12:00 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 3, 2015

Sorg renovation continues; still seeking donations

By  http://www.journal-news.com/staff/ed-richter/" rel="nofollow - Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN — 

Renovations at the Sorg Opera House on Main Street are continuing with volunteers working — sometimes into the dead of night — to get the venue up and running.

“We’ve gutted out most of what we wanted to do,” said Chuck Miller, of the Sorg Opera Revitalization Group. “But we’ve come to a screeching halt as the rest of the work needs a contractor.”

Some of the volunteers working on the opera house are licensed electricians and plumbers who work at various hours of the day and night, said Bob Melloh of Trenton, a volunteer who has been around the Sorg since he was young boy working as an usher.

The Sorg Opera House, built in 1891 by industrialist Paul J. Sorg, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and hosted two band concerts conducted by John Philip Sousa band concerts in 1898 and in 1919.

“The building is pretty sound,” Melloh said. “We want to work on getting the theater operating first to generate revenue then work on the Commercial Building. Once the theater is fixed, we think that 89 percent of the Commercial Building would be leased.”

The attached Commercial Building has four stories that have been used for office and retail space over the years. He said it’s been a decade or so since there has been a performance at the Sorg. Melloh said some of the last events included pro wresting and a local American Idol-style competition.

Miller said it took the organization about 28 months to be granted nonprofit status, which will now allow the spending of grant funding to get the building compliant with the state building code. He said a roofing contractor is repairing the roof between the two buildings which he said was about 70 percent completed.

In addition, the bathrooms were gutted and are now ready for cosmetic work that includes new ceilings, walls and floors.

Both Melloh and Miller said in order to get a temporary certificate of occupancy, the group needs to make repairs on the fire escapes and doors, exit lighting and sprinklers over the stage. So far, the plumbing and roofing work has come in at more than $16,000 than expected. He said it will take between $8.2 million and $8.6 million to complete the entire project

“I was hoping to have most of this done by September,” he said.

Miller said the organization is looking into obtaining grants and other state funding that are available to nonprofits and is working with a consultant to help with fund-raising. They are also listed on a crowd-funding kick-starter mechanism, preservationfunder.com and has a $35,000 goal by Oct. 13 to help pay to get the theater code compliant so that it can hold benefit concerts.

For more information, visit their website, http://sorgoperahouse.org/.

How to help ‘Get the Doors Open’

To make a donation online, visit preservationfunder.com.