Off limits

Civic and non-profit organizations will have to find a new place to meet after the Orange Town Council voted 4-1 Monday to no longer allow community use of the Town of Orange Community Room.
The idea first arose in August when vice-mayor Nancy Alexander requested that council discuss the use of the popular facility. She had concerns about how the room was being used and the appropriateness of those uses. Questions were also raised over whether the breakdown and setup of the sound equipment was causing it to become damaged. Over the next two months, council members discussed adding a cleanup fee, installing a partition in the room to protect the sound equipment and no longer allowing private uses such as birthday parties, wedding receptions and baby showers.
According to mayor Henry Lee Carter, a proposal made by town manager John Bailey at Monday's meeting would have covered all of these problems.
"He suggested dividing the room into one-third for town use which would have protected the sound equipment and allowing the other two-thirds for community use," he said. "The two-thirds would have been open space allowing up to 175 people to meet for civic and non-profit groups. There would also be no fee for these groups unless they had food, which would yield a $50 cleanup fee. This also cut out private uses, which is really where [any] damage comes from."
Carter said in his years on council he could only think of three problems arising from the use of the room, one of which was a wedding reception and two of which were civic uses that involved too many people and too many cars, all of which he said have been taken care of. He said he agrees with not letting private parties use the room but believes the civic and non-profit groups should be able to use it.
"They really have no other place to go," he said. "Technically, they could [meet] in the train station building but that's really a poor substitute. The use of that building can sometimes interfere with the tourism bureau (which occupies one portion of it) because it's impossible to not hear what's going on from either side. Plus, the acoustics are atrocious."
Alexander disagrees, saying groups have plenty of places to meet elsewhere.
"There are a number of other [meeting] rooms available and they can use the train station," she said. "Our priority is conducting town business. I don't see it as a [priority for the town to supply] a community function place. Plus, we don't have the staff to administer a community room."
According to council member Harry Hopkins, who made the motion to no longer allow community use of the community room, the change is only temporary.
"When I made the motion, it was 'until further notice,' " he said. "Right now, it's not permanent. It is just until we can make sure we can fix the problems associated with moving the sound equipment. Every time it is set up, everything has to be readjusted which may be the cause of our lack of being able to hear [during meetings]. Plus, there is the cost of upkeep. We just needed to make a change to straighten things out."
Hopkins said in the future, the council will probably re-allow use of the room and that he doesn't believe in permanently discontinuing community use of the room, which was built with the intention that it would be for the community.
"When the building was built, the last council built it with the intention that it would be used by the community," he said. "But that was the last council and this council now ran into this. My personal feelings are that the building was built for the community. The only reason I voted for the change was because other members had concerns about the equipment."
According to Carter, even with the option of reversing the change, the damage may have already been done.
"Now you've gone and offended the groups that use it like the Dolley Madison Quilters Guild, who is one of the largest users," he said. "I don't know what they were thinking; it seems they just didn't want people to use the room."
Carter was the one opposing vote to the motion and he said he hopes the issue will come up again.
"I don't know if it will come up again but I would hope it would," he said. "It would have to be reintroduced by someone who voted for it."
According to Alexander, groups will no longer be able to use the room after Dec. 31. She said, to her knowledge, all commitments already on the books will be honored.
The Orange Town Council will next meet Nov. 16 at 7 p.m.