Friday, August 1, 1947

Building Sale Proposed by Marfa Officials

Editor’s note: Today’s item was edited for length.

QUESTION:  TO SELL OR NOT TO SELL! — That’s what Marfans are faced with in regard to the community building known as “the USO Club.” City officials think it is impractical to repair it and maintain it. Some citizens think it serves too many too often to lose it as a meeting and recreation place. Others are not sure that the building is what the community should have. City officials will find out in a “Public Opinion Poll,” Tuesday, August 12, just how the people feel about selling or retaining it.

Tax-paying Marfans will vote Tuesday, August 12, to give the city commission their opinion of whether or not the City of Marfa should sell the city-owned building best known as “the USO Club.”

Late last week Marfa people learned that the city proposed to sell the building and certain furnishings and that a sale, described as “tentative,” had been made to Jim Corder, Marfa contractor, for $15,000. Mr. Corder, it was said, would remodel the building for use as a machine shop. About forty men and women attended a meeting at the Hayes Mitchell home, Sunday afternoon, when the proposed sale of the building was explained by E. W. DeVolin, mayor, and J. H. Marshall, Jr., city commissioner. The meeting was called by leaders in the Big Bend Dance Club who have been holding monthly dances in the community-owned building. The club is made up of Marfa people and other residents of the Highland Section.

“We want to do what’s right on the proposition,” said Mayor E.W. DeVolin. “If the people want that building and are willing to bear the expense of putting it in shape and maintaining it, all right. We don’t think it’s practical, and it was on that basis that we proposed to sell it at a price we thought was a price that would not result in a great loss to the city.”

The frame building was built in wartime days on city-given land (125 feet x 150 feet), with federal funds, at a contract cost of $47,500. Total cost has been expressed at $60,081.

Friday, August 15, 1947

Most of Voters Desire USO For Use of Community

A vote of 192 to 133 for the keeping of the USO Club property was recorded by voters, Tuesday, who expressed themselves in a “Public Opinion Poll*’ at the City Hall. E. W. DeVolin, mayor, said Thursday morning that he did not know at that time what the city’s course in regard to the building would be. He said:  “I don’t know what we will do about it. The money has to come from somewhere. We can’t reach up in the air and get the money to be used on

the building. We are open to suggestions from anyone as to a method of getting the money to use on the building.”