Bay Street Gala Is a Go

[caption id="attachment_53332" align="alignnone" width="800"] The scene outside Bay Street Theater's 25th Anniversary Gala last year. Michael Heller photo[/caption]

By Kathryn G. Menu

The Sag Harbor Village Board of Trustees, in a 3-2 vote Tuesday night, agreed to allow Bay Street Theater to use Long Wharf for its gala on Saturday, July 7, subject to a number of conditions including that the non-profit find 60 parking spaces elsewhere in the village it can direct members of the public to during the holiday weekend.

Board members also warned it would likely be the last summer it would allow Bay Street to construct a tent on Long Wharf for its gala, with the village hoping to move forward with a $3 million plan to renovate and restore the aging facility next fall.

“I am a complete supporter for Bay Street … this is unfair to the rest of storeowners who are trying to make a living too,” said Mayor Sandra Schroeder, opening up the conversation about Bay Street’s application for a permit. “This is the busiest two weeks of summer for everybody and a lot of merchants who are not going to want to stand up and say it or get their name in the paper feel it is a problem taking up all the parking and that people can’t come here and shop, and I agree with them and you know how much I support Bay Street. I just wish we could have a different date.”

“I think it is also true for Bay Street, just like the merchants — they are dependent on the summer and the summer dates and there is competition for them as well,” said trustee Robby Stein. "I think that everybody gains from Bay Street and certainly they give the community a lot and bring a lot the rest of the year to the stores. I also think after the wharf is done this year, this will be the last year this is possible.”

Trustee Aidan Corish agreed with Mr. Stein. “I think the theater gives back to the village 12 months a year,” he said. “I think it is a really important cultural institution here and if we stop and think about what village life would be like without the theater, I think we would all agree it would be a diminished environment.”

Mr. Corish said he believed parking was an issue for the village and should be addressed comprehensively.

“I will echo everyone’s statement that when it comes to Bay Street Theater it is obviously an anchor of Main Street and a very important part of the whole puzzle,” said Trustee Ken O’Donnell. “That said, there is the rest of Main Street and while there is one local on this board, growing up on the East End I always thought the local mentality was ‘we are all in this together,’ so I want to see Nada [Barry of The Wharf Shop], I want to see Jesse [Matsuoka of Sen] do well, I want to see [Bay Street] do well, I just think it is unfair as far as the date.”

Bay Street executive director Tracy Mitchell said she has letters of support from 30 businesses, including those on Long Wharf and on Main Street.

“I recognize it is difficult but there are people who understand without Bay Street it would be a different place and probably extremely detrimental to the village,” she said. Ms. Mitchell noted that the theater makes 50 percent, or $2 million, of its annual operating budget in ticket sales, needing to raise an additional $2 million to keep the theater’s doors open. She also noted the theater supports other non-profit entities and creates social and educational programming for the entire community. Last year, she said, the theater hosted a fundraiser that raised $7,500 for the volunteer ambulance corps and $7,500 for the fire department.

“Nearly all of our budget stays here,” added Ms. Mitchell. “The only part that doesn’t is for most of the actors in the summer season. This year, we spent $800,000 employing local workers, we spent $100,000 on local contractors including for an electrical upgrade for a building we don’t own, we spent over $6,000 at the hardware store.” She added Bay Street employees eat at establishments throughout Sag Harbor.

Bay Street Theater also hosts over 3,000 students in educational programs, said Ms. Mitchell, and free programming like Shakespeare in Mashashimuet Park and election night coverage. “We want to be that gathering space,” she said. “We are the village’s community center.”

Trustee Jim Larocca offered his support for Bay Street, but only under certain conditions. With a construction schedule for the tent on Long Wharf beginning Tuesday morning, closing Long Wharf to parking beginning late on Wednesday, July 4, and through July 8, if the Sag Harbor Partnership is approved for its annual Big Tent fundraiser, Mr. Larocca asked if that schedule could be streamlined, keeping Long Wharf open much of Thursday. He also asked Bay Street to provide roughly 60 parking spaces at other places throughout the village, and help direct the public to those spaces while Long Wharf is closed to parking.

“The other condition is that you acknowledge and understand this is the last time,” he said, noting with plans to redevelop Long Wharf, it would not likely be open again for a benefit of this size. Mr. Larocca noted the village will also impose a fee structure that the event may be subject to, and that if it earns any grant funding that requires construction on Long Wharf begin this summer, Bay Street Theater would have to forfeit its permit.

Ms. Mitchell appeared amenable to the parking requirement, but said she was not sure if they would be able to alter their construction schedule for the tent, but would reach out to experts that handle that process and get back to the village. With that in mind, Mr. Larocca joined Mr. Corish and Mr. Stein in supporting the permit, with Ms. Schroeder and Mr. O’Donnell voting against the measure.

“The compromise is the same date and the same venue,” said Mr. O’Donnell. “I just don’t see that as being a compromise.”