Ash Grove Legion to ask for help

Social media misinformation adding to frustration of situation
 
With a low number of members, combined with the pandemic halting their ability to hold fundraisers, the Ash Grove American Legion Post 307 was forced to close their building last year, as they could not continue to afford to pay the $500 monthly costs required to keep it open.
However, members of the Legion are now proposing a solution; a partnership with Ash Grove. In the proposed partnership, the city would take over the building, while allowing the Legion to still use the building.
“Our goal is to continue the American Legion, even with the small numbers that we have, but to find a partner that could help maintain the building and keep it from going into disrepair,” said Darin Chance, vice-commander of Post 307.

 “And, that was the idea of getting with the city to see if they would be interested in purchasing that and keeping it up and also allowing us to continue meeting there. That was the overall goal.”
Chance said the majority of active Legion members are in favor of the partnership.
“We took a vote on it—our active members—and we will be bringing that to the city,” he said.
Because they had to close their hall, the Legion is currently holding their meetings at the Ash Grove City Hall. Chance said a partnership with the city would allow the Legion to go back to holding their meetings in the building.
“We would like to be able to continue … the building to keep going like it is, because it’s a neat building,” he said. “It’s got historical value, even though it’s not eligible for the national list, it’s still got historical value to the community and to us as well. We want to keep everything going like it is, but we also want to take some of that financial pressure off of us, and we want to keep the building in good shape, and partnering with the city is an idea that we had (that will) hopefully (accomplish) that.”
Chance said they planned to approach the city council during one of their meetings on either March 1 or March 15 to propose the partnership. Matters have been complicated, he said, as the Legion’s commander, Cody Fry, who was going to propose the partnership to the city council, has been called to active military duty to help with COVID-19 relief efforts. Chance said he is wary of proposing the partnership himself because, as he is also Ash Grove’s Chief of Police, he wishes to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest. For that reason, he hopes to have another Legion member make the request instead.
Additionally, Chance said misinformation about what would happen to the building has been making its rounds on social media.
“One of the issues we’ve had with that is there were some people who had gotten their information off of social media,” he said, “(and they were) thinking that the city was going to tear down the American Legion and build a parking lot. There were all kinds of things that were not true that were put on social media.”
Chance said he believes the partnership will benefit both the Legion and the city, as both would be able to make use of the building.
“You have the opportunity for us to continue meeting in that really cool building, but you also have the opportunity for that building to be used for other purposes,” he said.