Council Grove ? A Lawrence businessman says he will give away an 85-year-old eastern Kansas theater if someone is willing to pay for $400,000 in needed repairs.

The Stella in downtown Council Grove closed in 2000, leaving its single screen and 450 padded seats unused. Its ceiling sags, and a film of disuse has fallen over the once-beloved theater.

Mick Ranney, the owner of Footprints in Lawrence, who bought the theater in 2001, said it is a symbol of the rural depopulation that plagues Kansas and other states.

And while he now says buying the theater “was a mistake” and wants to unload it, he also wants to save it.

T.W. Whiting built the theater in 1918 and named it for his daughter. It was the venue for live musicals and theater productions and showed daily silent movies. For years, it was “the public form of recreation” in Council Grove, said Helen Judd, daughter of the theater’s namesake.

The last movie was shown at the Stella in May 1999, with the final live performance the next year.

“I think it’s important to a community because its part of its history,” said Doug Jernigan, president of the Kansas Historic Theatre Assn.

Mick RanNey, owner of The Stella, walks out of the Stella Theatre in Council Grove. Ranney, a Lawrence businessman, says he will give away an 85-year-old eastern Kansas theater if someone is willing to pay for 00,000 in needed repairs.

The Stella has only two bathrooms, neither of which comply with today’s disability laws. Plaster from the ceiling is strewn across the floor and water leaks onto the seats when it rains. Including about a dozen other needed fixes, Ranney figures the bill at about $400,000.

Ranney wrote about the theater in the semi-annual catalog for Footprints. Alongside photos of sandals and purses, he told how he hoped to help save The Stella. The catalog is received by 150,000 customers across the country.

It already has generated interest.

Judd and Kenneth McClintock, a Council Grove attorney and local historians, have formed a group to organize fund-raising.

But in a town of 2,300 people, where so much community effort already is tied up in other projects, questions of whether such a project is possible arise.

“This particular area is relatively below-average income, you might say,” McClintock said. “But we’ve done amazing things for a small town.”