When the envelopes were opened and there was nothing inside but a check, we thought to ourselves this isn’t going to fly.

We understand the intent but unlike when we editorialized about the Operation Rockfish police corruption case — one that was all about intent for duly sworn law enforcement officers to tarnish their badges by being willing to transport sham drugs to and fro — the intent of just a check, we don’t believe, will stand up in a court case.

The theater issue in Roanoke Rapids has come to a point where city personnel and especially the city council can leave nothing to chance. Every letter must be perfectly written in the tradition of the cliche that admonishes us to dot every I and cross every T.

While we won’t be surprised to see litigation possibly arise out of this, when submitting an upset bid you have to make sure your intent is more than just speculated — it has to be made known even if your upset bid amount is hastily written on the back of a business card or napkin.

And while the outside of an envelope may read “upset bid,” without knowing what the upset bid is, it could be likened to someone who has the intention to buy a car but doesn’t establish what they’re willing to pay.

Now we’re reaching a point where the troubled venue could be sold and music can once again reverberate inside the theater with equipment that even at the last event we attended still produces top-notch sound.

While there are still machinations the city and those who proffered the $2 million bid must go through — namely a resolution that the council must accept or reject and then complicated contractual items — this process is hopefully nearing the end and another huge chunk of change can be subtracted from the around $7 million the city still owes.

The only thing we can fault in this process is that the council ditched the idea of going with GovDeals, a process that would have been over by now and a process that could have possibly fetched more than the $2 million currently on the table.

While City Attorney Geoffrey Davis’s remarks to the council Tuesday may taste like an unripened persimmon to the party who didn’t include the amount of his upset bid even on a business card or napkin, it should be a lesson learned that selling this venue is not a casual affair and its fate should not be left to a critical omission based purely on intent — Editor