In his June 4 column headed “What’s next on city’s horizon?”, Jeff Hawkes seems oblivious to the potential and the controversy surrounding the Pennsylvania Academy of Music (PAM). Perhaps because the Lancaster Newspapers, Inc. has generously guaranteed part of the construction debt, its editors and reporters feel constrained about writing frankly on the subject.
Hawkes quotes Dennis Cox, chairman of the Downtown Investment District, as saying: “I’m a little concerned that we don’t have a vision of where we go next.”
At last $25 million has been spent so far on PAM’s signature building, and only a few million more is needed to achieve operating viability by 2012. That is provided the board of the Academy stops obsessing about past ‘spilled milk’ and focuses on what needs to be done to achieve the potential of making Lancaster an international educational center for talented young musicians.
We don’t know (nor do others) whether the Convention Center Project will be a middling success or join Lancaster Square as another ‘black hole.’
But we are certain that with energy and good leadership, high school certification can be finalized with the State and the first students can arrive in fall of 2010, followed by a full student body of 200 by fall of 2012.
With costs ranging from $45,000 to $50,000 a year (not out of line with Linden Hall and Franklin & Marshall) and making use of the nearby and ideal Brunswick Hotel for dormitories, practice rooms, restaurants and lounges, PAM should be able to earn $10,000 per student and cover almost all of its annual operating expenses. Fund raising would close any remaining gap.
In recent years, PAM has received over $5 million in support from local donors and $10 million from tax payers. If Chair Paul Ware and his board adopt a viable plan for achieving PAM’s potential and thereby turning downtown into a vibrant and prosperous cultural center, we feel confident that past supporters will again be forthcoming to cover future operating losses.
On the other hand, if the board concentrates its efforts on trying to extricate its chair from the consequences of his guarantee of construction debt, all will be for naught.
PAM’s board doesn’t need a lawyer to act as consultant and ‘auctioneer’; they need to facilitate the school’s management in transforming a local music school into their vision of a high school campus for talented young musicians from throughout the world.
Then Downtown Lancaster will become a true cultural center and achieve the vitality and prosperity that has long been sought.
