BATH

Bringing more patrons through the doors of the Chocolate Church Arts Center is a top priority for Jennifer DeChant.

DeChant, who also serves as Bath’s representative in the Legislature, was recently named director of the venerable 34-year-old arts venue at 804 Washington St.

She was selected from a field of hundreds of local and regional candidates to lead the organization, and she will immediately face major challenges on nearly every front.

DeChant says that focusing on highprofile “big names” required a higher ticket price to pay for the performers’ fees. But local performances have a smaller price tag, and therefore, ticket prices can be lower.

“The most highly attended performances are local performances,” DeChant said recently. “People in the area like to come to see their neighbors and people they know.”

She said setting the new prices would fall to the Board of Trustees, but she believes they will adjust the ticket prices accordingly with the advent of more local acts.

“I believe that we will fill the house with shows like that, and the number of tickets sold will go up, which should more than meet our costs. It’s important to me to reconnect the local community to the Chocolate Church.”

Ticket prices have been an issue with many Bath residents, especially those on fixed incomes. This year’s season had a variety of performances with a range of ticket prices from $10 to $40.

“The last thing we want to do is price people out of the theater experience,” she said.

Another way DeChant plans to reconnect to the community is by developing children’s programming in performance and visual arts — not only for small children, but for teens on the cusp of being professionals who are looking for portfolio opportunities.

For a while, fundraising is going to be a major part of DeChant’s job.

“I’ll be meeting with foundations in the next few weeks to bring more money in,” she said. “We have a lot of challenges.”

That includes the building itself.

“Obviously we have significant infrastructure issues,” she said, referring to problems with the building’s siding, steeple, and interior. “We need to know what we’re looking at in terms of what it would cost to rehabilitate the structure. For now, we have to shore up the basics.”

DeChant said she would be meeting with the Maine Historic Preservation Commission in the weeks to come as well.

Because the Chocolate Church is in a historic district, many of its repairs have to be approved by the commission and the city Planning Board.

In 2008, the Board of Trustees, in cooperation with a potential partner in the redevelopment of the building, came up with a figure of $1.8 million to fix the Chocolate Church’s leaning steeple.

The plan relied on a modern board product called “cement board,” which could be made to look like the original material it would have been replacing. In 2009, the request made it to the Planning Board. However, because it was not historically accurate, the board tabled the request, and ultimately, the work was never done.

The “historically correct” rehabilitation would have cost $2.5 million to $3.5 million — funds the organization did not have and could not hope to raise.

Problems that existed five years ago in the infrastructure of the Chocolate Church have only become more pronounced with the passage of time. The bell tower was discovered to have major damage, including a mysterious 40-square-foot hole on the third level of the tower, which will need to be dismantled, replaced with a temporary roof, taken off-site and repaired or replaced, before it is restored to the building and the Bath skyline.

The center has put in new insulation and a new roof in the intervening years, one of seven major rehabilitation goals.

“We’ll need a capital campaign eventually to solve all the problems a building this age has, especially one that hasn’t been well-maintained over the years,” DeChant said. “But many of the problems can be addressed in incremental improvements. What we need to do first is revise the assessment of what the building needs.”

DeChant says she will use the legislative hiatus over the next six months to hit the ground running.

As a former Chocolate Church Arts Center board member, she understands the challenges that she faces — as caretaker of a deteriorating historic building, as programming specialist for a community arts center and as fundraiser-inchief to support the missions of the Chocolate Church.

She knows it won’t be an easy job.

“But we’ve put 34 years into the Chocolate Church, and people love it and appreciate it. Everyone wants it to continue. I plan to do my best to make that happen.”