City Council to Vote on Meeting Area for Veterans Groups
Increased Membership Leads American Legion To Lobby for Return to Pre-1989 LocationTuesday, February 26, 2008
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Comments (In an effort to accommodate the expanding membership of a Berkeley veterans group, the Berkeley City Council will vote tonight on whether to give them new space in the veteran's building in Downtown Berkeley.
After almost a year of lobbying from the Berkeley post of The American Legion, City Councilmember Kriss Worthington said he proposed the item to allow the post to return to the Berkeley Veterans Memorial Building.
The post began using the first floor of the building for their meetings in 1988, but moved after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake when the city declared the building seismically unsafe, said George Gaebler, former commander of the American Legion, Berkeley Post 7.
If the item is approved by City Council members, the post will need to share its meeting space with Options Recovery Services, a group that runs treatment centers for substance abuse and has been using space in the building as an office and occasional meeting space for several years, Worthington said.
City Manager Phil Kamlarz will be responsible for negotiating a schedule for the use of the room between the two groups. The second floor of the building is being used as storage space, said Joseph Chock, the current commander of the Berkeley post.
Another veterans group, Disabled American Veterans, also uses a small room in the building, but Worthington said the post should be allowed to meet in the space they used in the past.
Chock said the membership of the Berkeley post, which currently includes 70 people, has grown considerably in the past year.
"We're growing and we're expanding and we need this space," he said.
Worthington said he was confident both the recovery services and the post could continue to operate while sharing space in the building.
"I think we can meet the needs of Options (Recovery Services) and meet the needs of the veterans," Worthington said.
Worthington said he was proposing to allow the veterans to use the space, because they should be open to all groups.
"Let's treat people equally", he said.
Contact Valerie Woolard at vwoolard@dailycal.org.
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