Snow Melting Clears Issue at Millennium Theatre

Live Christian entertainment made a quantum leap in 1998 with Sight & Sound Theatres’ construction of the Millennium Theatre in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The original theatre, built 10 years earlier, was lost to a fire. When Sight & Sounds rebuilt, they did it to accommodate a larger crowd and grander performances. The massive project called for mechanical improvements to help make operations run more smoothly.

“Two adjacent set manufacturing and storage wings of the theatre created a long, narrow courtyard of sorts, through which people and material must pass,” said Will Downing, facilities and risk manager. “The sun never hits the concrete pad between the buildings, and snow was very hard to remove. We battled it for years, and eventually the concrete started crumbling from the amount of salt needed to provide safe passage. So, we decided to install a large snowmelt system and put the project out to bid.”

Seth Energy, a Lancaster, PA-based division of Shipley energy, was hired to install the 3,200 square-foot snowmelt system. The company’s small but highly-experienced crew was no stranger to snow melt applications.

They installed a tekmar Snow/Ice Sensor 090 along with a tekmar Snow Melting Control 680. “tekmar makes a great line of products specifically geared towards snow and ice melt,” said lead installer Lew Kuhn. “They were a perfect fit for what we wanted and needed to achieve with this install.”

The snow melt system has now performed flawlessly over two winters. Sight & Sound no longer wastes time moving snow or spreading salt. Thanks to the new snow melting system, moving material from one building to the other is much easier and has helped avoid snow and ice-related injuries. Because of its success, Sight & Sound is now considering snowmelt installations for all the theatre’s entrance walkways.