In 2019 the old American Legion building near the intersection of I-44 and state Highway 49 burned and was destroyed. Comanche County owned the building and leased it to the Senior Citizen Center, who used it for their many activities to include weekend dances. Shortly thereafter, I was approached by an old acquaintance who asked me if the County intended to rebuild the facility. I responded that as far as I knew there was no plan to do so unless there were sufficient insurance settlement funds. In addition, I told him that if there was no funding, there was no way we could afford or justify spending upwards of a million dollars to replace the building that NO County Entity was using. On July 16, 2020, the Comanche County Excise Board sent a letter to the Commissioners stating our objections to rebuilding the American Legion using County money. However, we also said we have no objection to leasing the property to any party of interest who can provide their own financing and is willing to follow all state competitive bidding guidelines and building codes.
In the winter of 2021/2022, the Comanche County Commissioners sought out all County entities for their ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) requests and when all were tallied up, it was upwards to $70 million of which one million was for the construction of the AL building. Knowing that the requests far exceeded what was available ($23 million), the Commissioners hired the law firm of Floyd & Driver of Norman to interpret the guidelines set out in the ARPA statutes. As late as April of this year Floyd & Driver stated that even though the Senior Citizens Center like other nonprofits, suffered economically due to COVID-19 pandemic, the project met none of the more stringent guidelines for ARPA funding.
The Comanche County Commissioners were indeed correct in their decision to not rebuild the AL facility.
JP Richard
Chairman, Comanche County Excise Board