Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette Calumet Village Board of Trustees Elise Metz (left), Rob Tarvis, Andrew Ranville, and Ken Olkkonen, discussed moving forward with the new Calumet Theatre Board of Directors to create a new lease which will be workable and more amicable to both parties. Theatre Board President Dan Jamison, who was present at Tuesday’s regular monthly meeting, said the new lease would form more of a partnership between the theater and the village than what exists now.

CALUMET — After months of discord between the Village Council and the Calumet Theatre Company Board, the trustees reached an agreement at the regular monthly meeting Tuesday evening that would allow both the village and the theatre to move forward in partnership.

Trustee Elise Metz spoke to the council, offering her recommendation that the Village Council form a negotiation committee to meet with the village’s attorney, then to meet with the representatives of the Theatre Co. Board, to negotiate in good faith to create a new lease that would work for both the Theatre Company and the village.

Metz said that the committee could be made up of two trustees and the village clerk, to “talk with the theatre, so that we kind of confer with our attorney, go and talk with our theatre group, and negotiate in good faith towards a lease that is workable and helpful for all.”

The lease, as it is written, limits the control the village has over the theater, which is owned by Calumet Village, but does permit termination if certain criteria are met, such as lease violations which were found recently to exist.

The Theatre Company recently held its annual elections, however, which saw an election of new officers to the Board of Directors, which includes Dan Jamison as the Theatre Company president, who has been working to increase transparency between the theater and the village.

“I think we’re on the same page,” said Metz, “very happy about it, and I think the big question in my mind is how to we actually execute — what I actually wanted to do was a closed meeting with the attorney. I thought we could do that for leases, but we can’t. We can designate two people to go and speak with somebody, and get all of our items together and then walk into the discussion and bring back a lease for the village and the attorney to review.”

After some discussion, the decision was made that Metz and Ken Olkkonen, Trustees, and Village Clerk Amber Goodman, will comprise the negotiation team.