Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Goodbye bingo, goodbye building?

Some fear ending bingo at VFW 10209 is a precursor to marketing the property, which is in a prime location near the Suncoast Parkway.

By BETH N. GRAY
Published August 7, 2005

SPRING HILL - Could a "for sale" sign soon be planted out in front of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10209?

"We've discussed (selling) for five years, just common discussion," post commander Ed Noll said last week.

The post, which has operated at 15166 Spring Hill Drive since 1976, closed down its twice-a-week public bingo games last month after more than 20 years of fun for a mostly older crowd.

Several upset VFW bingo players have suggested the termination could be in preparation for marketing the property, a prime commercial development location, just east of the Suncoast Parkway.

And only a few miles to the east along U.S. 41, several large residential developments - including Hernando Oaks and Southern Hills Plantation - will bring an influx of new customers and shoppers for local businesses.

The VFW property, on four parklike acres, includes the clubhouse with its spacious banquet-bingo hall, a canteen-bar with limited but comfortable dining table seating, a commercial kitchen and a small office. A concrete block outbuilding offers an outdoor stage under a roof where events ranging from the now-defunct chicken plucking contest to musical entertainment and flea markets have taken place.

Both the assessed value and market value of the property are listed at $478,444 in county records. County Property Appraiser Alan Mazourek said the numbers likely are up to date.

State VFW quartermaster adjutant Benny Bachand of Ocala said he spoke with Noll after hearing of the bingo shutdown and controversy. As for the possible sale of the property, Bachand said, "I have not heard that."

A post does not need permission from the state VFW to sell a facility or move.

"It only requires them to notify us, notify intent to sell and notify once they have a contract," Bachand said. "It also requires them to notify every member of that post."

Noll reported the club's membership at 1,365 - the third-largest roster among VFW posts in Florida - but conceded that member participation has not approached that number in recent years.

Monthly business meetings attract up to 25, although many more took part in the session at which it was voted to discontinue bingo, Noll noted.

Is Post 10209's problem common?

Bachand isn't sure.

"I honestly could not answer that," said the quartermaster adjutant. "I don't have any evidence of that per se. I don't have people calling me and saying the sky is falling."

Bachand noted, however, that World War II veterans, aging and dying, make up the largest percentage - some 50 percent to 60 percent - of VFW membership in Florida and nationwide.

"Just because of their age," Bachand pointed out, "they're less involved, not just in VFW but across the board."

Vietnam vets make up about 20 percent of VFW membership, but many are not actively involved, said Bachand, who was national director of VFW membership for more than nine years before taking on his state position.

Membership participation aside, bingo at Post 10209 was losing money, Noll said. But any discussion of selling the property "has nothing to do with bingo," he said.

Over the years, other activities at the post have come and gone, he noted.

"This is not the first thing that stopped," the eight-year commander said of bingo, "and it won't be the last."

"Nine years ago, we stopped Friday night dinners in the hall when we had (attracted) 350 people, and it just went dead," Noll said.

Many years before that, the post ran the annual chicken-plucking contests, which were started by the Deltona Corp. as a means of drawing attention to the new community of Spring Hill. Animal activists caused the post to shut down the contests after 25 years, Noll said.

Other post activities have shrunk. Friday night dinners and entertainment now are confined to the canteen-bar. Entertainment is no longer on a large scale.

Noll's critics blame the slide of the post on his management style. They say he generally is nonparticipatory, and when he does get involved he's often confrontational.

In a reply to critics via a letter to the editor of the Hernando Times last week, Noll wrote: "If the membership wanted to replace me, they had eight different opportunities to do so when elections were held each year."

As for bingo's demise, the decision wasn't his, he emphasized. Members who attended the business meeting cast the vote.

Noll chastised the complainers, writing in his letter: "If (they) were so concerned about bingo being shut down and instead channeled their energy in convincing everyone to bring a friend, this would not have happened."

As for staking out a "for sale" sign, Noll declared: "We have no idea what we're going to do."

Beth Gray may be contacted at graybethn@earthlink.net

[Last modified August 7, 2005, 01:29:21]