Bunkie Council raises rental fee for Haas Auditorium

Renting Haas Auditorium for an event just got more expensive.

The Bunkie City Council raised the rate from $850 to $1,250 at its April 12 meeting. The city requires a $500 deposit from the renter.

Several residents voiced concerns over the increase in a public hearing prior to the council meeting and during discussion of the item during the meeting.

Mayor Mike Robertson said the increase is needed because expenses have increased while the rental rate remained the same for the past several years.

“I have concerns, as do the residents, but we have to pay the bills,” Councilman Travis Armand said. “We are doing this reluctantly to balance the budget.”

Robertson said the rental rate for two smaller rooms and the pavilion will remain the same.

Councilman Lem Thomas said similar facilities around the state rent for much less. He said a facility in Lake Charles charges $100 or less.

“I don’t like it,” Thomas said about the rate hike. “You have to reach everybody and there is no other place to go.” Thomas was the lone “No” vote for the rate hike.

Armand recalled how the auditorium was run down and in disrepair before state Sen. Don Hines obtained state funding to repair the building as an evacuation center/civic center. He said he does not want to see Haas Auditorium return to that rundown condition.

“We are barely breaking even,” Robertson noted. “The electrical rate to run the air-conditioning can be expensive. It is a climate-controlled building, so when the building is not being used the units are running but at a slower rate. Replacing just an A/C unit will be expensive.”

Mayor-elect Bruce Coulon said smaller facilities in the state are rented for as high as $2,500 for an event. He said he would prefer the rent stay the same, but agreed the rental has to go up.

“The roof on Haas Auditorium will need replacing in the near future,” Coulon said. “That alone will cost Bunkie an estimated $100,000 to replace.”

Bunkie resident Chris Robinson was concerned the higher rate may drive people to other towns that charge lower rental fees for the community centers.

He used Marksville’s Mary Bethune Center as an example. Haas was lower than the $1,000 fee charged for that site, but is more expensive with the new rate.

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