re limited to things that can only be done without money,” Crosby said.
He said he had hoped local tradesmen would step in and complete specific tasks, such as a bathroom, but that has not happened.
So, Crosby keeps plugging away.
“We think we’re doing the right things, but it’s progressing at a snail’s pace most of the time. We’re proud that we’re doing it despite the obstacles. There’s nothing else to do.”

Joe Pinchot writes for The Herald in Sharon, Pa.

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Anyone who would like to see the work being done at the Columbia Theatre and the museum can stop in from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays, when crews are working.

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