Reactivated Legion Post to host event Saturday

The reactivated American Legion Post 20 of Tucumcari will host a trunk-or-treat event and an open house from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Saturday at its new headquarters in the renovated Hardee’s building.

The event also will sign up area veterans as new members of the post.

John Pacheco, the owner of the building and vice commander of Post 20, said in a phone interview last week he had nearly 20 members already signed up.

“Our goal is to be a fully activated post, which allows us to have the bar and bingo facility,” he said during a telephone interview last week. “You have to have 50 members. By Veterans Day, we should be able to obtain that.”

He said Post 20 will have a number of former members who now live in San Jon and Logan but resided in Tucumcari when the post closed in the mid-1990s.

“We’ve probably received 50 to 60 calls about it, and that includes the auxiliaries,” Pacheco said.

Pacheco said he also anticipates a membership boost from the recent closure of the American Legion Post 77 Auxiliary in Logan.

Once Post 20 is fully operational, Pacheco said he has a mission on how to use the proceeds from bingo, facility rentals and other events.

“All the proceeds we gain from that facility will be used to feed the youth of Tucumcari,” he said. “Our mission statement will be to feed the youth of our community from pre-K to (grade) 12. We’ll try to provide evening meals from 5 to 6:30 p.m. through that drive-through window.”

The Hardee’s closed in 2002 and deteriorated into an eyesore at the corner of First Street and Tucumcari Boulevard in the years since.

Pacheco said he’s spent about $385,000 on purchasing and renovating the Hardee’s building. Since acquiring it, the structure has been repainted red, white and blue, along with symbols of U.S. military branches.

“We’ve been getting calls every day, thanking us” for brightening that corner, he said.

Pacheco, a Tucumcari native and a disabled Army veteran, said the impetus for resurrecting Post 20 came after the death of his mother in April. He said he went to a service and saw headstones for long-deceased veterans that had been in storage for years.

“The feedback that was given to us was the families were responsible for placing those headstones. That broke my heart,” Pacheco said, whose voice broke with emotion.

He said Post 20 will call federal officials and ensure that deceased veterans will receive a proper burial.

Pacheco reactivated Legion Post 20 in mid-April after the post went dormant in 1996. He said it was one of New Mexico’s oldest American Legion posts. He said the post also will refer veterans suffering from illnesses of post-traumatic stress syndrome to proper healthcare providers.

Veterans, close relatives of veterans or the widows or widowers of veterans who are interested in joining Post 20 should call post treasurer Lorraine Romo at (505) 264-8188.

“We’ve had a lot of interest,” Romo said.

Tucumcari also has another longtime veterans group, VFW Post 2528. Slik Knapp, its commender, said earlier this year he welcomed another veterans organization in Tucumcari.

Pacheco also has been in the news lately as the owner of the former Quail Ridge assisted living facility.

He converted the facility into housing for Mesalands Community College students, but residents in the neighborhood complained about noise, additional traffic and concerns over property values.

Earlier this month, the city commission approved a zoning change that reverts Quail Ridge’s special-use permit to R-1 single family residential housing. Mesalands Interim President Allen Moss said at the meeting he supported Pacheco’s effort to supply housing to students, but such efforts “should be in accordance of the law.”

Pacheco said those students have to leave the facility by Oct. 27, and he was exploring his legal options regarding the property.

Pacheco or his company, Silverline Rehab Construction, also have been subject to six recent lawsuits from residents.

Pacheco, saying his company has remodeled more than 100 homes in Tucumcari since the severe hailstorm in May, labeled the lawsuits as “frivolous” and would fight them in court.