Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1980 leaders have some help as they prepare to install a special drain at the club’s longtime home in west Emporia. To borrow and adjust a past advertising slogan from the Marines, they still need a few good people to get started.
Last weekend, Post Commander Phil Sickler asked for several volunteers to help install a French drain on the north side of the building at 932 Graphic Arts. The post put the building on the market in May after extended financial issues, and the improvement project will help to eliminate any drainage issues. The current goal is to get at least two more volunteers for work between July 25-27. Sickler anticipates four to six hours of work between 9 am and 3 pm should be sufficient to handle the project because trenching will be handled by a backhoe.
To volunteer, call 620-794-0318 or email vfw1980@gmail.com.
The decisions to sell and, by extension, improve the building’s drainage follow a period between 2014-2018 when employee taxes inadvertently were not paid to the Internal Revenue Service as mandated by the federal government. Connected to that time period was the resulting loss of non-profit status for the post, and Sickler says members are trying — again — to regain that nonprofit designation. The original case was closed, briefly reopened and then closed again when the IRS said it did its due diligence in contacting the post by mailing the physical address instead of a post office box and then calling an outdated phone number with a full voicemail. Sickler says it could be six more months at best before post leaders get an update from the IRS.
Once the building is sold, Sickler says the original plan remains in effect to deposit the fund into programs like the Emporia Community Foundation and/or other local groups to develop scholarships and different programs focused on veterans.
