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Pasadena ponders band shell

A portable shell would please the community band and could be rented out.

By PAUL SWIDER
Published May 10, 2006

"We'll raise some money from using this band shell and put it back into the trust fund," Mayor Dick Holmes said of reserves the city used to build and maintain Galatea Garden. "Our nice Greek heiress would say that's a good stroke of business."

The city is considering buying an $80,000 portable band shell to use in the 2.6-acre park near City Hall, named for Galatea Lebus, who designated $1-million from her estate to go toward building the park in a specific Greek way. Holmes said she always wanted a band shell in the park, but the one the city is considering could also be moved about for other events and even rented out.

Lebus died in 1997 but not before spending hours gazing from her apartment window in the Fountains at the place where her park could be and detailing its configuration, Holmes said. She may have had a different band shell in mind, but this one will be more cost effective, he said, and create a proper acoustic environment for the South Pasadena Community Band.

"It will give us a better sound outdoors," said Margaret Stoll, 82, a clarinetist with the 50-member band that plays concerts around the region. "But we'll also be able to use it for more than the band."

The band now plays as many as a dozen shows a year but always has to use someone else's facility. It has played across the street at Duryea Park, but members say that is hardly an appropriate venue.

"When you play on the tennis courts, the sound just goes everywhere," said Ron Stoll, 59, the band president, Margaret's son and also trombonist, emcee and occasional vocalist for the group.

Ron Stoll said the band shell could be stored in a little-used corner of the park and unfolded for shows or wheeled away for others' uses. He said he has already heard interest from Gulfport and has had preliminary conversations with St. Petersburg about either a cooperative purchase or rental arrangements.

When fully deployed, the Marshall Austin band shell is 32 by 20 feet, said David Alexander, the company representative who unfolded the device himself in 45 minutes using only simple tools. When collapsed, the shell is less than 10 feet high, 8 feet wide and 27 feet long. It weighs 4,300 pounds.

"It's like a large boat," said Alexander, who hauls the shell around the country by trailer from company headquarters in Colorado to show it to prospective buyers. He said he has sold hundreds of units, including several on Florida's east coast, but none are currently available in the Tampa Bay area.

Alexander said Broward and Miami-Dade counties own trailers and rent them for $1,800 to $2,400 a day to other governments, private parties, schools, even the military. He said resorts sometimes buy them for special outdoor events.

Being able to recoup the investment would help with the purchase, but the 24-year-old community band would enjoy having a comfortable place from which to entertain its growing crowds.

"It was a lot of work putting the band together," said Ed Reese- miller, 83, who organized the group and still plays trumpet.

He said the musicians enjoy the performance and camaraderie while putting on a top-notch display of marches, concertos, Broadway standards and even dance music. Being able to play outdoors in the evening would make the shows more comfortable, he said.

"We're old people," said Reesemiller, a Pennsylvanian who played with the Fred Waring Band, the Allentown Band and even the Salvation Army. "We poop out after a dozen songs or so."

The City Commission will likely vote on buying the band shell at a meeting this month. Holmes said the multiple benefits of the band shell would pay off for the whole community, including those who use and enjoy Galatea Garden.

"A week doesn't go by that somebody isn't having a reception or a wedding in there," he said. "It would go over big for all the people."

Paul Swider can be reached at 892-2271 or pswider@sptimes.com or by participating in itsyourtimes.com.

[Last modified May 10, 2006, 07:31:04]