Earlville Legion needs community’s help

This letter is to inform the public about what is going on with our Legion Building. This building hosts Post 236 in Earlville, N.Y. located at 113 North Main.

We have many problems; among these are having enough funds to make necessary needed improvements, such as putting a new lighting system in. Even if we could obtain someone who could replace the old ballasts with LED bulbs, we really do not have the funds. The cost of bulbs with our other bills, it is not feasible. It is a shame that there isn’t a way, we could have people adopt a florescent tube.

Of course, there would be a separate fund account for the building lights. Perhaps if we could get the lighting improved, we might become more inviting for people to use our building.

We have a worse problem in our basement, which has happened with water penetrating the basement walls for years. Although we realize how serious the problem is, we have no funds to fix this problem.

As to our expenses, we will have a difficult time paying off the remainder on our building insurance for this year. In April, we will need about $2,000 for our 2018-2019 insurance. At the present time, we do not have the money.

Just to remind people, our Legion is made up not only with veterans, but the Sons of the American Legion and the Auxiliary. Our Auxiliary is not what it used to be. It used to be, if a veteran joined a Post, his wife or daughter became Auxiliary members. This doesn’t happen anymore, since membership in our Post has become somewhat stagnant. This reflects greatly on the Auxiliary, although membership doesn’t depend on this. They appear to be worse off in their active membership than we are.

We would like the public to realize we do not have an operational bar, nor bingo. Our soul financial survival is mainly based on activities during the year.

On Memorial Day, we have a chicken barbecue which could not happen if not for the Sons. In September, the Sons of Earlville and Sherburne have their clambake, which takes in some money depending on how many tickets are sold. We also have throughout the year donation rentals for people to use our building. Without these people, we couldn’t survive.

Another thing is to find someone qualified to look at the situation in our basement, to give us an estimate as to how much it would cost. Once we know this, we would apply for a grant. I would need help with this.

If we could start a club like FRIENDS OF AMERICAN LEGION 236, we might get enough people from outside to help with fund raising and etc.

To end this letter, we need more members, women and men, active and inactive.

Brad Phillips, Post 236 Communications Officer