Riverhead mulling next moves after Vail-Leavitt Music Hall board resigns

RIverhead is contemplating its next steps after all five members of a nonprofit that oversees the historic Vail-Leavitt Music Hall resigned and turned in the keys earlier this month.

Town attorney Erik Howard said Thursday he expects the town board will pass a resolution appointing themselves as interim members of the Vail-Leavitt board, adding the town isn’t planning on getting into the theater business.

“It’s not their intention to be the managers of this entity or the building,” he said. 

The board could then begin appointing community members to serve as the new directors.

“We need to find interested people that will take on the fiduciary duty that goes along with managing the not-for-profit and taking actions to restore the building,” Howard said.

The Vail-Leavitt Music Hall, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, opened in 1881 and hosts live theater, comedy and music performances.

The town filed a lawsuit against the hall in August, alleging the management of the theater has been “haphazard and inconsistent” and sought to invoke a clause in the deed that allows the town to recover the property if it hasn't been used for cultural programming or was not properly maintained.

Theater council president William Miller disagreed that the theater was not kept up.

“We turned over a theater that was clean, dry, warm and ready for business,” he said.

Financial issues have plagued the performing arts venue, which needs about $200,000 in repairs that include roof and electrical improvements, according to an engineer’s report from January.

Miller said the nonprofit couldn’t afford those repairs on an annual operating budget of around $50,000, funded primarily through donations. Board members have dipped into their own funds to keep the theater afloat, he said.

“We simply do not have the money to defend the lawsuit,” Miller said of the decision to cede the property to the town. “We had to let go.”

Though the town hasn’t formally dropped the lawsuit, Howard said it’s on the horizon. He is currently reviewing documents turned in along with the keys to the theater before discontinuing the action.

Among those documents are two promissory notes: one for $30,750 to an architect for professional services and another to past council president Bob Barta for $9,517. Howard said his office has asked for invoices and other documents to support the financial agreements.

Barta said Friday he borrowed the money against his retirement account in 2012 to cover losses sustained by the theater.

He said he felt compelled to do what was best for the theater.

“I always was guided by that,” Barta said.

The council acquired the property from the town in 1982 using federal grant funding. Riverhead attempted a similar legal measure to retake the theater in the 1990s, according to Newsday archives, but the action was never pursued in court.

Town officials say the theater is a missing piece in ongoing downtown revitalization efforts and criticized theater leadership for not pursuing a share of a $10 million grant awarded to Riverhead last year.

“We want it to be a thriving attraction downtown,” community development director Dawn Thomas said Friday. “Let’s create a place where people want to come for all different kinds of cultural things and make Riverhead vibrant.”

Though not the outcome he wanted, Miller hopes the theater will flourish.

“Hopefully it gets in the hands of someone who loves it and has the money to make it work,” he said.

The town board could take action to appoint a new board and accept the surrender of property as soon as the next meeting on Nov. 9.