Pittsburgh Post Gazette, New North Section, Sunday , February 24th , 2002- Feature Story

Midland School District lends support to plan to save the Strand

By Scott Deacle
Post-Gazette Staff Writer

ZELIENOPLE – Midland School District in western Beaver County has agreed to work with a group trying to restore Zelienople’s Strand Theater.

The two haven’t decided precisely what they’ll do together, but “we have a basic commitment in place to keep the lines of communication open,” said Ron Carter, president of the Strand Theater Initiative.

Midland wants to open a performing arts center and school in its economically stagnant corner of Beaver County, near the Ohio border. The Strand Theater Initiative wants to restore the Strand, a shuttered Main Street cinema in Zelienople, to host live theater there.

The partnership could help the two groups get funding for their projects. The Strand Theater Initiative could tell donors that the restoration would help area students. Having the Strand as a partner would help the Midland performing arts center appear to be a regional project.

The Strand Theater initiative must buy the Strand by April 5, the day a sales agreement expires, Carter said.

Carter said he’s trying to persuade local banks to make a special mortgage that will save the building, which has been closed for more than 20 years.

Since starting a fund-raising drive in October, the Strand group has collected $13,000 of the $150,000 Carter believes is needed to get funding from larger foundations. The renovation will cost between $1 million and $2 million, Carter said.

“We could use a little more support from local residents and businesses than we’ve gotten to date,” he said.

The Midland performing arts center is not a sure thing, either. The school district is formally studying the project, which Midland Superintendent Nick Trombetta estimates will cost about $20 million.

Trombetta views the center as an economic development project that could bring jobs to western Beaver County. Similar centers have spurred economic growth in other areas, he said.

When asked if the distance between Midland and Zelienople, at least a 30-minute drive, could make the relationship with the Strand difficult to coordinate, Trombetta said, “What’s [30 minutes] anymore? A lot of people do more than that just to drive to dinner.”

Because the district doesn’t have a high school building, Midland students attend high school in East Liverpool, Ohio, or through a cyber charter school.

Carter said he is willing to talk to representatives of other school districts who might want to form relationships with the Strand.