By Lauren Burgess

VALDOSTA, Ga. – Mathis City Auditorium has been a staple in Valdosta and Lowndes County since its construction in 1964. Named after former Mayor J.E. “Ed” Mathis, the auditorium has seen many events, recitals, and concerts throughout the years. But with the talk of possibly selling Mathis to South Georgia Medical Center, its legacy may be coming to an end.

Local filmmaker Roy Kirkland is spearheading the Save Historic Mathis City Auditorium group. He is asking citizens of Valdosta/Lowndes County to reach out to their local representatives about holding off on a decision of the future of Mathis City Municipal Auditorium until next year.

“A few weeks ago, I  went to an unusual meeting, a Monday morning council meeting, and it was about the budget and SPLOST and so forth,” said Kirkland. During the “Citizens to be Heard” portion of the meeting, Kirkland came forward, first thanking everyone for helping with the 2019 RKDS Film Festival.

Kirkland continued, saying “At the end of my statement, I said that I would like to suggest and ask that the City Council refrain from selling Mathis and purchasing P.A.C. until the citizens know more about the deal, and that was my comment. Then, shortly after that, we had meetings with the City Manager Mark Barber and Richard Hardy, the Public Works Director. With Richard Hardy, the answers he was giving me to the questions were baffling.”

According to Kirkland, when asked how much the cost would be to restore Mathis, Hardy responded saying it would be upwards of six million dollars. Kirkland says that when they continued to question Hardy about renovation costs, Hardy responded with, “Actually, I could put six million into it and the citizens of Valdosta wouldn’t even recognize it.”

Once Kirkland heard his response, he continued, saying, “I find that extremely hard to believe, I’m sorry, six million dollars? Really? And he said, ‘Anyway, all in all, we’re gonna sell it.’ He said it’s not making money, it’s in bad shape, he just went on and on and on. It was so negative about Mathis and the entire time, I’m sitting there and I’m asking him for proof. Let me see the report where it says Mathis is going to cost that much. He said he didn’t have it.”

Kirkland then invited engineer Jeffrey Chiu, who created the report of Mathis City Auditorium, onto his show to talk about the cost to renovate Mathis, as well as obtaining the actual structural report through the Open Records Act.

“It talks about what good shape Mathis is in, the top quality materials that were used back then, no major structural damage, and it talks about less than one million dollars to bring it back up to standards. Less than a million dollars,” Kirkland said. “And yet they want to buy P.A.C. (the old Valdosta High School Performing Arts Center) for four million dollars.”

According to Barber, there have been talks between him and the Valdosta Board of Education, with a tentative number of four million dollars to purchase P.A.C., as well as the other 57 acres of the old VHS. Barber added, “It is nowhere near a done deal,” referring to both the possible sale of Mathis and to the possible purchase of the  P.A.C.

Barber says that they have received many complaints about the auditorium.

“The seats are too small because they were built in 1965, they’re uncomfortable, the dressing rooms are down a small staircase with no air conditioning, it floods,” Barber numerated. “We’ve had complaints all the time about that, so the mayor wanted to create a committee, similar to how they did seven or eight years ago when they were thinking of building a brand new one at Five Points. He asked new people to join the committee as well as some new folks in the community. One of the first things that was talked about in the committee was staying at Mathis. That was an option.”

He continued, saying, “We had a structural engineer come in and look at it, just the bones, before anything else. All this gentleman looked at, and it’s a little misleading because of how it is being presented now in the Facebook page, and I think he did an interview with Mr. Kirkland, and Mr. Chiu stated on there that ‘I just looked at the steel beams, the structure of it.’ He didn’t look at environmental, plumbing, trying to move the dressing room, he did none of that. But it’s kinda been presented that we could do all that for under a million dollars. A million dollars is the things that Mr. Chiu found structurally, that we need to fix.”

Valdosta Mayor John Gayle also weighed in on the matter.

“Structurally, yes, Mathis is fine. It’s not gonna fall in,” said Mayor Gayle. “But the things you need, like a larger kitchen, nicer bathrooms, nicer dressing rooms and all of that, are available at the VHS Performing Arts Center.”

Barber also listed some other benefits to using the P.A.C. instead of Mathis, citing a handicapped-accessible stage and better equipment. “You could have an event out there tomorrow night and not have to do a thing,” Gayle said. 

Kirkland disagrees. “There’s land issues. The building is sinking. Its been reported that the water tank there has horrible swamp water and stuff in there,” Kirkland said. He says there are several things in question that need to be addressed before considering using the P.A.C.

During the meeting just before the official City Council Meeting started,  Kirkland’s business partner, Doug Sebastian, posed the question to Hardy, asking, “Who’s been overseeing Mathis all of these years, because you said, ‘Mr. Hardy, it’s in decline.’”

Hardy responded that he had been responsible for Mathis, to which Sebastian replied, saying,  “If you had done your job, we wouldn’t be having this conversation because Mathis would be up to standards.” 

According to both Kirkland and Sebastian, Hardy then replied that once again, Mathis would be sold to South Georgia Medical Center. 

In Kirkland’s own words, this meeting “threw gasoline on the fire.”He then set up a meeting with Valdosta City Manager Mark Barber several weeks ago, two hours before a city council meeting. “We met in the conference room at City Hall, Doug Sebastian, myself, and Mark Barber. And Mark went on to tell us it’s pretty much a done deal that the hospital will probably buy it unless somebody could come up and offer more money. Then the hospital will have a chance to pay more than them,” said Kirkland.

Barber says that the idea to sell Mathis is not new.

“For 20 plus years, there has been talk of selling Mathis to South Georgia Medical Center,” Barber said. “It just makes sense because the medical campus cannot grow.”

Mentioning several deals to sell certain pieces of land to SGMC over the years, Barber said that they had an agreement with the hospital that, should the City consider selling Mathis, SGMC would have the right of first refusal.  

Barber then said that they were not in any discussion with SGMC about a price for Mathis. “We’re just in the stage of deciding what we’re gonna do,” Barber said. “Once we make that decision, Mathis will go on the market.”

Kirkland posed several questions to both Barber and Hardy, saying, “My question to him was why are you even considering selling Mathis? Who’s giving you the right to do that? Why haven’t the people had a say in this?”

Kirkland continued, saying that Barber and Hardy relayed that they didn’t “need that” because it is their fiscal responsibility since Mathis isn’t making money, and it’s going to cost millions of dollars to restore it.

“I asked him about the people who are renting Mathis like ourselves, dance school owners, and he said he’s had meetings with all the dance owners and they’re all in favor of selling Mathis and buying the performing arts center and that the schedules are going to work perfectly,” said Kirkland. 

When asked by Kirkland if all seven dance studio owners were on board, Barber said that yes, all of them were on board completely. 

In response, Kirkland reached out to a couple of the dance studio owners he had worked with through RKDS, and they responded that they were extremely confused, as well as saying they were not fully on board with the idea. 

After Kirkland’s meeting with Barber and Hardy, he attended the City Council meeting later that night. After the meeting, Kirkland went up to Barber and said, “Mark, are you sure you are not going to be holding any further meetings pertaining to the sale of Mathis and pertaining to the possible purchase of P.A.C.?”

According to Kirkland, Barber responded no. 

Kirkland then shared how some of the dance studio owners were concerned that, if Mathis was sold to the hospital, they might not have a venue for there various recitals. “He then patted me on my shoulder and said ‘we’re going to make it work,’ and I looked at him and said ‘I find that hard to believe,’” said Kirkland.

Several others have brought up the issue of a possible scheduling conflict. According to Kirkland, every weekend through 2020 is booked with events. He and others are concerned that, with one less auditorium, there is a higher possibility of scheduling conflicts.

“We’re looking at some scenarios here that don’t make a lot of sense,” Kirkland continued. “You’re looking at the City wanting to purchase the Performing Arts Center for four million dollars from the Valdosta Board of Education. However, the Valdosta Board of Education will still be using the facility after the city buys it.” Allowing them to use the P.A.C. after it is purchased by the City, Kirkland says, could cause major problems.  

Addressing several of those concerns, Barber says that several events could be held at the same time, using the main stage, a smaller theater located inside of the school, as well as a multi-purpose room triple the size of the one at Mathis.

“We took the calendar that the school system had, we overlapped it with what we currently have at Mathis to see what the problem would be. Maybe a day or two, but there was nothing that could not be worked out,” Barber said.

After Kirkland returned home from the City Council meeting that night, he decided to start a Facebook page for the cause. The support the group has received has been overwhelming. “The biggest thing that shocks me is the fact that the vast majority of people in our area had no clue that the city was even considering selling Mathis Auditorium and purchasing the P.A.C.,” Kirkland said. “You’re talking about millions of dollars involved in this transaction and yet there was no call asking citizens to show up, none of that.”

According to Mayor John Gayle, “Every meeting has been open to the public. Every meeting of the committee has been advertised and it was open to the public. Every council meeting is open.” Gayle says that there has been no discussion of Mathis or the P.A.C. behind closed doors and that they have only furnished the council with the report from the Performing Arts Committee. 

Kirkland and those that stand behind him firmly believe that they will save Mathis City Auditorium. With Kirkland’s history in restoration, having restored most homes in the Fairview Historic District, they are currently in the process of filing paperwork to have Mathis officially recognized as a historic site.

“Mathis is 60-years-old. It is not historic. So you can spend all the money you want to on Mathis, and you’d still have a 60-year-old building. It’s not historic,” said Gayle. “A lot of people are calling it historic, but it’s not. There’s nothing about it that’s historic.” 

Kirkland and many others disagree. “Mathis is a landmark. It is a historic landmark, whether they want to call it historical or not, it is,” Kirkland stated. “I question the loyalty and the love of the city from our city officials to allow something like this to happen. And for one mayor to want to destroy a piece of property, or get rid of a piece of property that is named in honor of a former mayor is shameful.”

Gayle also mentioned the financial benefits of using the P.A.C. over Mathis. “Mathis is not a profitable facility. We supplement Mathis to the tune of about $350,000 every year,” Gayle. 

“The City Officials keep harping on the thought that Mathis doesn’t make money,” Kirkland said. “Well, neither do our parks. Neither does the police department. Neither does the fire department. Neither do our libraries. They don’t make money. They’re here for the use of the citizens of Valdosta. Mathis Auditorium belongs to the citizens of Valdosta, not to City Hall.”

Closing out the interview, Barber stated, “There are so many false things floating around out there, and if people want to continue to put false things out there…If I respond to everyone and put the facts out there, it’s not going to matter. That’s why we did the radio shows last week,” said Barber. “Let’s hear the facts, if you hear anything other than that, it’s not true.”

But Kirkland and other supporters of the “Save Historic Mathis” group are not worried. 

“One thing our movement has done has made City Hall, the City Council officials now say that instead of being ‘pretty much a done deal,’ to, ‘it’s far from a done deal.’ Just that little bit right there makes me feel a lot better that we are making strides and that we are going to save Mathis City Auditorium and it will be restored as it should be.”