For sale signs will go up at Sechelt Legion Branch 140 within the next couple of weeks as members voted July 31 to sell the building and the lot it sits on.
Only 66 members of the Sechelt Legion (about 20 per cent of the membership) showed up for the vote on July 31 and over 80 per cent voted to sell. Around the same percentage also voted in favour of taking a loan from B.C. Yukon Command to keep the doors open and taxes paid until the Legion can be sold, according to executive committee member Paul Lith.
Lith said the mood at the Legion during the vote was one of anticipation as members knew they couldn’t afford to keep the Legion running in its current form, and B.C. Yukon Command has pledged to do what it can to help the branch continue on a smaller scale in the future.
“I think there was a sense of curiosity in terms of where are we going to go,” Lith said. “I think they were wondering what was going to happen basically.”
What’s going to happen now, Lith said, is the Legion executive will finish up the needed paperwork and select a realtor to put the building and the lot it sits on at 5591 Wharf Ave. up for sale. That’s expected to take about two weeks.
While members wait for the Legion to sell, they’ll also search out a new location that can accommodate a small gathering space, a bar and the accompanying liquor licence needed to operate.
“The zoning issue and the liquor licence issue will be two obstacles that are going to take some work,” Lith said. “It’s certainly not a matter of picking up your suitcase and moving to another place. It’s not easy.”
He said a special futures committee has been set up to investigate what options are available in Sechelt.
If you know of a space that could work or would like to help the futures committee, contact either Lith or branch president Kay Metcalfe at 604-885-2526.
Sechelt Legion Branch 140 has put out the call for help several times since 2012, warning that they were running out of money and in desperate need of more patrons to stay afloat, but to no avail.
This year all of the branch’s reserve funds were depleted and about $10,000 raised from the membership was also spent to keep the doors open.
With no funds left to continue, the Legion has taken a $50,000 loan from B.C. Yukon Command to pay back taxes and fix a leak in the building to prepare it to be put on the market.
Funds from the sale of the Legion will stay connected to the Sechelt branch membership as long as members can find another space to operate from.
