It’s at times like these that the advantages of small town life come to the fore.
While the tenor of state and national politics grows all the more rancorous and divisive, we can take solace in knowing that it doesn’t have to be that way; that if we put a mind to it, we can rise above the fray.
Such diplomacy came to the fore at Tuesday’s meeting of the Allen County Commission when the commissioners, bless them, listened to concerns regarding the financial security of the Bowlus Fine Arts Center.
At issue is the responsibility the local school district has to the Bowlus and whether, due to state cuts in education, it can afford to maintain that relationship at its current rate.
The issue demands us to answer some hard questions, including:
1) Is the Bowlus invaluable to Allen County?
Absolutely.
2) Is it critical to the education of our children?
Probably not. But it sure enhances it, which was the goal of Thomas Bowlus in devising a will to make the successful operation of the fine arts center dependent on the school district.
That has worked fairly well these past 50 years.
For the first 20 it was smooth sailing. But when the building started to need repairs, the waters got choppy.
Two important things then occurred to steady the ship.
First, the school district started paying the “real” costs for using the facility; and second, the Friends of the Bowlus was established in 1993 to raise funds for the center.
Currently, the district pays about $144,000 a year for use of the Bowlus primarily for its music, art, speech and drama classes. That “rent” includes the relative percentages of utilities, insurance and staff salaries used for USD-related work, and amounts to almost one-third of the center’s operational budget.
The rest of the Bowlus budget is funded by a hodgepodge of sources including $60,000 from local government, fees charged to those who use the Bowlus for performances, symposiums, etc., and private donations.
