Sherburn Theatre rebooted
Movies expected to show in coming days
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SHERBURN - With the money having been raised in only two weeks, the server replacement for the Sherburn Theatre has been delivered, and movies will be starting again soon.
The theater opened in 1940 with assistance from the Works Progress Administration as both a theater and community hall, according to City Clerk and Economic Development Authority (EDA) Director, Andrea Ballard.
It has been closed since March, when the server that enables movies to be played failed. With no money budgeted for the $10,240 expense for the city-owned theater, Sherburn Theater Reboot Coordinator Becky Tish put out feelers for covering the cost. Within two weeks, the entire server was covered, thanks to donations from the Fox Lake Conservation League, Sherburn Lions Club and Easy Automation.
The Sherburn City Council was willing to use some of its leftover budget from last year to get this done, but Tish said they raised nearly all the necessary funds without city money.
From when the funds were fully raised in early July, all that was left to do was get the server. It was approved at the July Sherburn City Council meeting, with plans to continue monitoring the situation moving forward. Around a month after that, the server was delivered, and it has now been installed.
"It takes a while to get it ordered and shipped and get it installed," Tish said. "All in all, I was really quite shocked and pleased how fast it happened."
When the campaign first started in June, Tish said the current projector has no spare parts available. While it is currently operational, trouble would arise if it were to break. Tish said there is not the same urgency that there was to get the server, but they would like to build on the momentum they made to ensure the theater remains open for the foreseeable future.
"We have someone who writes grants for a living, and he is helping us," she said. "We just put it on hold because we wanted to see what was going to happen with who was running it, and that’s been determined. We need to meet and talk more about that. We’d like to have all, or at least part of covering the cost of the projector raised in case it dies."
Mike and Nikki Schwartz have committed to continue operating Sherburn Theatre as they have in the past. They also run the movie theater in Jackson.
To see this community come together for the theater, Tish said it is proof that Sherburn works together.
"We care about the town," she said. "We care about things staying open. We know the importance of having amenities, and everyone likes to get involved and see and make things happen. We have a strong history of that. They did it 20 years ago, or however long it was, when they had a committee raising money to clean up and refurbish the inside, and they worked very hard on that."
Since the server came to town and was installed, Tish said people have been thrilled the theater will be coming back open.
"Most people agree it can’t happen soon enough because they miss going to the theater," she said. "We have to keep the small town stuff going."
Right now, Mike Schwartz said they are working on getting movies lined up and fixing the popcorn machine. All in all, he said the theater should be open in the next week or two.
For updates moving forward, visit facebook.com/SherburnMovies/.