Wheaton officials praise Grand Theater's renovation plans

Wheaton city officials fulfilled a promise to openly support the renovation of the Wheaton Grand Theater Monday night.

As expected, the city council unanimously passed a resolution praising the private financing of the restoration and potential economic benefits to Wheaton's downtown.

Business projections estimate a remodeled Wheaton Grand could bring at least 235,000 people to the downtown over the course of nearly 400 shows a year.

"I think it's a wonderful thing for the downtown, the city," said Councilman John Prendiville. "I hope we can iron out the last few details and move ahead very quickly."

The last few details involve the city letting the theater use its bonding authority to borrow $16.8 million to finance the remodeling. The city would have no financial repayment obligations under the proposed deal.

The other final detail would be the creation of a theater or entertainment tax. The tax would add $5 to the cost of a theater ticket to help pay back the theater's debt. However, the tax may apply to other entertainment venues in the city as well. City Manager Don Rose said Monday that the city's attorneys are working on the language, but have not made any significant progress yet.

Five minute rule

First it was the unwritten law that said you could leave class if your teacher didn't show up within 5 minutes.

Now it's the Wheaton law that applies to any and everyone who wishes to speak to the city council.

The city council is set to revise its public comment rules in two weeks. For the first time, everyone, including developers, will be limited to speaking to the city council for five minutes and only once per meeting. The change is to create an equal time balance to the public comment period at the meeting.

Public comments at Wheaton meetings have been a source of conflict in the past, leading to decorum guidelines that are now read at each meeting.