Rialto Officials: New Marquee Has Been Nearly a Decade in the Making

The Rialto as it looks currently; a rendering of the approved digital marquee. Credit: File photos.

Residents who disapprove of plans to install a digital marquee at the historic Rialto Square Theatre will have a chance to speak out at a Wednesday afternoon meeting of the theater’s governing board.

Will County Metropolitan Exposition and Auditorium Authority (WCMEAA) Chairman Jim Smith joined Rialto General Manager Randy Green at Monday night’s Joliet pre-city council meeting, saying the board will meet at 4 p.m. Wednesday in the theater’s auditorium, 102 N. Chicago St.

The public is welcome to attend, Smith said.

“It is not our intention to disregard or disrespect public opinion,” Smith said, referring to outcry over the new marquee, which is being funded by a $350,000 donation by Joliet businessman Ed Czerkies in honor of his late parents. The donation will also be used to update the vertical Rialto sign with LED lights.

Since it was announced Nov. 24, residents have responded to a rendering the new marquee, which will have the ability to play video. Some have criticized the design, saying the modernized marquee doesn’t fit with the character of the 88-year-old theater.

Prior to a presentation from Green, Smith took the opportunity to refute a statement from city councilman Jim McFarland claiming that Green and Smith had declined invitations to appear before the council to discuss the marquee.

“That’s simply not true,” Smith said, adding that he and Green appeared at Monday’s meeting voluntarily. He added that the theater is grateful for the contribution of the City of Joliet, which provides $600,000 in funding to the Rialto annually.

McFarland was unable to attend the meeting due to an illness in his family, councilman Terry Morris said.

Residents have used social media to blast the design, and a group of about a dozen residents protested the new marquee outside the theater on Dec. 14.

City council member Jan Quillman said she hasn’t followed the controversy on social media, but said she’s gotten phone calls about the new marquee, which is set to be installed in the spring.

Green: Project nearly a decade in the making

Green said he wanted to set the record straight on the timeline for the marquee project, which dates back nearly a decade, he said.

It won’t be the first time the marquee has been replaced in the theater’s nearly 90-year history; the current marquee is actually the fourth to be installed on the building.

In recent weeks, a Joliet resident has asked the Illinois Attorney General to look into a Sept. 24 Joliet historic preservation commission meeting, claiming the meeting was not posted online, denying residents a chance to speak out on the marquee proposal.

Green said theater staff and board members have seen a need to address what he says is a deteriorating marquee since 2005.

In 2007, the board approved a contract with Landmark Sign Company for design and development of a marquee. The design was unanimously approved by the board in October of that year, Green said, and also received support from the Joliet City Center architectural review committee.

But at the time, no donor had stepped forward to fund the project. Years passed, and in summer 2014, theater officials brought the project before Czerkies, who came on board as a donor, according to Green.

In a July 2014 email to City Manager Jim Hock, Green said he let Hock know the project was moving forward, including a PDF of the design and asking what steps he should take next.

The design was reviewed by city staff and the historic preservation commission, Green said. The project did not require state approval because it will not use state or federal funding, he said.

The project was awarded a certificate of appropriateness by the historic preservation commission in September, and was given zoning approval just days before the Nov. 24 unveiling at the Rialto’s Festival of Trees, Green said.

Smith said Czerkies is aware of the controversy.

“To put it mildly, he’s very concerned, and not pleased with the current situation,” Smith said.

However, Smith added it was “refreshing” to see passion from the community regarding the Rialto.

Design compromise?

Board members asked Green whether the WCMEAA — or Czerkies — would be open to making design changes.

“I know a lot of people have been very upset,” said Quillman, who asked whether the marquee could be updated while maintaining an old-style look, similar to theater renovations done in 1980.

She also noted that for many couples who book the Rialto as a wedding venue, a big draw is having their names in lights on the marquee.

Now, Quillman noted, couples’ names will be included alongside those of Czerkies’ late parents. She asked Green if the memorial to Michael and Mary Czerkies could be taken off the front of the marquee and placed elsewhere. Morris echoed that request.

Green, however, noted that with digital photography, “it’s very easy to Photoshop” the names off wedding photos.

Quillman also said the rendering makes it appear that, from across the street, the new marquee might obscure some of the building’s beautiful architecture from being seen.

Asked how tall the marquee is, Green told Quillman, “I don’t know, I don’t have the specifications in my head.”

Green said community comments and suggestions are being heard by the authority. However, the marquee is already being manufactured, he said.

Green said the marquee was designed to be “as architecturally complimentary” to the theater as possible, while including updated technology.

Calls to withhold funding

Alluding to calls from residents to withhold funding amid the marquee controversy, councilman Bob O’Dekirk asked Green how much impact it would have on the theater if the city withheld funding from the theater.

Green, who said the Rialto’s operating budget is about $4 million annually, said such a decision by the city council “would create cash-flow issues” for the theater.

The city council is slated to vote Tuesday on its 2015 budget, including $600,000 to subsidize the theater’s operations.

In a letter sent last week to Mayor Tom Giarrante and the city council, Rialto officials asked for an additional $250,000. Giarrante said the additional funding was unlikely, given that the city will use reserve funds to balance its projected $279 million budget, according to the Herald-News.