The Salvation Army is serious about getting its new
shelter and community center off the ground. For one, the agency brought in
Majors Barbara
and Paul Logan to replace Captains Deon and Michelle Oliver. What’s more, the Logans are
relocating from Milwaukee, a city more than five times the size of
Springfield. But the Logans don’t see being in a smaller
town as a problem; they’ve held posts in cities of varying sizes
throughout the Midwest states and the Bahamas and, they say, have always
made it work. “Every city has different types of
resources,” Barbara Logan says. Plans for a site on J. David Jones Parkway grounded
earlier this year by the City Council, the Army is now eyeing property
owned by Land of Lincoln Goodwill Industries at 11th Street and Enos Avenue
for its new headquarters. Though noticeably more low-key than Deon Oliver, who
once accused aldermen of “lacking intestinal fortitude,” the
Logans anticipate picking up where their predecessors left off by being
front and center for the proposed center. The first step, they say, will be to meet the
Salvation Army’s advisory board, Mayor Tim Davlin and aldermen. If the Army can secure the Goodwill site, the next
phase will be moving forward with the facility’s architectural design
and a fundraising campaign, the Logans say. However, completing a project of this magnitude would
be a first for the Logans, who say they’ve started several such
projects but have not seen them to fruition because of the transitory
nature of Salvation Army officers’ lives. “We’re appointed, so they move us when
they want to move us,” Paul Logan says. In addition, says Barbara Logan, “People that
get [programs] started kind of get worn out quickly. Then someone else will
take them through the process . . . . We’re never quite sure where we
come in on that process, but we’re learning that.”
Asked, then, whether their stay in Springfield might
be temporary, Paul says he hopes that that isn’t the case. “Our headquarters hasn’t said that, but
we hope to see [the new facility] through and hopefully use the building in
the process,” Barbara says.
This article appears in Jul 6-12, 2006.
