Delays in the renovation project at Duane Smith Auditorium have caused the Los Alamos Light Opera production of  “Guys and Dolls” to move its performances to March 22-24 and change the location to Crossroads Bible Church.

The show was originally scheduled to begin its run this weekend.

In addition, the Los Alamos High School Olions announced Wednesday that their March 14-18 spring musical, “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” is moving to the Blackbox Theater on the lower level of the main LAHS building The group is hoping to hold the April 6-8 performances in the auditorium.

LAPS Asst. Facilities Director Herb McLean said Wednesday that from the beginning of the lobby project, both Los Alamos Fire Marshal Jeff Wetteland and LAPS wanted to install fire sprinklers in the auditorium because of all the catwalks above the ceiling.

“We agreed to do that work this summer so as not to impact the schedule or the budget of the current lobby project. When LAPS went to the state to get our permit, the Construction Industries Division (CID) required us to install sprinklers as a condition of issuing a permit for the lobby. This work has been done but it did extend the schedule for completion,” McLean said.

“We have been working closely with each of the performance groups that were scheduled to use the auditorium,” he said. “We had a plan to be able to open the auditorium this week, which required the existing fire alarm system to be operational.

“We looked at bringing the system online last week but determined it would take several days to make the system operational and we preferred to use that time and effort toward installing a new fire alarm system required by code. That is the main reason we decided to cancel the LALO performance. We want all of our patrons to be able to hold their events in the auditorium but will not compromise on safety.”

Fire Marshal Jeff Wetteland said Wednesday morning that his office received the revised plans for the alarm system at 4:40 p.m. Feb. 12 and that they were returned to LAPS approved within the hour. He said normally plans would be submitted to his office shortly after construction began so that any issues could be solved in advance.

Wetteland said the Certificate of Occupancy has to be issued by the state. He agreed that CID was concerned about the space between the ceiling and the roof where the catwalks are located because the area is “full of lumber and super combustible”. He said his office had required that sprinklers be installed above the ceiling and that CID demanded that sprinklers be installed below the ceiling.

Wetteland said that in order for him to have supported the issuance of a Certificate of Occupancy, LAPS would have to have met a set of parameters, which were laid out in a Jan. 18 meeting with LAPS officials. The list included fire suppression, detection and notification systems, exiting requirements, emergency lighting and exit lighting.

Wetteland said that at that time, LAPS indicated that they expected to be able to meet the requirements before Feb. 23.

He said if LAPS met those requirements, he would have instituted a “fire watch” by himself or other LAFD personnel at the auditorium to be there in case of emergency and that field inspections of the sidewalks, scaffolding, etc., would have been conducted up to the last day.

“We tried. Our sympathy is with the folks who put all that work into their production, but it is my job to account for the safety of the community,” Wetteland said.

Lauri Tomlinson, director of the LALO production and president of the LALO board said Wednesday that “Guys and Dolls” fell victim to the continuing construction at the auditorium and expressed concern about the condition of the facility.

“They haven’t protected the curtain or the seats so we were pretty far off from being able to open,” she said.
 
Tomlinson said LALO tries hard to schedule events so that they don’t conflict with other organizations but that the delay has forced them to compete with others they normally would not compete with. She said the production lost several choral members because of the date changes, which was sad because those members had put in a lot of hard work.

“We had to size down because Crossroads is not the same venue as Duane Smith but we’re going to make it work. We are paring down our sets a little and changing our choreography and staging along the way,” she said.

Tomlinson expressed her gratitude to Crossroads for accommodating the production and also to the United Church where rehearsals are being conducted.