Nov. 16—WATERTOWN — When the State Office Building was dedicated in the spring of 1972, the commissioner of the State Office of General Services told those gathered at the site that the 11-story building on Washington Street was more than just "brick, and steel and mortar," especially with its "meeting hall and multi-use auditorium."
"This will be a living, vital part of the community," said commissioner Gen. A.C. O'Hara.
Fifty-two years later, some nonprofit organizations have been forced to check the vitals of their finances due to the sticker shock of renting space in the building and in a few instances abandoning the location.
The issue is one that has also vexed state Assemblyman Scott A. Gray, R-Watertown, who has heard complaints and has been able in the past to negotiate with OGS to lower the costs of nonprofits to rent State Office Building space. But that "running interference," as he calls it, on behalf of his constituents is becoming more difficult to do.
"I tried to impress upon them (OGS) to have some flexibility and I'm not having great success," Gray said. "In the meantime, we are bleeding events out of the State Office Building."
Two nonprofit groups that have left the facility are the North Country Goes Green Irish Festival and the North Country Arts Council's 76th Annual Juried Fall Art Show.
Since its founding in 1986, the NCGG Irish Festival has raised money for various causes and scholarships as participants celebrated each March at the State Office Building.
Last month, it was announced that the festival would be moving to the Cerow Recreation Park Arena in Clayton. The 2025 festival is March 14 and 15.
"Scott was great in helping us and doing the best he could," said David S. Missert, co-chairman of the NCGG festival.
The festival uses the lobby and the 11th floor of the SOB for its festival. Missert said rental prices increased noticeably when the festival returned in 2023 for its 35th year following a three-year hiatus due to the pandemic. He said the bill for renting the space for the 2025 festival was set at about $10,000 — the same as last year.
"The best they came back with this year was it would hold the current rate and they'd lock us into a two percent increase annually over the next three years," Missert said. He added that as a nonprofit organization, that deal was not sustainable.
"These nonprofits can't afford it," Missert said. "It's driving them out and that's unfortunate."
Missert said he wanted to stress: "The people locally at the State Office Building were great to work with. It's the pricing," he said, that is set in Albany.
Fall Art Show moves
The North Country Arts Council's 76th Annual Juried Fall Art Show is on display at the Jefferson County Historical Society's Paddock Mansion, 228 Washington St., through Nov. 23. People can stop by to view the art from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays. The show moved to the mansion from the State Office Building where it had been regularly held.
"We are very happy with the partnership with the historical society, primarily because they already have art there and have roots in the community," said NCAC spokeswoman Anita Prather Harvell. "The partnership and the synergy between both is very positive."
The opposite energy was seen as the NCAC worked with OGS for rental of the lobby for this year's award ceremony and public viewing days for the show. Prather Harvell said that in past years, the state would charge NCAC for the space but would then issue a large waiver of the fee.
"For last year's fall art show, they charged us over $10,000 to pay for security for the opening, to rent the lobby for the approximately three weeks of the show and then we had to put in a waiver to have those fees waived."
Following the waiver, the fee was dropped to about $240, Prather Harvell said.
"There's no guarantee they will do that," she added.
Last year, another element was added to the equation. Prather Harvell said the OGS sent out a letter which she interpreted as saying that there would be no more fee waivers. The letter, from OGS Commissioner Jeanette M. Moy, noted that the state's Convention and Cultural Events Office has been tasked with managing space use in all OGS-managed facilities. "Please note as of Jan. 1, 2024, there will be a fee associated with all use days of state property in OGS-managed facilities," the letter reads. "These fees will include rental fees for each day of use including load-in and load-out days and any additional fees as required by the event such as security, custodial or maintenance and as determined by OGS policy."
Nonetheless, NCAC approached their local state representatives to see if something could still be worked out at the State Office Building for its 2024 Fall Art Show.
"Jonathan Cole from Watertown Lyric Theater reached out to (state senator) Mark Walczyk and I reached out to Scott Gray and their offices were very cooperative and understanding with what was occurring," Prather Harvell said. "In fact, Mark Walczyk's office said that when we submitted another request to OGS that we include them on the request for visibility."
But another issue nixed that submission. "Most of our food and beverage vendors wouldn't work with us once they found out we were at the Dulles State Office Building due to the additional insurance requirements, as well as the worker's compensation exemptions and additional insurance riders," Prather Harvell said. "It just ended up not being worth it to go through the process."
The missing link
Assemblyman Gray said that the communication gap between local organizations and Albany began as the state was coming out of the pandemic a few years ago.
"All the renting of the facilities throughout the state was centralized," Gray said. "With that came a centralized pricing structure. The OGS commissioner was here in my office on a visit one time. I explained to her that it was a different situation and that you have to be careful when you are looking at things on a statewide basis. I tried to impress upon them that when you are talking about Watertown, the State Office Building is centric to the county for activities. We don't have facilities of other cities such as Syracuse or Utica in terms of holding major events like North Country Goes Green."
Also, as of a few years ago, the State Office Building used to have an events manager, Gray said — a separate job from the building manager.
"It seems as though it worked much better when the control of the State Office Building auditorium was under the control of the people here," said Joseph L. Rich, founder and former executive director of the nonprofit Disabled Persons Action Organization, which has hosted several shows at Dulles. Rich has also served as president of the DPAO Foundation. "Now, they got that control in Albany. That makes it much more difficult. They have someone who works with us when we have a show there, but everything we do has to go through Albany."
The local events manager was an important local link to Albany, which Kyle Aumell, vice president of the local youth theater group Stage Notes, especially misses. "Our perception is they are treating Watertown State Office Building space the same way as they treat a facility in Rochester, Syracuse or Albany," Aumell said. "Those are wildly different areas that have many more options for the performing arts. It's the bureaucracy. And it's the painting of everything with a single brush. Nuance is needed in Albany as far as location and as far as profit versus nonprofit."
Gray explained, "What you can afford to pay in Albany is much different than what you can pay in Watertown."
Stage Notes is a nonprofit youth theater group for exceptional theater students founded in 2009 by Kyle's wife, Ticia M. Aumell. Proceeds from its shows have allowed the nonprofit to donate thousands of dollars to local community groups. Kyle said that fees to use the 11th floor rehearsal space and auditorium of the State Office Building "have doubled or even tripled" in the last few years.
In 2023, Stage Notes paid $1,641 to use the theater for rehearsals and show weekend for "Guys and Dolls." In July, the nonprofit paid the state $5,641 and used the building for less time than the previous year for its "The Prom" musical.
Aumell said that the OGS routinely waived some fees associated with a price that was fixed. "They changed the whole model to where you are paying per day, and they started throwing in a fee for security," he said. "If there are already people on duty, why are we paying for anything?"
Aumell said that the state attempted to charge Stage Notes this year for turning on the air conditioning during rehearsals for "The Prom," which features a lot of dancing. "Assemblyman Gray was super in getting some help for us in getting them to turn on the air conditioning. I'm confident we never got charged for that."
Aumell said that Stage Notes recently booked four days of 11th floor space for rehearsals of its summer production (to be announced next month) at a "very reasonable" $50 per day.
"Then they throw us a $567 bill for security," he said. "So now, we're talking about an $800 bill. "We'll pay it because we have to and because we don't have anywhere to go. And that's a whole separate conversation. We need a full-size stage. And the State Office Building, like it or not, is the best suited for us — the tech and space. Is it perfect? No. But it's the best we got."
The stage of Watertown High School, Aumell said, is not a good fit for Stage Notes, which produces its annual musical each July when school is not in session. "It's not a good fit for the amount of time we'd like to have the space."
In the summer of 2021, a $3.5 million OGS modernization project of the State Office Building was completed. It included new flooring, ADA-compliant seating, updated lighting and audio, stage lighting and audio and upgrades to the control room, dressing rooms and the foyer bathrooms.
"When Governor Cuomo talks about making the best possible use of the state's public facilities, the Watertown State Office Building's auditorium immediately comes to mind," then-OGS Commissioner RoAnn Destito said at the reopening.
"It just blows me away that you have the investment of taxpayer dollars into the renovations of the auditorium and no one can afford to use it," Aumell said. "I don't know that raising rates for use of the theater from $1,600 to $5,600 is going to recoup that anytime soon with that kind of rate. So why are we buckling nonprofits like this?"
Aumell said that the State Office Building payment formula may not be long-term sustainable for Stage Notes.
"We have an angel donor who came out of nowhere and that will get us over the hump for the next five years, which will get us to 20 years," he said. "Without that, I don't know how sustainable our program is. The community has been incredibly supportive of us through the years and I'm eternally thankful. But it's hard."
Assemblyman Gray said, "It really comes down to management — a public-facing philosophy. Is that the image we want to portray? Some people have said, 'I don't think the State Office Building wants events there.' If that's the case, then they should just say so, instead of pricing everybody out of the market."
'Equity in pricing'
"The OGS welcomes community-run events and performances at the state office buildings we operate," OGS spokeswoman Georgina R. Parsons said.
She noted that in 2022, OGS reorganized its fee structure for renting spaces in its buildings to ensure equity in pricing across the state.
"This update to our fee schedule slightly decreased rental fees for the Dulles State Office Building in Watertown," Parsons said. "For comparison, in 2022, renting the auditorium or lobby in Dulles on a weekday cost $180 a day and $400 a day on a weekend. In 2024, the cost is $175 a day for either weekends or weekdays. In the past, a conference room cost $50 a day to rent on weekdays and $75 a day on weekends." The rental fee in 2024 is $50 a day, Parsons said, whether on a weekend or a weekday.
"To further ensure fairness, OGS determined it was necessary for the state to receive reimbursement for the cost of providing any additional staff needed for an event," Parsons said. "These staff members are there to safeguard the health and safety of event-goers. The state does not make money from the dollar-for-dollar reimbursement for security, cleaning staff, plumbers, electricians, building managers and other necessary staff. Charging organizations rental space in state office buildings means the costs for providing these people and services are not passed on to taxpayers."
One nonprofit that remains committed to the SOB is the Volunteer Transportation Center, which will host its 26th annual North Country Chili Cookoff at the site on Feb. 22. The cookoff also has a popular "Restaurant Crawl" segment.
"As a nonprofit, we always try to stay vigilant of expenses, including the cost of hosting events," said Jeremiah S. Papineau, VTC Director of Communications and its Foundation Director said. "We are moving forward with our plans. Obviously, if it ever becomes cost-prohibitive to host this event there, we'd unfortunately have to pursue another venue. It would be in no way a reflection on the staff or the location. We've enjoyed being at the State Office Building and look forward to being there as long as they'll have us and as long as it makes financial sense."
