Keeping up an 85-year-old building is no small feat, yet Michael Farrari is working hard at it as commander of the Geneva-Fox River American Legion Post 75.

Upgrades to the building at 22 S. Second St. have been in the works for some time and continue, Ferrari said.

“The American Legion has this concept of four pillars, and all our programs are centered around these four pillars: veterans affairs and rehabilitation, national security, Americanism and children and youth,” Ferrari said.

The post building itself is part of that calling.

“We have our Post available for the community to come in and have events. Nonprofits come and host their meetings here,” Ferrari said. “We want to provide a place for the community, but the only way we can do that is to have a building that is not rundown, to have a functional place where we can have events.”

The latest effort was to have a new HVAC installed over the summer to replace a 25-year-old unit.

Volunteers sold Keep Vets Cool raffle tickets for $100 each, eventually taking in $16,750 for the project. With money they’d already set aside, a monthly raffle night, additional donations from Geneva Community Chest and regular online donations, the group was able to cover the cost, Ferrari said.

“The original estimate was over $40,000. Our cost was just under that – $37,900,” Ferrari said.

The old HVAC unit had to be taken off the roof and new units brought up via a crane. Ferrari said the crane operator donated the use of the crane, saving an additional $2,000.

“That was awesome,” Ferrari said.

To put it in perspective, the two new rooftop units weigh 5 tons and 7 tons.

The majority of work on the building is complete, though there are still plans to replace a small bar in the kitchen, and the air-conditioning in the basement also needs work.

“We are doing it one piece at a time,” Ferrari said.

Traditionally, a commander is elected for a series of terms. Ferrari has been commander for 5½ years.

“Once you’re in that role, it takes a year or two to get good at it,” he said. “The best part of being commander is you are the face of the Legion in town. You are the person coordinating things and working things out for city parades and getting permits. ... It’s a fun thing to do.”

Ferrari served in the U.S. Army in the late 1980s, stationed in Schweinfurt, Germany, and then at Fort Hood, Texas.

Other than the building, the Post’s other challenge is to increase membership.

Ten years ago, the membership was 300. Current membership is 165, and some 70% are Vietnam- and Korean War-era vets.

“A handful of us younger veterans started to revive the post and try to bring it back to its previous glory,” Ferrari said. “And part of this process is to fix all the broken things. We call it our capital improvement project.”

There are still challenges.

“Younger vets are not joiners. They’re burned out from the meat grinder in Iraq and Afghanistan and they have a bad taste in their mouth in this [the Legion] being another military organization,” Ferrari said.

When they get older is when Legions see them join, he said.

Bryan Fuller, the local Legion’s finance officer, said Ferrari’s great organizational skills are an asset to the post – especially while upgrading the building.

“He’s great. He’s very organized. He has a very engineer-type mindset,” Fuller said. “He is really good about putting lists together of what needs to happen and prioritizing what needs to happen and figuring out how to get things accomplished.”