History was made last week in Lawrence, but was most likely unseen by most all folks. It involved a soil test in, and around the American Legion Hall and the former Locomotive office building. The soil testing was the first step required to erect a building anywhere. The crew was in town one day to do their duty and allow the progress to continue. Building blue prints are completed and construction costs are being compiled. The committee will review everything in the coming months. Expectations are high for a grant to help with the funding of the building.
•Perseverance . . .•Determination . . .•Purpose . . .
Use any of those words, or many others that have the same meaning, and . . . you'd be describing the people of Lawrence . . . its neighbors . . . or Lawrence natives.
What does that mean?
Well . . . for something over a dozen years now, the community has been dedicated (another word to include above) to the idea of a new community center for the village. A dedicated group of citizens have been working on this idea all that time and this summer could maybe be said was the beginning.
The beginning of anything physical towards that goal. With a project of this size, several things have to take place at the very beginning. •First off a detailed plan of the building has to be finalized. That took place over the summer and blue prints by the architect were submitted to the committee who OK'd them, and give the architect the 'go-ahead' to submit them to contractors to obtain a final estimate of what the cost would be.
• Secondly: State regulations require a soil test be done to determine the suitability of the ground to support a building of this size and purpose.
A short history of events before this summer goes back those dozen years with the Lawrence American Legion Post 45 realization that the numbers of members was on a decline. With the deaths of members who served in WWII, Korea or Viet Nam, new members were few and far between. Along with that realization came the fact that the Legion facilities were aging. The upkeep of the building was getting more expensive year by year. In addition, many activities that were formerly held at the Legion Hall were being moved to larger facilities in other places.
As such, a community building committee was organized and has been working since that time.
A lot of "background" work was being done. The Legion secured the two lots of land south of the Legion Hall and pledged to donate the land for the building. In addition, the Legion pledged and now paid $35,000 to the building.
"Covid" . . . a word nobody wants to hear anymore was a very important word in this whole campaign. No, the world did not come to a stand-still, but it had a huge impact on the money raising efforts of the committee and for several years, not a lot of work was completed.
However, two things came into play. First off, the Covid regulation of the state and national governments were relaxed and done away with. Secondly: Lyle Kohmetscher saw to it that $150,000 was donated from an estate he controlled to the building effort.
Those two events revitalized the committee and since then, they have been busy with a number of fund-raising events to benefit the effort.
That $150,000 donation is the only large donation made to the building effort. (Committee members hope and pray for more such donations). However, in the past year and half, the growth of the money raised has been dramatic. A short summary:
January 2023: $523,175
May 2024: $760,372
October 2024: $828,718
The current figure is not expected to be large enough to pay for the building and the effort to raise more money is ongoing.
The current increases come from a number of sources. The most recent "Memorial Gifts" came from the families of Ed Ostdiek and Ken Schiermeyer. The Lawrence Feed Service made a substantial donation and interest income added to the total. A variety of small donations continue to come in to increase the fund total.
"What can you even say?" The three words we started with sort of sum up this community cuilding effort:
Perseverance . . .Determination . . .Purpose . . .
Building committee members fully realize their work is a small part of the whole effort. To date, a large, large amount of the money raised has come from many, many people who have made smaller donations. A lot of those donations came at the annual St. Patrick's Day fund raising events.
Speaking of the fund raiser, the committee also recently finalized plans for the entertainer this coming year. The event will be March 15, 2025. The entertainment will be a variety show featuring a magic and comedy show.
"What can you even say?" The committee realized they have quite a substantial amount of money on hand, it is still not sufficient to build the type of building that will serve the citizens of the area. They will gladly accept donations of any amount towards this goal. You are asked to contact Carla Kohmetscher at home or at the Farmers and Merchants Bank in Lawrence with any questions.
Reader Comments(0)