Theater to reopen Friday

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

By Steve Moyer

Nevada Daily Mail

It's been a long, hard-to-endure wait -- but it seems to finally be over. Owners of the Century 6 theater plan to reopen for business Friday, Nov. 19. A September fire forced the temporary closing of the business, much to the dismay of the local movie-going crowd.

According to Jane Novak, co-owner, the theater will have all new screens, and that is what the key delay is about.

"The screens are what are holding us up now," Novak said. "We have someone coming in from Iola, Kan., to put them up on Thursday. They were supposed to be here before that but this is as fast as we could get them."

The Sept. 19 fire apparently started in the ballast of a display case that held posters of upcoming movies.

At first the Novaks hoped the theater would reopen within two or three weeks but it has been eight weeks and delay upon delay has plagued the work.

In October, problems with steel roof beams were responsible for the delay, but there have been others, and, in a town with only one theater, its closing has caused people unexpected hardships.

"I had to go all the way down to Joplin to watch "Ladder 49" and I cried all the way down," Sharon Didden said. "I didn't realize how convenient this theater was until I couldn't go to it any more."

Didden said one of the things that bothered her was the time and preparation it took to go to a theater out of town. "When we go down to Joplin there is a lot of planning to do and it turns into a big production," Didden said. "I like to go to the matinée and you have to call down to get the time to see when the show is, drive an hour to get there and then after the movie you usually want something to eat so you spend even more money. With the theater here five minutes before the movie you could just call someone and say "Let's go" and that's all it took."

Novak said that most of the major work had been accomplished and what remained could be done before the theater opened each day.

"There are just little things we need to do," Novak said, "The little things that we can show a movie without."

One of the projects that they will have to work on a bit at a time are the aisle lights.

"We have to get the strip lights down before we can lay the carpet," Novak said. "Once we get the lights in we can lay the carpet."

Novak said it had been a disappointing time but they were working as fast as possible to get the theater reopened.

"We want to get it open this weekend for two reasons," Novak said. "One is that we don't want to disappoint our customers, who have been very patient with us. The other is that we want to be open for the big titles that open for Thanksgiving."

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