Voters choose 'The Rumford Falls Auditorium' for town theater name

RUMFORD — Faced with three names to pick from for the municipal auditorium, voters at Tuesday's polls overwhelmingly chose to christen the spacious theater The Rumford Falls Auditorium.

According to Town Clerk Jane Giasson, The Rumford Falls Auditorium garnered 1,377 votes, Chisholm Memorial Auditorium had 485 votes, and The Clock Tower Auditorium received 356 votes.

Selectman Frank DiConzo, who served as the polling station's warden, said late Tuesday night that the matter now returns to the Board of Selectmen.

"The selectmen will decide if that's the one we will choose," DiConzo said. "I think the majority of us will go with what the people want. If we didn't, we'd get hung."

But whether there is enough time for Town Manager Carlo Puiia to add that item to the board's agenda for Thursday, Nov. 5, isn't yet known, DiConzo said.

Before selectmen can take any action on the new name, it must first be on their agenda, per town law.

DiConzo said Giasson would give Puiia the official results on Wednesday morning. If the matter isn't on Thursday's agenda, DiConzo said the board would take it up at its Nov. 23 meeting.

Selectmen added the referendum vote to the ballot at their Sept. 17 meeting, rather than decide which of the three names from which to choose.

At a selectmen meeting this past summer, Performing Arts Committee member Jim Rinaldo asked selectmen to come up with a name for the auditorium so they could use it for functions, rather than just say such and such will be held in the town hall auditorium.

Selectmen, in turn, put it to residents and said they'd pick from a list of choices supplied by residents.

Those choices were then introduced at the board's Sept. 17 meeting.

DiConzo suggested a fourth name — Rumford Municipal Auditorium — but that was excluded from the referendum list.

Rinaldo said that because people took the time to come up with a name and submitted it, only those names should be considered on the ballot.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com