A special meeting was called by Commander Paul Schafer to discuss the possibility of the Sartell American Legion to lease a building in order to have a Legion Club.
The Finance Officer, Nick Dockendorf, gave a report on the current standings of the Legion's financial status. He, Nick, handed out a document outlining the current amounts in the Legion's accounts.
Mr. Lance Lucius gave a talk on what he did to help get the Clearwater Legion up and running successfully. His main focus was to get membership and keep theLegion alive. To do so, you need a place where Legionnaire's can go. Have gaming and restart the Auxiliary.
The discussion that followed was colorful, with plenty of different topics.
- Bars today have many financial issues and are having troubles staying profitable.
- Can the Legion run a bar without loosing a lot of money?
- What will be the effect of the October 1st ban on all smoking in bars?
- We do not have anyone, at our Legion, with bar management experience.
- Sartell Police harassment.
- The building being mentioned was not built for a bar, it was built as a bank.
- Sartell Legion's membership is not enough to support a bar on its own.
- What will be the maintenance cost of the building?
- Who would buy the building if the Legion decided to leave?
- What is the cost of the Lease?
- What are the costs of insurance(s)?
- Can the Sartell American Legion get a gaming license?
The meetings objective was restated by the Commander. In that, this meeting is just to see if the Legion Membership wants to go ahead with looking into getting a Legion bldg. The Cmdr also brought up the idea of a bar committee of Legion members. The size of this committee should be from 3 to 5 members. Ralph J. brought up a resolution to suspend any further talks on the Legion for 6 months and see what effect the Oct 1st smoking ban on bars is. This motion was 2nd by Rolly W. A discussion on this motion followed:
- Waiting 6 months, the building my not be available.
- Could the Legion have a meeting place and yet no bar?
- The Legion doesn't want to loose all the money saved in the bank on a bad idea.
A vote was taken on this motion: 9 Favored the motion, 12 voted against the motion
The motion to table the project was defeated.
A second motion, made by Royce N. was to allow the Commander to investigate the cost of leasing the building in order for it to be used as a Legion club. This was 2nd by Chuck H. The Discussion phase of this motion followed:
A full budget will be presented by the CMDR after collecting all the facts available at the time. The membership would then vote again on the idea of pursuing a new Legion Club.
A vote was taken on this motion: 13 Favored the motion, 6 voted against the motion
An idea to help this along was made to see if the SCSU Business class could do a feasibility study on the effect of opening another bar in Sartell. Nick D. will check with the Minnesota Gaming commission to see what it would take for the Sartell American Legion to get a Gambling license. Everyone felt this is crucial to having a Legion club.
John Denney, ADJ
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