Chuck Samples/KVOE News.
Members of Emporia’s Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1980 are “heartbroken” they have to sell their headquarters.
Post Commander Phil Sickler declined a taped interview with KVOE News during a special farewell gathering at 932 Graphic Arts on Memorial Day, but he says “there aren’t enough of us left and we are trying to make sure there aren’t more of us.”
Post members voted unanimously to sell the building as part of a special meeting earlier this month. Re/Max Ek Real Estate has listed the building at $280,000, and Sickler says the building had its first showing Sunday.
Sickler and other post members have said post members will remain active in the community, even with no official headquarters building to conduct business. Sickler says post members still plan to organize youth scholarships and hold community outreach activities. Veteran Frank Lowery agreed during Emporia’s Memorial Day service Monday:
Post members reached their decision to sell in large part due to financial issues dating back seven to 11 years. The post went through a four-year period between 2014-2018 where employee taxes weren’t paid to the Internal Revenue Service as mandated. Besides the decision to close the post, part of the aftermath from that period included a loss in non-profit status for Post 1980. Sickler says work has been ongoing for years to regain that status, and the IRS is still studying its case. Proceeds from the building sale will go straight into the post’s coffers, but post leaders will have to wait for the non-profit status issues to be resolved before they can even consider buying or renting new facility space.
