Veterans of Foreign Wars J.W. Clendenin Post 2301 in Monmouth is looking for a new, smaller home.
The VFW’s large hall on North G Street was sold last month to Warren Achievement Center for $345,500.
“We have moved out of the building because we can no longer afford to operate it,” said Quartermaster Dan Heatherly.
He said the VFW in Monmouth never financially recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, so they needed to downsize.
“Business was really, really horrible and expenses were so high, we could no longer afford to maintain that large building,” he said.
Heatherly said the majority of VFW’s income came from renting the hall out for wedding receptions and other events.
“In its time it’s served us very well,” Heatherly said. “We used to run bingo out of there and have 250 to 300 people every Friday night. Bingo’s gone and a lot of other things are gone.”
VFW Post 2301 is not disbanding and will continue to be part of the Monmouth community.
They’ll use the proceeds from the sale of the hall to buy a smaller building to hold meetings for the post and auxiliary, but they’ll no longer be in the events business.
“It’s been a struggle but we’ve got good people working on it,” Heatherly said.
Warren Achievement Center will use the North G. Street building for its Community Day Services Program for people with developmental disabilities.
The plans include remodeling and an addition to the building.
The original story was published by TSPR and is available here.
