Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette Calumet Village Manager Mehan Haselden was elected to the Board of Directors of the Calumet Theatre Company, a nonprofit organization the goal of which is to preserve the cultural heritage and the historical value of the theater.

CALUMET — Village Manager Megan Haselden was elected to the Theatre Board of Directors at the regular monthly board meeting on Monday evening. The board had offered her the seat last month, which she accepted. On the night of the regular Feb. meeting, however, Hazelden was attending a village budget meeting and could not attend the board meeting and her election was tabled until March. Her election was unanimous.

Theatre President Dan Jamison said that Haselden’s new position offers many benefits to the Theatre, which is owned by the village.

“One of the advantages is wide open communication,” he said. “We’re both in the same building; we shouldn’t be talking past each other, as has happened in the past.”

Plus, added Jamison, her background in theater, and also finance, are important.

“I think that it’s really going to be great, like Dan said for us to have the open communication,” said Haselden. “There are a lot of projects and things that go on with the village that will directly impact the theater.”

The village receiving input from the Theatre Board as those projects go through, as opposed to finding them out after the fact, she said, she feels will benefit both the village and the theater.

Haselden has an undergraduate degree are in Arts Management and a Master’s Degree in Accounting, which she said is specifically for the Arts.

Under previous management, the Calumet Theatre Board and the Village experienced a long period of discord until a new Board of Directors was elected in Oct. 2021, with Jamison as president. Jamison has consistently said that among the new Board’s priorities is to increase transparency and communication between the Board and the Village Council.

Since his election, Jamison and the Village Council have worked together in partnership, negotiating a new theater lease, which included a new insurance policy specifically for theater activities, productions, and organizations, as well as moving ahead with the building boiler and heating project.

While the lease was being discussed at the regular December, 2021 Village Council meeting, Jamison suggested that rather than a simple landlord/tenant lease, the new lease should be a partnership agreement. Since Haselden began her position as Village Manager, Jamison has kept Haselden informed of the Board’s applications of grants in support of historic restoration. She has also been kept informed of the Park Service’s reviewing all the systems of the building.

The theater and the village have continued to work together, most recently, when the Council authorized Jamison, in Jan. to pursue a Certified Local Government (CLG) grant for the replacement of the building’s failed boiler, with Jamison as the project manager and Haselden as the administrator.