While no action was taken following city council’s closed session Tuesday night, Mayor Emery Doughtie said it was the consensus to move forward with regaining control of the Roanoke Rapids Theatre.

“We’re not cutting off communication with Mr. (Lafayette) Gatling,” the mayor said this morning. “He’s been very communicative lately. We’ve still not been able to come to an agreement between him and the council.”

Unless Gatling comes up with a proposal to buy the theater, Doughtie said the city will continue to move forward with controlling it.

If that happens, the mayor said, “I want to make it clear we’ll be looking at someone doing the day-to-day operations of the theater. It won’t be the city manager or the mayor.”