Viking Theatre to rebuild parking lot

Decorah City Engineer Lindsay Erdman announced at Monday night's city council meeting that the Viking Theatre will be renovating its parking lot, due to issues of flooding.

According to Viking Theatre employee Lynsey Tangen, the parking lot floods during periods of heavy rain, and this summer's high amount of rainfall has started to cause structural damage to the parking lot surface.

"We basically have to fix the parking lot," Tangen said. "When it rains, the water comes down the hill and pools in the lot. The parking lot is starting to crack."

Despite issues with flooding in the parking lot, Manager Deb Stevens says that business has not been severely affected.

"We've had to cancel movies one time so far," Stevens said. "It hasn't been a problem for business, but we want to make sure we have the lot fixed."

Stevens noted that there may be plans to expand the number of screens in the theater, but could not comment if the expansion project would be paired with  the parking lot renovation.

"I've worked here for 21 years and we've talked about expanding nearly every year," Stevens said. "Although, I don't see anything happening right now."