‘Dislike’ rally set for Saturday

MONROE — She’s not an elected official or interested in politics, but Monroe resident Emily Convers is in the mix of the commotion surrounding the Town of Monroe board’s decision to buy the former Monroe 6 Theater.

As the administrator for the “Save the Monroe Theater” Facebook page, Convers hopes large numbers of Monroe residents will demonstrate at tomorrow’s “Rally to Save the Theater” at the empty theater and express a key word used in the social media world to represent their opinions about the town’s decision:

Dislike.

“I moved to Monroe five and a half years ago and when I moved here the movie theater was just a steel skeleton structure,” said Convers. “Every person I spoke to talked about how sad it was that the theater never was built. A few years later, the movie theater was completed and the excitement was tremendous. The community had hope for Monroe. Of course, it was a tremendous disappointment that the movie theater went out of business.”

Convers, a former project manager, knows she now has one of the key roles in the growing community movement seeking to get the board to rescind its decision.

“My next door neighbor posted the article about how the town purchased the theater at auction and I thought that this was a horrible thing to do for many reasons,” Convers said. “First, we are hopeful it would reopen as a theater. That’s what everyone I spoke to was feeling. To find out the town was taking that hope away from us was devastating. That’s pretty much what got me started that day. When I found out, I started a Facebook page.”

902 ‘like’ cyber petition

In a quest to see how many felt similarly, she posted a challenge to get 400 “likes” in the page’s third day of being live. By 7 p.m. that same day, the 400th “like” to “dislike” the purchase was posted.

The group was up to 718 “likes” as of this past Wednesday afternoon.

Also on Wednesday afternoon on the Web site, www.change.org, 902 people have signed a petition asking the town to rescind its decision.

Convers said there are other community members involved in the grass roots movement’s leadership efforts, but her involvement was cemented at the Nov. 19 town board meeting, where over 100 people showed up to voice their displeasure.

“I saw the lack of humility and the lack of understanding of the feelings of the citizens of the town and I was more motivated to overturn this decision,” said Convers. “I felt the board was disrespectful. One board member said we were acting like children. That’s when I knew we really needed to push this.”

The face of downtown

Convers supports the thinking of Village of Monroe Mayor James Purcell, who has said the movie theater was and can be the anchor for the revitalization of the village’s downtown area, which has been troubled for quite some time by empty storefronts.

“There’s no question the movie theater could benefit the downtown of Monroe, the pizzerias, the restaurants, the dry cleaners, the salons,” said Convers. “I’m a mom of two kids and a homeowner and I think the downtown of Monroe is vital to our success as a town. It (the movie theater) could only help, and not hurt, the village and town. People want to have dinner and a movie. People want the entertainment.”

As a taxpayer and the mother of sons who attend Smith Clove and North Main elementary schools, she’s also concerned about the loss of revenue to not just the village and town, but to the Monroe- Woodbury School District as well.

“There’s tax revenue that we, as a community, are losing,” said Convers. “I actually spoke with the (Monroe-Woodbury) assistant superintendent of business, Jeff While, who told me the schools alone would be losing $29,000 (in revenue). That’s an assistant teacher in the classroom or playground equipment or computers or books for the library. That’s a lot of cash.”

Talking points for rally

Convers is hopeful to have 1,000 adults and children stop by and voice their displeasure.

“I just want them to come, I don’t want to deter anyone from showing, up,” she said. “We know there’s soccer games and shopping. But the more people we can get, the better. We want to send a clear message to the board that we’re not happy with the decision.”

Plans for that rally include speakers who will discuss the issues and, Convers said, hopefully further motivate residents to be diplomatically vocal to town officials about their dissatisfaction.

“We going to have a lot of children, a lot of posters, we’ll be making some noise for sure,” said Convers.”Our talking points are basically that we are letting the crowd know why we’re really there. The main reason is that the town is going to turn the theater into a court house, they have no construction costs, and they have no plans.”

The town board convened in executive session Monday where it was believed the discussions about the theater purchase took place.

Ensure ‘community needs are met’

Town Supervisor Sandy Leonard said Wednesday that on the advice of counsel, the board would only be issuing a written statement about the status of activity surrounding the purchase. She stressed she looked forward to speaking about the theater purchase once officials could do so.

“We were all saddened that the theater closed and became an eyesore and vacant building in our community,” the statement said. “The Town Board certainly appreciates the concerns expressed last week. We remain committed to ensuring that the vacant building on Millpond Parkway is used for public purposes.”

The statement continued on to say: “Examples of public purposes permitted under law include of course a Town Hall, but also cultural development that so many have expressed support for. The closing on the vacant building is anticipated for mid-December. As we move forward with the conversion of the vacant building and put it back to productive use, we look forward to working for the interests of the community, to ensure our community needs are met.

But Convers felt that the public’s perspective was being disregarded.

“They’re moving forward as though there is no public outcry,” she said. “I’m shocked, frankly, that elected officials would ignore the public. It’s not a political issue; it’s a quality of life issue for all the citizens in the area. It’s not too late; the town board can still reverse the decision.”



By Nancy Kriz