CERRITOS : City Earmarks $88,290 for New Stage Surface

The city’s 2-year-old Center for the Performing Arts needs a new stage surface, officials have decided.

The City Council last week allocated $88,290 to replace the linoleum surface, which has bubbled occasionally since it was installed in December, 1991.

Kurt Swanson, the city’s director of cultural services, said the bubbling was minor and didn’t create difficulties for performers, but it did pose problems for the center’s advanced, flexible seating system. Giant seating towers resting on air casters slide across the stage surface when the theater’s seating configuration is changed, Swanson said, and the bubbling sometimes caused delays.

“This is sort of like looking at a large Swiss watch,” Swanson said. “When you build something as complex as this, there are a lot of things you could have problems with. We consider this to be pretty minor.”

Swanson said the cause of the bubbling is unknown. “The theories range from the humidity in the air at the time the linoleum was laid down to incompatible adhesives,” Swanson said. The linoleum supplier has agreed to reimburse the city for the cost of the materials to be replaced--about $25,000, Swanson said.

A different company has been hired to resurface the stage with a new material that is applied as a liquid and has self-healing properties.