American Legion Post 66 awarded grant from DeKalb city

DeKALB – American Legion Post 66 is getting a hand-up from the city of DeKalb with paying for a new electronic sign.

At a recent public meeting, the DeKalb City Council decided to award $8,119 in Architectural Improvement Program grant funds to the Post, as part of the city’s program to incentivize redevelopment in commercial areas outside the boundaries of the downtown Tax Increment Financing District.

American Legion Post 66 commander Manny Olalde said he appreciates the city’s support of the Post.

“This enables us to continue to build our stronger ties between our American Legion and our city leaders and business owners and residents in DeKalb,” Olalde said.

Olalde said the grant funds will be used to reimburse the Post for purchasing the new sign.

The Post intends to replace the existing wooden sign outside its facility to inform the public about its annual events and meetings, as well as those of other veterans organizations. The digital display also will provide welcoming messages to visitors traveling the Fourth Street corridor.

The sign has not yet been installed as of Monday. Council action is contingent on additional approvals of sign and electrical permits by the city.

Olade said the city’s grant will allow the Legion Post to use their own money elsewhere to give back.

“One of those funds that this allows us to continue with is the DeKalb High School American Legion Scholarships where we offer $500 to one graduating senior, male and female. That’s a quick $1,000 drop in our account. We’d rather spend money giving back to the community,” Olade said.

Olalde said the last time time the Post had to make significant investments to its facilities was during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’ve had a lot of renovations done a couple years back during COVID,” he said. “We had completely remodeled the inside. Again, that was a self-funded remodel. That was the last time, and we’ve been in that building since 1997. Everything had served its purpose. Everything had started to need updating and upgrading. The interior in itself was a major hit to our American Legion.”

Olalde said he was glad to learn the Legion qualified for the city’s Architectural Improvement program, especially since the Legion is outside of the city’s downtown TIF district. The city is embarking on a study to determine if it should implement another TIF District for the Fourth Street corridor.

The grant comes as a relief to the Post and its members, Olade said.

“There’s a lot of little things that are pretty costly to the veteran community that we would like to be out there doing fundraisers but have no real means of letting the public know exactly what we do,” he said. “This signage, once we get signage complete, will be a visual for our community to see and it’ll dress up the Fourth Street corridor.”