It's been a rough ride at times but Theatre Sarnia and the Imperial Theatre have made the final $30,000 payment to the city on a $600,000 interest-free loan given in 1996.
Executive Director Brian Austin Jr.says the money previously used as payment will be sunk back into the theatre
"We need money for the roof so that will probably be number one," he says. "Our HVAC system is over 20 years old and the seats have been used by over a million people so they need a little bit of TLC as well."
Austin pays tribute to Kenn Poore and the original steering committee that had the vision to pursue their dream. That steering committee was comprised of Poore, Donna Veriker(Poore), George Wood, Tony Hughes, Carol O'Grady and Clarice Hunt.
"Without them, who knows what downtown Sarnia would like like? I really feel that the Theatre was the catalyst for the downtown restoration," says Austin Jr.
Tracing its roots to the establishment of the Drama Club of Sarnia in 1927, Theatre Sarnia is one of the oldest continuously operating theatre groups in Canada and one of only a few that actually has its own theatre.
