By Pat Maurer
Correspondent
There’s a grand opening of the new Harrison Eagles Aerie building planned for the middle of May, club officials say. The building is up and the interior walls are framed in. The Kitchen equipment is installed and the furnishings are coming soon.
Eagles Trustee Chair (for the past 7 years) Randy Chamberlain showed off the new over $800,000 building, a work in progress. “It was five years of hard work to get the Eagles solvent,” he said, “and then our building burned. That was July 5, 2020.” He added “Luckily we were insured, but it won’t cover everything. We have been, and still are holding fundraisers to raise enough to cover the inside furnishings and décor. So far we have raised about $20,000 and we should have just enough to cover everything.”
The deadline is getting close and they are working hard to get the Eagles open again.
Due to increased costs, the new building had to be built just a bit smaller, 6,200 square feet (the old building was 7,600) but walking through the wide-open interior, it looks huge. Electrical is nearly done now and they will be able to work on finishing the interior.
“We used all local contractors for the building project,” Randy said. “Tom’s Pole Buildings of Harrison; Parker Plumbing of Harrison; Accu-Air Heating and Cooling of Clare, Alwards Electric of Gladwin and Great Lakes Custom Drywall of Harrison.”
Building the new Eagles building, due to supply shortages and increased costs, has caused some delays, Randy said. “We started construction in October of 2020. Some things that were supposed to take ten weeks, ended up taking ten months.” The kitchen alone is costing $100,000, they said.
Randy said, “The insurance, unfortunately wasn’t enough to replace everything. We have to pay miscellaneous costs for furniture, furnishings and replacing some equipment.”
Members Dave Hamilton Eagles President, and Trustee Ken Sorgenfrei did all of the interior framing. “We have to chip in,” Dave said. “We want to get back up and running again.” Randy said, “Where ever we can, we have tried to save.”
Inside there will be a bar and dining area with a horseshoe bar and window bars made with real whiskey barrels. There will also be a large conference room on the south side of the building and spacious offices on the west. The entrance will be on the East side of the building, and the kitchen with five fryers and a grill, as well as a commercial air exchanger, will be in the middle. “We will have camping hookups,” Randy said, “and a shuffleboard. Harrison Eagles also has a large area available with electric hookups for up to 12 RVs.