Elgin VFW post decides to put building up for sale
Elgin VFW Post 1307 is getting ready to list its building for sale, a decision that came during a contentious meeting Monday, post officials said.
Thirty members showed up to vote on the fate of the building - which includes a rental hall and members-only bar - at 1601 Weld Road, Post Quartermaster Scott Webb said.
"Emotions were very high on both sides," Webb said. "A lot of people have very deep emotions about that building."
State VFW officials would have to sign off on any sale, which also would require a vote by post membership, Post Commander Art Buckheister said. "It's not what I would have liked to have seen happen, but I don't, at this point, see a better option," he said.
Buckheister will appoint a special committee to research options for the post's future home, Webb said. "The VFW existed for 50 years before we moved into that building. There is no reason to think we can't exist in another location," he said.
The post was thriving in the early 2000s with well-attended bingo and fish fry events, and members decided to invest all the post's savings, or about $300,000, into building an addition for a new, larger bar around 2009.
But shortly after, Weld Road was closed off and reconfigured as part of the yearslong reconstruction of nearby Route 20 and McLean Boulevard. That's when attendance took a nose-dive, leading to declining revenues, post officials said.
The property now needs roof, heating and air-conditioning, parking lot and other upgrades, but the post is barely breaking even at the end of each month, post officials said.
Post members Bob Getz and Rich Dunne declined to say how they voted.
Getz said he supports the post's leadership. "Sometimes you get into situations where there is no other alternative - and that's where they are at."
The turn of events is heartbreaking for many members, but what matters is continuing to serve veterans and the community, Dunne said.
"It's a sign of the times, unfortunately," he said, adding, "Hindsight being 20/20, we shouldn't have put the new addition on."
Some members advocated borrowing money to upgrade the building; another suggestion was to rent the building to other nonprofits.
But that wouldn't solve the problem of how to pay for the upgrades, Buckheister said, estimating the post would have to increase its monthly profits by $2,000 to $4,000 to make that happen, he said.
The post's tax forms for 2014 show $193,000 in revenues with an end-of-year deficit of $2,000.
"If we believed that could happen, we would have probably taken that route," Buckheister said. "I don't see where we would pick up that kind of income."
An attendance of 30 out of 266 total membership actually is a big turnout for the Elgin post, Buckheister said. There are only about 15 actively involved members, and many others have retired and moved out of state to places like Florida and Arizona, he said.
"It's been a long time coming," Buckheister said. "It's not just something that happened in a couple of years."