Fire District Board Not Happy With Letter From Odeum

After swearing in re-elected commissioner Mark Gee and re-electing Doug Axelsen as  chairperson and Bill Daly as vice chair at their Thursday night meeting, the Fire District board took up regular agenda items, including a letter from the Greenwich Odeum.

According to Axelsen, the letter to the district expressed concern that it had been three weeks since the Odeum submitted its plan and that the district's slow response was holding up work at the Odeum. Axelsen said the department waited for over a year for an update as to where the Odeum board stood on going forward with a plan. 

“The request we received got put into the pile of work we already have," said Axelsen.  “They’re not jumping to the top just because they are the Odeum.” 

“Basically the tone of the letter is we are the ones holding them up," he said.

“They’re asking us to forgive their taxes on that building, and yet they’re not cooperating and yet they expect us to drop everything when they give us something that wasn’t complete to begin with.”

Chief Peter Henrikson also expressed disappointment with the tone of the letter. Commissioner Gee said it seemed as though the Odeum was blaming someone else for their own inability to get things done. Commissioner Steve Bartlett said it left a sour taste for what the district was trying to do.

Axelsen added that if there isn’t some movement on the issue the district would have to consider options to collect the property tax.

The Odeum was forced to close when stringent new rules were put in place by the state following the disastrous Station nightclub fire. After standing vacant for several years, the Odeum nearly lost its tax exempt status, prompting longtime Odeum supporter Frank Prosnitz and building owner Steve Erinakes to reinvigorate the theater's board and come up with a renovation plan.

As a result, the town and fire district have continued the tax exemption, but set a timeline for a re-opening and asked to receive regular reports. Prosnitz, president of the theater's board, has expressed optimism a re-opening could happen this year.