CHARLESTON, W.Va. — An engineering report will be released later this week in connection with the inspection of the closed Charleston Municipal Auditorium.
“The engineer report is almost complete and the plan is for it to be released on Thursday,” Charleston Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin’s Chief of Staff Matt Sutton said during an appearance Monday on 580Live with Dave Allen on 580 WCHS.
Goodwin closed the 85-year-old venue in early February after engineers, who were inspecting the facility, found a significant electrical issue.
“When you have a life and safety concern in any building that’s not only cause for concern but it’s cause for immediate shutdown,” Goodwin said at the time.
The Thursday meeting will include members of Charleston City Council and the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center Board, Sutton said.
“We’ll really start to discuss what the report says, all of the details in the report, a lot of the history of the Municipal Auditorium, which I think will be important for people to see,” Sutton said.
Sutton said the report will show what was discovered in February was not an isolated incident.
“It’s been a while that that building has had issues,” he said.
Goodwin and other city leaders have repeatedly said the city needs a venue the size of the Municipal Auditorium to attract entertainers who are interested in smaller more intimate settings. The question has been should the Municipal Auditorium be renovated or rebuilt.
Goodwin said back in February she believed there was a future for the venue.
“What are the things that we need to immediately fix? Can we? What’s that going to cost us? As we look into the future, we know we need this facility. We know we can fill it. We know we can make money off this facility. What does reimagining it look like?”