City council votes to rename Randy Parton Theatre

ROANOKE RAPIDS, N.C. (AP) — Randy Parton no longer has his name on a theater in Roanoke Rapids.

The city council voted Tuesday night to rename the venue the Roanoke Rapids Theatre. The management company now in charge also plans a new Web site and telephone number.

The brother of country music star Dolly Parton was lured to the city after it agreed to borrow $21.5 million to build his namesake theater which was to be part of an entertainment complex.

He originally was paid $1.5 million a year. But the city re-negotiated his contract amid slow ticket sales and questions about how he spent more than $2.5 million of a $3 million reserve
fund within two years. A new five-year contract pays him $250,000
annually to perform in 36 shows a year.

But city officials indefinitely banned him from performing following a Dec. 6 incident in which city officials said he was drunk. Parton denied the allegation, and he has not performed at the theater since.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)