Sharing this info about an important 9/26 community event at Contois Auditorium, 6:30-8:30pm. It’s important that the citizens of Burlington direct the future of Memorial Auditorium and that decisions are fully informed. I’m a longstanding advocate for respectful repair and redevelopment of this historic multi-use community resource and the teen programming located there.
“The city-wide coalition of Neighborhood Planning Associations is hosting a public assembly to discuss Memorial Auditorium and gather public feedback as to what course the city might take concerning the building. The Assembly is being held in response to resolutions passed in all NPAs in the Spring of 2017, which called for community participation in envisioning the future of Memorial Auditorium, a historic publicly-owned building in need of maintenance and renovation, which has been a center for the visual and performing arts, Burlington’s largest civic meeting space, locale of the winter farmers’ market, a memorial to local war veterans, and more for almost one-hundred years.
The assembly will feature two short presentations by Tom Visser, Chair of University of Vermont’s Department of Historic Preservation, and Alan Abair, property manager of Memorial Auditorium from the early 1980’s to the mid 1990’s. Most of the evening will be given over to an open town meeting style discussion, moderated by Chris Trombley, Ward 4/7 Steering Committee member.
The All-Wards NPA is hosting the event in keeping with the 1982 resolution founding the Neighborhood Planning Assemblies, which states that the NPAs: “...help obtain citizen views of city needs; help provide citizens with the opportunity to participate in making recommendations with respect to governmental decisions including the allocation of revenues. ...Assemblies shall also be encouraged to provide advice to the appropriate commission or City council with respect to community development, housing programs, this City’s Comprehensive Plan and its waterfront planning activities, and the city’s budget among other issues”.
More information about the history of Memorial Auditorium can be found in this research by
Emma Haggerty of the University of Vermont: http://www.UVM.edu/~hp206/2016/pages/haggerty/default.html “