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After a devastating fire last year, one of Yuma County’s most active veterans service organizations has been struggling to regroup and reopen.
American Veterans of Yuma’s Foothills location has long been a source of fellowship and assistance for local veterans of all conflicts back to World War II.
The post’s managers approached U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) employees about the possibility of obtaining disused storage containers for use as a temporary facility.
As luck would have it, the post had two abandoned trailers that had been selected for demolition.
“These were trailers that weren’t being used anymore and had to be disposed of due to policy,” said Jonathan Olbert, Operations Division Chief. “It was going to cost around $50,000 for demolition. We had been hesitant to act on that based on budgetary limitations.”
Leased by a contractor located at YPG for many years, the contractor vacated the trailers when the lease expired. The lessor subsequently left the trailers in place and relinquished all claims to ownership. Under Army policy on relocatable buildings, the unwanted trailers would have to be disposed of unless converted to real property and maintained with government funds. Other ideas for disposing of them likewise had unbudgeted costs associated with them. The trailers still had value and were habitable but were not ideal for use in supporting the test mission at YPG.
“When we were brainstorming how to dispose of these trailers without funds, one of the things we considered was using it as a target on the range,” said Ramon Noriega, YPG Facilities Manager. “However, the environmental cleanup afterward would have been another cost.”
The 1,600 square feet of interior space the structures offered isn’t extravagant, but the veterans post gratefully received them.
“I see those trailers and get goosebumps,” said Mike Condon, a Korean War veteran who serves as post manager. “That’s the answer to our construction, period. Those trailers are wonderful.”
“It was a benefit to the Government to have a no-cost disposal of these items,” said Olbert. “A private firm was able to do the relocation from our range to their facility at no cost to the government. We reduced the environmental impact by being able to reuse these facilities and helped the community we work in.”
American Veterans is currently awaiting the certificate of occupancy that will enable them to reopen.
| Date Taken: | 05.13.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 05.13.2026 10:14 |
| Story ID: | 544311 |
| Location: | YUMA, ARIZONA, US |
| Web Views: | 10 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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