Entergy plays Paramount role

TALKING POINTS: Entergy plays Paramount role
By Bruce Apar, Editor-in-Chief + Publisher

‘Peeskill’s Paramount Center for the Arts turned 77 years young last week, and it’s 30 years since the pleasure dome flirted with a demolition ball before being rescued by the City of Peekskill under Mayors Fred Bianco and his successor, George Pataki. Lately, it has been livin’ large. Paramount Center Executive Director Jon Yanofsky told us he believes the 10 sold-out shows so far this year exceeds the number of capacity crowds for any six-month period since it opened in 1930. A $1.5 million capital reconstruction program launched in 2003 is the catalyst behind today’s highly improved auditorium, lobby, concession stand and restrooms. Last week, Mr. Yanofsky toasted three key institutional sponsors as he and General Manager Scott Seltzer – the focused, hard-working team that drives the Paramount’s phoenix-like success -- hosted an intimate circle of local business, government and cultural leaders in the lobby for a Donor & Funder Recognition Reception.“Three sandblasted glass panels have been installed in the lobby area over the front doors,” reads a press release, “acknowledging the tremendous support the Paramount has received from its three largest supporters: the City of Peekskill, George Pataki, and Entergy.”Quoting HepburnStanding in for Mayor John Testa, Deputy Mayor Cathy Pisani quoted regal actress Katharine Hepburn: “If you survive long enough, you’re revered like an old building.” She spoke of how this old building had fought its way back through the decades from “total dilapidation,” and now “the momentum is there.”"Ms. Pisani added “Music and arts are necessities of the community. We must keep the Paramount and what it stands for, because the vitality of Peekskill hinges on the success of its downtown area.” The operation runs on its own financial flow, with no subsidies from the City.Another source of funding, Assemblywoman Sandra Galef, of Ossining, recalled how she frequented the venue when it was a movie theater. “It’s so gorgeous and classy.”A $1 million grant secured one year ago by then-Governor Pataki through the Empire State Development Fund helped purchase new sound and lighting systems, and goes a long way to paying for the next upgrades: a $400,000 annex behind the structure to house a modernized loading dock and new dresssing rooms. Then there’s the singular support Paramount Center receives from Entergy, known hereabouts as the owner-operator of the twin plants at Indian Point Energy Center in Montrose.
Nuclear booster“It’s important [for us] to help this community, not because we run a nuclear plant, but because our employees work in this community,” Michael Kansler, President and Chief Nuclear Officer of Entergy Nuclear, told the guests.Routinely demonized by ardent opponents of nuclear energy and nuclear plants in densely populated areas, it is no shock that Entergy is intent on softening its image, as a patron of the arts, just as it makes sense for the community to say thanks for that role rather than ignore it or take it for granted. Mr. Yanofsky pointed out that part of Entergy’s largesse was providing a $100,000 challenge grant that the Paramount was able to match. He said Mike Kansler “takes personal pride in restoring the theater to the state we are in today. Entergy is the ideal corporate supporter, always asking how they can help and what do we need.” Also on hand at the reception was Paramount Center Board of Trustees President Paul Rubin, an Entergy executive who first got the company fully behind the Peekskill cultural mecca. So there you have it: Entergy’s artsy side. “There are different angles to any object,” mused Mr. Yanofsky. “Things are never as monolithic as [some people] want to make it.” Or as ominous.