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Early discussions are underway about what to do with the American Legion Lenox Hotard Post 31 in Houma.
The American Legion’s membership has been decreasing since the Korean war, and maintaining the facility has become difficult, said Lee Shaffer, Commander of Post 31. The current idea which has arisen is to convert it into a veteran’s center.
“The opportunity is that we have a building in the center of the city. It’s in a great neighborhood,” said Shaffer. “It could fit a lot of the veterans in the community, so we thought maybe this veteran’s center is an idea”
The American Legion is a nonpartisan organization which brings veterans together socially and grants opportunities to help get involved in nonprofit activities in their community. At it’s peak it had about 1500 members, after World War 2, and now Shaffer said it has stabilized at about 230 members over the past 3 years.
The decline in membership is partly natural, said Shaffer. World War 2 and the Korean War had larger numbers than more current wars of Afghan and Iraq.
Shaffer said many of the younger veterans aren’t interested in joining a civic organization, and by converting the building into a more general veteran’s center, it may be of better use to the current and future veteran community.
“So, we thought this would be a great opportunity for us to
take not just the Legion or the VFW, but all the veterans in the community end give them a place where they can go” he said. “The point is to allow somebody to use these facilities and use the location and not necessarily be a member…”
One requirement would be an honorable discharge.
According to Shaffer, same of the ideas tossed around include a gym, a bar, a garden, wifi offices, cybercafe, an area for senior veterans, meals and support for the homeless and to those veterans who cannot find employment.
“Have we put it pencil to paper and actually given a graph and a diagram as to how thin will all happen,” Shoffer asked rhetorically. “We haven’t gotten that far.”
It was decided that the first step in the process of the future of the facility was an environmental assessment.
During this process, lead paint and asbestos were discovered in the building. These plus other miscellaneous repairs are estimated to cost $300,000 of their $500,000 budget.
Shaffer said now that this assessment was complete, the next step was to create a board. Currently the process was being done under the banner of the American Legion, and Shaffer said the next step is to decide if the non-profit entity should be separate from the American Legion, which he said he thinks is the route to go, or to be connected to the memorial district.
The Veteran’s Memorial District is in charge of the Veteran’s Memorial Park on Hwy 311, and the Regional Military Museum.
He said talks within the legion have suggested the organization would like this hypothetical board to be comprised of business leaders, older veterans, younger veterans, veterans unaffiliated from any of the civic organizations, and hopefully an engineer to help develop plans for the building and how to best utilize the remaining $200,000.
While same younger veterans have already proposed ideas during informal meetings, Shaffer asks that any younger veteran who wishes to weigh in to please contact him.
The hall is named after Lenox Hotard, a veteran who died after the first world war from Bourg.
On the third of August Friday, the hall will be hasting an open house from 5:30-7:30pm.
The American flag files high in the sky with the sun behind it. There are discussions ongoing about what to do with the Post 31 American Legion Hall in Houma.
