By Malcolm Mayhew
Star-Telegram

The flap over the Ridglea Theater doing raves continues, even though the club stopped them weeks ago.

Several weeks after Ridglea proprietors Richard Van Zandt and Wesley Hathaway agreed to not host raves anymore -- at the request of local authorities and the Texas attorney general's office -- both say they were fired from their day jobs at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History.

"They [the museum] said it was a conflict of interest, even though they've known about the club since we first started doing it," says Van Zandt, who worked at the museum for 18 years. Hathaway was there more than 20 years and was assistant curator for the science department and museum nurse.

"When we agreed not to do the raves anymore, we quit doing them immediately," Van Zandt said.

The two say the museum did not want to associate itself, on the eve of an expansion, with a venue that has come under fire from authorities for hosting the all-night raves. Narcotics officers made at least a dozen arrests at a rave there on Dec. 10, prompting the Fort Worth police to stop allowing off-duty officers to work security at the events. Authorities added that the club could be closed for a year if another drug-related arrest was made or citation was issued.

Museum Vice President Suzanne Townsend declined to comment, citing personnel issues. "Any time we have a personnel issue, we can't comment and go into detail," she says. "It truly is a privacy issue."

Hathaway says the museum was irked that the Ridglea Theater Web site, ridgleatheater.com, made mention of her and Van Zandt's employment at the museum, and that the museum did not want to be affiliated with a venue where drug arrests had been made.

Since the Ridglea nixed the raves, however, the Fort Worth police have decided to let off-duty officers work security at the venue. They'll be there for the big Toadies show April 14, says Ridglea booking agent Melissa Kirkendall.

As for Hathaway and Van Zandt, who weren't among those arrested, they are currently collecting severance-pay checks from the museum, and looking for new daytime jobs. They said they wouldn't be so upset if the museum had at least given them a warning, or asked them to make a choice between doing the Ridglea and the museum.

"That's the worst part, they didn't even give us an ultimatum," says Van Zandt, who was director of the Omni Theater. "They just took us in a room, said, `You're terminated as of today,' and that was it. All our years of service to that place, gone just like that. I wish we could have at least talked about it."

>> Back to dallasdancemusic.com NEWS<<