Letter from Mark Monaco
In August 2011 we were forced to sell our home in Pagosa Springs due to the economic downturn, while still doing our best to operate the historic Liberty Theatre, one of the landmarks in downtown Pagosa Springs.
As many of you know, Cindi and I now live in southern California. Since selling our house in Pagosa, Cindi remains a sales representative for Chicago Title and Escrow and I work as a full time realtor and property manager for Beeline Realty & Property Management. If you know anything about property management, it is a 24/7 job, which no longer allows me much time to spend in Pagosa Springs.
I am able to manage the Liberty Theatre from California with the help of many of the good friends I have in Pagosa.
In early 2013, Town planner James Dickoff contacted me about applying for grant money available from the Colorado Historical Society since the Liberty Theatre is considered a historical site. They informed me they could not grant money for a digital projector, but would assist us with building upgrades.
Several months ago, I was contacted by Downtown Colorado Inc. They informed me they were working on behalf of all of the Independent movie theaters throughout Colorado. They were attempting to secure grant money from various sources to be made available to the theaters, specifically to be used for the conversion from film to digital.
This was great news to us and promptly submitted all of the required paperwork to apply for any grant money they may receive. About the first of October, I received a telephone call from Downtown Colorado informing me the Liberty Theatre had been awarded $20,000 in grant money and was the highest amount awarded to any theatre. The money is available only if we are able to raise the total amount needed to make the conversion to digital projection. The grant money is being coordinated through the Small Business Development Center and Richard Lindblad.
I was also informed I could qualify for an additional $5,000 grant from Region 9 Economic Development District if I qualify for a loan of no less than $5,000. I am currently working on the paperwork for this loan and grant money.
Downtown Colorado Inc. has started the Save Our Screens Initiative and is coordinating most of the media efforts involved with raising the awareness of the initiative. They have also partnered with CommunityFunded.com which is a crowd funding platform to help raise funds throughout the communities of each theater. We have almost finished our CommunityFunded site and hope to have it finished in the next few weeks. Through this site, people will have the ability to make pledges our our behalf.
The estimated cost of the digital conversion is approximately $65,000. This includes all equipment, installation, training, fundraising expenses for Community Funded if we reach our goal.
The entire campaign is an “all or nothing” basis. If we do not raise the necessary funds, we do not qualify for the grant monies and we will simply close the theatre.
There have been a number of owners of the Liberty Theatre, four of which I know and respect. I would feel very bad if after such a long time in service the theatre was to close on my watch. We have tried our best to support the community in every way we could.
We appreciate all of the wonderful people that have supported us all these years and the wonderful employees that have worked so hard to keep things going.
Kindest Regards,
Mark & Cindi Monaco
909-969-8617
