Gallery's lease up for renewal

By DAN KEGLEY/Staff

Appalachian Spirit Artists Association’s free lease of the building housing its gallery on Main Street in Marion is up for renewal this month. While former council member Ken Heath recalled Monday the original lease three years ago was granted with no public hearing, the renewal request triggered a brief debate in the town council chamber about proper protocol.
With gratitude for its previous support, Anne Hull, ASAA’s treasurer and liaison to the Town of Marion, asked the town council to renew the three-year lease that allows the artists to operate galleries in the former police station just west of town hall.
A lease of that length, Hull said, lets contributors to the association feel confident about making donations such as the carpet the artists installed in the galleries. “It’s easier to get [contributors] to give when they know we’ll be there for three years,” Hull said.
Councilman Bill Weaver asked Town Manager John Clark if there was any reason not to renew the lease. Clark said there was none, but a proviso in the lease agreement allows the town to use the building if forced to by a catastrophe like a fire in the town hall.
“We’re certainly comfortable with that,” Hull said.
Town Attorney Mark Fenyk initially told the council he believed the town would need to advertise for bids in case other parties were interested in occupying the building.
Heath, who was on the council when the original lease was drawn up, said the town did not go through a franchise agreement process. The association, he said, “was a de facto agent of the town. And to be honest, nobody else wanted it. It would be a shame after all the work they’ve put into it for someone else to get it.”
“Property not generally available to the public has to be advertised for bids,” Fenyk countered, and turned where he sat to an adjacent computer where reviewed the Code of Virginia on a legal research Web site.
Meanwhile, the council sent the matter to its buildings and grounds committee for review.
“Obviously, we’d like them to be in the building,” council member Dr. Jim Gates said. “If we have to go through the process, we will.”
Mayor David Helms said the council “has made a lot of decisions,” and making the old police department an art gallery “is one of the better ones. It was talked about for a parking lot.”
“We’re glad it’s not a parking lot,” Hull said.
Earlier, she noted the gallery attracts an average of 250 visitors when it participates in the town’s Second Friday Art Walk. In 2009, more than 1,400 visitors from 27 states and four foreign countries visited the gallery that sees 150 people on average per month.
When the building and grounds committee convenes, it may have legal footing for a simple lease renewal after all.
With the council meeting moved on to other topics, Fenyk whispered to a reporter, “I think I found an exception.”
The attorney pointed to a note he had jotted a moment earlier on a legal pad. The note referred to Virginia code section 15.2-953 that lists the bodies to which “any locality may make gifts and donations of property, real or personal, or money….” Among them is “any nonprofit association or organization furnishing services to beautify and maintain communities and/or to prevent neighborhood deterioration.”

dkegley@wythenews.com