Like giant fallen red dominoes, the old auditorium seats of the Porter County Memorial Opera House lay on top of each other Tuesday morning after being loosened from the floor.

Actor Eric McCann dismantled several of them to take back to his basement as souvenirs from past shows.

MOH Technical Director Stretch Miller helped him carry a few out the door. “We finished ‘Beautiful’ on Sunday, took the set down and started loading the truck to get everything out,” Miller said of the transition to the interior renovation expected to be completed in August.

The exterior application is completed. All that remains of the exterior work are new stairs and walkways near the old coal chute. In addition, the entire heating and cooling system will be replaced, as well as all new windows and exterior doors.

Inside, the walls separating the ticket office and lounge from the entrance will be removed and the space will be expanded north to the arch. The finish of the bathroom will be renewed, but the rooms will not be expanded. “For the Carole King musical, we literally had a line all the way to that corner,” Miller said of the line for the ladies’ room that snaked from the hall bathroom into the auditorium space.

In the performance space, the ceiling will be cleaned with floral motifs and the original proscenium, which looks like an ornate picture frame around the stage, will be retained.

“A lot has changed since then,” Miller said of the original 1893 structure. “There used to be about four rows hanging on the walls,” he said of benches that lined the length of the hall but were removed in the 1950s deleted.

The renovations have been a long time coming, with elected officials negotiating for six months over how expanded they should be. By late 2022, the Porter County Board of Commissioners had a plan for more significant renovations, including merging the MOH with the neighboring Sheriff’s Residence through a contemporary glass and metal addition and creating accessible bathrooms.

The Porter County Council had awarded $5 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act grants for the project, but when Commissioners Vice President Barb Regnitz, R-Center, took office in January 2023, she and Commissioners President Jim Biggs, R. -North. to go along with the elaborate plan that had an estimated total price tag of more than $9 million. The municipality did not appropriate the money and a stalemate ensued.

Ultimately, the two agencies agreed to stay within the $5 million funding stream and work to date has focused on the exterior. “There are a lot of people — and I think overwhelmingly — angry that we spent so much money on it,” Biggs said. “Their attention is on roads, bridges and police protection. It seems like everyone is operating on a shoestring budget.”

Not long after McCann brought home his seats, the Board of Commissioners held its monthly morning meeting and reallocated $411,952 of ARPA money from the MOH budget to other provincial corporations as the scaled-down project remains under budget.

“The reason we were able to do that is because the bids came in much lower than expected,” explains Scott Cherry of Skillman Corporation, who is leading the renovation.

He said the $250,000 emergency budget is still ready for any surprises during the renovation. “We don’t know of any right now, but we know they are there,” Cherry said.

“Guys and Dolls,” as well as three concerts, had to be canceled to allow construction, so $104,000 of the budget savings will be used for revenue replacement. The balance will go toward a new audio system for the county’s judges, which was driven by the state in an unfunded mandate that went into effect Jan. 1 and must be updated by the end of the year.

Loss of revenue was already a problem due to the pandemic. “We have not yet fully recovered from COVID, as well as art spaces from across the region,” said Commissioner Laura Blaney, D-South.

Miller said attendance is increasing. “We sold out almost every day,” he said of “Beautiful,” the musical about the life of Carole King.

He said the 12 Christmas performances of “White Christmas” were almost sold out. “We have a new business director and a new marketing director and they’re still trying to find their feet,” Miller said.

The former capacity was 350 seats. When the new chairs in burgundy velvet and brown wood arrive in mid-June, that will shrink to 329, as they are more generous in size. The Memorial Opera House Foundation has agreed to pay for the seats and also hopes to fund more accessibility changes with a capital campaign about to launch.

“I know they want to make it so that the stage is accessible,” Blaney said, explaining that The Penguin Project, an inclusive theater program for children, is currently required to hold its rehearsals and performances at The Boys and Girls Club.

“They deserve it. They work hard,” she said of the children who were given access to a real theater stage.

Even with planned help from the foundation, Biggs said the MOH must diversify in the next chapter.

“We’re going to have to find more uses for that building if we want to continue owning it,” he said.

Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.