There will be plenty to do at the Royal Canadian Legion in Portage la Prairie this fall, starting with an open house to bring in new visitors.

While the summer has posed some challenges for the centre on Duke Avenue, otherwise the local Legion is in good shape.

In July, the Legion was closed for four days when a sewer pipe broke in the games room area.

“We have got through phase one,” said Service Officer Bill Piercey. “We had to replace the sewer line — 50 feet of sewer line in the games room. We had to smash up the floor there to get at it. We replaced it. Then we had to fill it back in and level the floor.”

After the work was done, crews needed to put in a new carpet in the games room since the original one was damaged in the process.

“That part of it is completely finished at this point,” said Piercey. “We are still working on the main lounge, which we are hoping to re-carpet, within the next month or so.”

The Legion remains fully operational in the meantime.

“In the main lounge we are holding off (renovations) temporarily until we see how things go financially,” added Piercey. “We will be working on it very shortly.”

The carpeting in the main lounge is about 20 years old and needs to be replaced. This work will be done within the upcoming couple of months.

That will be the next phase of the centre’s renovations.

The full cost for all the renovations, including the work in the games room and the lounge, is estimated at about $20,000.

When the old sewer pipe was removed, it was replaced

with a more durable ABS plastic material.

Crews were able to clear out any leakage from the broken sewer line when they were making the repairs.

“Everything seems to be working quite fine now,” said Piercey. “There is not contamination that I am aware of.”

“We may need to borrow some money to offset some of our finances to cover it,” he added.

To help raise some funds for the facility, organizers will be running “Legion Week” from Sept. 15 to 22. This will be an open house for anyone who would like to visit the local Legion.

“There will be games, cribbage and shuffleboard tournaments,” said Piercey. “And we’ll try to have silent auctions to try to raise funds.”

In the past six months, the Legion has seen a steady increase in membership. Today it is roughly around the 450 mark, which is a significant rise, considering last year membership numbers were below 400.

“Memberships are going very well,” said Piercey. “We are quite surprised. Membership has spiked quite nicely.”

angela.brown@sunmedia.ca