SOUTH PITTSBURG, Tenn. - As a large team of Air Force volunteers prepares to invade South Pittsburg over the July 4 weekend to continue restoring the rundown Marion County American Legion Post 62 building, organizers are looking for local craftspeople to donate their skills to the project, too.
Retired Chief Master Sgt. Trevor Shattuck, who has led the restoration efforts recently, said volunteers already have made "significant progress" on the job, and the Legion hall has gotten a fair amount of pledges for donations so far.
"If anyone is willing to volunteer, we need to get as many of the local folks involved with the Air Force team working on this as possible," he said.
A 12-member team of Air Force volunteers from Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, Ga., is scheduled to work over the July 4 weekend. Shattuck said members are interested in touring the town and spending time with residents.
"They really like it here," he said.
More than a dozen South Pittsburg residents attended a meeting last week about the project, and Vice Mayor Jimmy Wigfall said another meeting is planned for July 16 at 6 p.m. CDT at the Legion hall.
"It's going to take a lot of work over in that building, and we can't wait for the Air Force guys to do it all for us," he said. "We need to get some craftsmen to help. We can do a lot of stuff for ourselves."
Wigfall said refurbishing the building is a long-term project, but volunteers will "keep plugging away at it" until it's complete.
The restoration of the city's Princess Theatre took more than 10 years before it finally opened in 2011.
"We're not going to be that long," Wigfall said. "It's a big difference already. You can look and see that a lot of work has been done, but we've still got a lot of work to do."
Melissa Mortimer, historic preservation planner with the Southeast Tennessee Development District, is scheduled to tour the facility this week to determine if it is a candidate for the National Register of Historic Places.
"That means a lot because that's going to affect how we proceed on our restoration," Shattuck said. "If we're a candidate, we would fall under some criteria that's really strict that we have to maintain."
He said having more stringent rules to follow would eliminate any disagreements that might crop up during an extended refurbishment, and it could open up some state grant funding for the project.
Whether or not the Legion hall is deemed a Register candidate, Shattuck said, volunteers are "still going to restore that building."
"Any kind of help we can get, from swinging a hammer to cooking a burger, it's all going towards finishing this project," he said.
Ryan Lewis is based in Marion County. Contact him at ryanlewis34 @gmail.com.