John Yonich, owner of the D&R Theatre in Aberdeen, said Thursday that he doesn’t want to close the theater, but he’s being forced to consider it because “we just aren’t selling enough tickets to keep it going.”

Speculation about the status of the theater was triggered this week by a cryptic message on the theater’s reader board reading, “Thanks for the memories Grays Harbor…” Once before, Yonich shut the theater down temporarily.

“By no means do I want to close it, but I’ve been doing it six years and tried my darnedest,” said Yonich, who transformed the classic old downtown movie theater from a leaky derelict building to a first-rate concert venue. His bread and butter entertainment has been the type of acts that play in large casinos around the region, mostly rock, blues and country acts. The theater’s website isn’t promoting new shows or selling tickets to any events.

He said it’s “time to step back for a second. It might be only for a week or two.” He said he wants to convene a group of people familiar with his issues and the challenges of doing business in downtown Aberdeen to discuss a strategy for keeping the theater going. He has fixed costs, and the revenue from the shows just isn’t adequate, he said. And he hasn’t been happy with some of his interactions with City Hall and with some of the “bickering” he’s seen in downtown betterment groups, he added. “I don’t think City Hall or other people realize it’s tough to do business down there because there’s just not enough business to go around.”

Yonich said he’s growing impatient for City Hall to show leadership that results in more business downtown. He said he likes first-year mayor Erik Larson, but thinks the city needs a full-time administrator or full-time mayor. Larson has a full-time job in addition to being mayor.

One idea Yonich mentioned, saying it was just in the early talking stages, was to interest Grays Harbor College in a program that would teach technical production skills, using the theater and maybe some other space downtown for classrooms.

Larson said Yonich’s frustration was apparent during recent conversations. Regarding poles for an overhead street banner often used to promote Yonich’s events, the poles were taken down during construction work related to the Gateway Center project, the mayor said. The project started up pretty quickly and Larson said Yonich “felt like he’d been kind of left out of the loop.”

The city considered another location for a temporary event banner, The Pourhouse building, but decided against it.

“This is a slow period of the year and construction is going on in the area,” Larson said. “In a couple of months we’ll have a permanent replacement.”

He also pointed out that it’s something for which the city doesn’t charge event organizers.

Yonich had also requested that two-hour parking near the theater be changed to 15-minute limits so people could more easily find a spot when they stopped to buy tickets. He said he filled out paperwork he was asked to fill out, it was changed to 15-minute parking then changed back.

“Once (the parking limit change) was out there, we thought we should change our decision. I didn’t want there to be spot, 15-minute zones. I overruled,” Larson explained. “John feels we’re not acting in good faith. He wants to see a certain outcome but it’s not the best for the city.”

While several other businesses have situations similar to Yonich’s that would benefit from such parking rules, it’s a change that should be brought to the City Council for wider consideration, he said.

Larson said Yonich’s opinion that the city is no longer trying to encourage business downtown isn’t the case. The city hasn’t changed any of its policies, and is even hiring two part-time workers in the parks department to focus on cleanup of downtown, the riverfront and park areas.

“We’re not sure if this is permanent, temporary or a public performance to put pressure on this city,” Larson said about Yonich’s decision to pause or potentially stop operating the theater as an entertainment venue. “But it’s unfortunate he has decided to shut things down.”