We endorse Rick Cowan, Bonnie North, and Elijah Zimmer, who are running for the Rockingham Selectboard on Tuesday, March 2.
Last July we said we would be reminding voters regarding the four Selectboard members who voted in favor of having Main Street Arts remove the set and technical equipment brought into the Bellows Falls Opera House for its postponed production of Cabaret. We were both involved in the production, and we remember very well how shortsighted and unfair this decision was.
The production was postponed two days before its planned opening on March 13 last year because of the pandemic restrictions. There have been no live events that would have otherwise used the stage since, and the movie program was not impacted by the set remaining in place.
In the summer, then–Town Manager Chuck Wise requested that MSA clear out. MSA appealed to the Selectboard, based on not wanting to lose its ability to simply pick up the show where it had been left off. MSA felt that this would severely hurt the organization's ability to bring back the show at all.