WATERVILLE $ The Waterville Opera House will get a $ 4 million facelift to make the 106-year-old facility safer and handicapped accessible.

"It's a very exciting thing," Opera House Executive Director Diane Bryan said Monday. "It will be wonderful for the community to say the Opera House will be in good shape for the next 50 to 100 years."

City councilors on Tuesday will get a first look at plans for the project, to include renovations to the stage and dressing rooms, as well as electrical and mechanical upgrades and lighting and sound system improvements.

The presentation will be at 6:15 p.m. in the council chambers at The Center. Councilors are scheduled to vote at 7 p.m. on whether to extend the Opera House lease for 25 years, at a rate of $1 per year.

Bryan said Monday that the project will not change the aesthetics of the facility.

"This is going to look like the beloved Waterville Opera House that people know. But it will be new, improved, cleaned up, upgraded, safe and get a really beautiful facelift."

She said she could not reveal how much of the $4 million already has been raised for the project, nor who the donors are, but an announcement to that effect will be made in the spring.

"We do have quite a few grants; some have been received and some are in process," she said. "It's a $4 million renovation. It is our plan to raise that money privately."

She said that while it is not a city-funded project, some of the upgrades will occur in spaces the city and Opera House share, so the city will fix some areas.

"It's been years in the coming," Bryan said of the project. "Being a nonprofit, we've tried to put Band-Aids on old systems. A few years back, a very kind person offered to help donate some money if we we'd only fix the balcony."

But as officials started to explore what it would take to make improvements, they decided to stop and do an assessment of all the needs of the city-owned Opera House, she said.

"It about safety, egress, new technology, access to the stage, ADA (Americans With Disabilities Act) compliance. There are so many things. It's a very old building."

She said officials have been working on the plans for about a year. Scott Teas TFH Architects of Portland is doing the design work; Sheridan Corp. of Fairfield has been hired to do the construction.

"We made the decision early on that we would choose Maine firms," Bryan said.
She said she hopes work will start on the project in about 18 months and be completed in less than a year after that.

The Opera House hosts musicals, plays, concerts, ballets, civic events and dance recitals. The facility has 942 seats but only about 800 are usable because safe egress is not available from rear balcony seats, some of which are broken, according to Bryan. That problem would be solved with the improvements, she said.

City Manager Michael Roy said the current Opera House lease is for 20 years and it expires in 2012.

In other matters, the council is scheduled to consider authorizing spending $33,900 to construct a recreational trail from the North Street municipal pool to the Head of Falls area off Front Street. The vote also would allow payment to the state Department of Transportation of a $12,233 remediation fee for wetlands altered by the trail project.

The council will consider taking the first of three needed votes to accept cash donations for development of a trail system and other improvements to the Quarry Road Recreation Area.

Roy said someone who wishes to remain anonymous has donated $85,000 to the project.

Amy Calder $ 861-9247
acalder@centralmaine.com