Downey : Light Opera Box Office

After being faced with eviction from its Downey Theater ticket office by Oct. 31, the Downey Civic Light Opera Assn. may have a temporary box office by the end of the week, according to city officials who have been looking for a site.

“We started looking last week and we hope that we’ll have a location tied down by Friday,” said Jim Jarrett, director of community services.

The Downey Civic Light Opera has been operating the city-run theater’s only ticket office since the facility opened in 1970, but theater officials will take control of all ticket selling operations beginning this fall, Jarrett said.

Last week the City Council requested that staff find a temporary spot for the opera box office either in city hall or another city facility and report back to council at the next meeting, on Tuesday, according to Scott Yatsuya, assistant city manager.

But Margene Glenn, president of the civic light opera association, said the association wants to stay in the theater.

Glenn and members of the opera group asked the council to build a $19,000 ticket office in the theater that was budgeted in the city’s 1986-87 budget, but the council denied the request and reported that revised costs are now estimated at $30,000, Yatsuya said.

“I think we could provide them with what they need without that large expenditure at this time,” he said.