The Crescent Elk Auditorium received minor upgrades last year, including a new paint job and new lighting. This year, the 92-year-old building will get new seats, floors and windows. Photo courtesy of Steve Morgan.

Donors pitched in to give Crescent Elk Auditorium new lighting, electrical equipment and controls, now the historic building will receive new seats, floors and windows thanks to the Nick & Lisa Rail Foundation.

In addition to accepting Rail’s $150,000 donation for the new seats on Thursday, the Del Norte County Unified School District also approved using about $150,000 in voter-approved general obligation bond dollars for the project.

Those bond dollars will pay to remove and dispose of the old seats, replace the auditorium floor and replace the single-pane windows that are likely original to the 92-year-old building with new dual-paned windows, Morgan said.

“We have a bid we can piggyback on, and that bid’s $145,000,” Morgan told the school board. “That’s proposed to be donated by the Nick and Lisa Rail Music Fund.”

The auditorium’s new seating is one of several donations Nick Rail, a successful music retailer and Del Norte High School graduate, and his wife Lisa, made to DNUSD since January 2020.

Last year, the Rails donated $38,000 for stage lights at the Crescent Elk Auditorium. A few months later, the Rails pledged $1 million as seed money for a performing arts center at Del Norte High School. In January 2020, the Rails donated 100 musical instruments to the school district and established the Nick and Lisa Rail Fund with the Wild Rivers Community Foundation.

On Thursday, Nick Rail thanked the School Board for allowing him and his wife to continue to collaborate on a “premium experience” for whoever walks in the door at the Crescent Elk Auditorium.

Rail also spoke of the performing arts center project, saying he hired former First 5 Del Norte executive director, Angela Glore, to help form an advisory committee and search for grant dollars for the project.

Rail said he also contracted with Russ Levin Consulting, a Los Angeles firm that worked with Jefferson Public Radio and is active with Jacksonville, Oregon’s Britt Festival.

“He’s very familiar with Del Norte County and specializes in private donor funding and also excellent strategy from the 30,000 foot level,” Rail said. “In the meantime, what we’re doing at Crescent Elk, we couldn’t be happier to be a part of it.”

The Crescent Elk Auditorium sports a new paint job, wainscoting and lights. Photo courtesy of Steve Morgan.

The Rails also recently donated 35 additional musical instruments and equipment. He said he is in the process of putting together a further donation of 100 instruments for children to have an “additional reward” following a tough year from COVID-19.

Meanwhile, removing and disposing of the old auditorium seats is expected to cost $6,700, Morgan said. Replacing the flooring in the auditorium is expected to cost $39,185, and replacing the windows will cost $62,331, according to Morgan.

With these dollars, he said, the GO Bond’s account will have a projected balance of zero. However, Morgan said, the bond will receive about $1.4 million in state reimbursement dollars for projects at Margaret Keating Elementary School, Sunset High School, the Del Norte High School Tiny House shop and a 2014 modernization project at Crescent Elk Auditorium.

DNUSD Superintendent Jeff Harris also spoke of selling the auditorium’s old seating as a fundraiser of some kind.

Morgan said the contractor can dispose of the seat in any manner the board wanted, including through an auction or sale. He said there are almost 500 seats that will come out.

SHARE →