While part of the Grand Bend Legion has reopened to the public following a terrible fire this past summer, full operation is not anticipated until late December or early in the new year.
A fire at the Municipal Drive building in July caused approximately $500,000 worth of damage.
Royal Canadian Legion Branch 498 President John O'Handley said a section of the facility reopened to the public on August 30.
"We thought it was important to partially have the downstairs lounge open so the seniors can have their exercise group, the non-profit organizations can have their meetings, and of course, our members to be able to go in and socialize," he said.
O'Handley said to reopen the lounge they needed to install new ceiling tiles, repair the walls, repaint, and replace all of the liquor.
O'Handley said they need to install two new air conditioners and tiles, and redo all bathrooms and the kitchen for the remainder of the building.
"We have to take into consideration, a lot of the countertops and [such] were destroyed in the kitchen area," he said. "So we cannot function upstairs, at least until we have a kitchen and bathrooms."
The repairs come at a hefty cost but O'Handley said thankfully, they have insurance coverage.
"The outpouring of support from our members -- and in fact, the whole community, who have donated money to get us going again -- was outstanding," he said.
O'Handley said there was also a tremendous turnout during their reopening weekend.
"There was standing room only on Friday afternoon and evening and almost a full house on Saturday," he said. "The community treats the Legion as kind of like the hub of the community and they were concerned that we would never open again. So they were very relieved, in fact, that we had opened so quickly."
Lambton Shores Fire Chief James Marshall said the cause of the blaze was deemed electrical in nature.