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To the editor: We are writing to endorse Rick Cowan, Bonnie North, and Elijah Zimmer, who are running for the Rockingham Select Board on March 2. Last July, we said we would be reminding voters regarding the four Select Board 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 âCabaret.â We were both involved in the production, and we remember very well how short sighted 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 its remaining in place. In the summer, then town manager, Chuck Wise, requested that MSA clear out. MSA appealed to the Select Board, 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 their ability to bring back the show at all. The issue came to a vote. Continuing Select Board member Susan Hammond strongly supported and voted in favor of MSA keeping its set and equipment in place. The other four Board members did not. They held that the Town Hall is not a âstorage facility,â and MSAâs show was not an exception. The organization complied, and everything was removed.