Funding sought to activate generator for community emergency shelter
ELSMERE – Sometimes just having the generator is not enough. The American Legion Blanchard-Currey Post 1040 will fundraise to pay for final installation at its Elsmere facility of the generator that has resided there unusable for three years. Last week’s storm brought home the realization that if its generator could only be turned on, the Post’s building could be used as an emergency shelter should Bethlehem’s power grid get whacked by another storm.
About three years ago the generator was donated to the Post. Robert’s Towing transported the generator from Clifton Park to Elsmere and set it in place. Another local Delmar company ran a gas line to it, but the last phase of getting the electrical wires into the Post’s building and onto its electrical system — which requires a licensed electrician — was never completed due to cost. The generator, as described by Post Board Chairman Scott Anson, “is about half the size of a car.”
Although the Post held its power in last week’s snow/ice storm, the storm’s impact on the community was felt at the Post’s monthly Sunday breakfast. Anson said they served about 100 people whose power was out at the Sunday morning all you can eat buffet. They came for a meal, to get warm and charge their phones. “Some people were driving by and saw our lawn sign and pulled in,” Anson said.
“Whenever there’s a storm, power lines fall on the trees in people’s backyards and the lines go down,” Anson said. “We realized we could make our building more usable in an emergency situation if we connected the generator because we have capacity for 213 people upstairs which could serve as an emergency shelter if needed.”
Anson said he obtained three cost estimates to finish the job, all coming in at around $15,000 because the work involves drilling through the building concrete. That expense is more than what the Post can pay on its “limited budget,” said Anson. “If everyone in Town sent me a buck, we could fix it no problem or if someone sent a few grand we would be closer to getting it finished.”
The American Legion was chartered by Congress in 1919 as a patriotic not-for-profit veterans’ organization focusing on services to veterans, service members and communities. The Town’s American Legion post was founded in 1929. It has been housed at its current location—a former railroad station and onetime school — since 1931.
Donations to the generator project can be made by sending a check to the American Legion Post at 16 W. Poplar Drive, Elsmere 12054 and noting “for generator” on the check. “We’re trying to raise anything at this point, but $15,000 would get the job finished and done,” Anson declared.
