Reply from Above

Yesterday, I sent an e-mail to both Tom Faecke, CFO and Toni Murdock, Chancellor of Antioch University basically outlining my observations. I received the following reply from Mr. Faecke today:

Louise,
After receiving your email I spoke with Milt Thompson about the Theater. He has walked through the entire building this morning. A few days ago there was a minor water leak from the sprinkler system that was missed in the draining of the building. The break was in the bathroom and a few ceiling tiles were destroyed. They have all been clean up and the rest of the building has been cleaned during our close down process. The carpets in the area were flooded but they are in the process of drying out with the use of fans. This is creating the condensation of the windows but that will go away. Fortunately the mild weather is helping is that process. The water never made it to the wood floor so there is no warping. The drains on the roof have been cleared a number of time of leaves and are clean and open at this time. There are no new cracks in the cement since the closing. We need to realize that this building is old and has seen better days but we are doing all we can within our means to protect it.

Milt has done an excellent job in securing the campus and his staff has worked very hard to protect all of the assets of the College. I hope this clarifies the condition of the Theater and we will continue to do our best to secure the integrity of the campus.

Tom.

Pay attention. My question is: if the leak was near the back bathroom why did I see water on the floor in the front lobby if this is just a "minor leak"? And why is the front lobby carpet wet if this is just a "minor leak"? It would mean that the water had to travel down the length of the hallway from the back of the building to the front. Not what I would classify as a minor leak.
I think it is interesting that Faecke defends Milt in his e-mail. In no way do I suggest that Milt is at fault for the collective negligence over time of a variety of entities. Why does Tom insinuate by his defense of Milt that I have somehow suggested Milt did not do a good job? Milt was very far from my mind when I wrote the e-mail.

I am glad that there has been some remedying of the situation. I think it might be time for another outisde inspection of all of the buildings, just to be sure they are OK.

Do not go gentle into that good night.

My two cents.

I am sending these thoughts back to Faecke, by the way. Along with my appreciation for a prompt response. Happy New Year?

The State of the Theater

It is hard to believe that just a few months ago The Antioch Area Theater was a constant hub of artistic enterprise and activity. As late as August, children sang and adults came to dance under its fragile roof. Last year alone, this supposedly inadequate facility housed two Antioch Theater productions, two YSKP productions, two Antioch School productions, the AACW Bluesfest, Antioch College senior projects and numerous classes, rehearsals and meetings too many to mention. At the last Antioch College Reunion, the theater was packed with alumni, students and people from town watching performances from every constituency the theater has served. Now we witness the death of a building that was once a site of community life.

I want to alert you to the condition of the Antioch Theater building as of this past week. There apparently has been a fairly major leak, probably involving the downspouts from the roof drains that are plumbed inside the building. These have leaked before over the years and it has been imperative in the past to keep the drains cleared and maintained regularly during the winter. This obviously has not been done and the building is severely compromised at this point. At present, there is condensation on the interiors of all of the windows which indicates a high level of moisture in the building. In the back, off the dance studio, pieces of ceiling tiles have floated in from the next room where they obviously have fallen. The front lobby carpet is noticibly wet and probably ruined. There is a large crack in the floor of the first lobby and a puddle outside the reception area where the large pipe from the roof is located. The dance studio's sprung floor has some buckling due to water damage from leaks. Debris is scattered as though it had floated from elsewhere and a pile of raccoon leavings that were in the middle of a room (visible from the back window) has apparently floated or melted away in the recent flooding. No doubt this will be a perfect place for mold to thrive in a building that never really had the problem before.

I inhabited this building for almost fifteen years. In that time, we came close to having a new roof quite a few times—but it never happened. Too bad.

The damage to the theater that has been done strictly by weather in just under two months does not bode well for the state of the rest of the campus. Clearly, historic buildings left with no climate control and without the possibility of people in them to monitor their condition will quickly lose their viability. The report by the Stanley Group, commissioned by the University to assess the state of the buildings named the theater as structurally sound and did not recommend that it be razed. Now, most likely, the only thing that will be left to salvage will be the steel beams of the old foundry. This could have gone a very different way.