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Mahoning County Coon Hunters Protective Association has rebuilt after 2014 fire
By ROBERT CONNELLY
ELLSWORTH
A historic hunting club has rebuilt its clubhouse in plenty of time for its annual festival.
The Mahoning County Coon Hunters Protective Association’s clubhouse, on its property at 9680 Akron-Canfield Road, was destroyed in a fire June 3, 2014. The fire was traced to a commercial refrigerator in the kitchen.
Among the rubble last summer was a fireplace left standing at the center of the building. That has been replaced by a brick wall, which divides two open spaces with tables and picnic tables. There is a full kitchen with a commercial refrigerator and stove tops along with a patio running alongside the building, which now features an overhang for shade.
Club members are now staining about 30 picnic tables, the last step of the rebuild.
“I think all the members are proud of the new building and the way it came out,” said John Jakubec, club president.
The group’s annual fall festival, which was canceled a year ago due to the fire, will take place Sept. 10-12.
Alfred DeZee, 81, of North Jackson, became a member of the 101-year old hunt club in 1955 or 1956 and came to the burned clubhouse after the fire last June.
“I came later after it was ashes. That was devastating. It was a heck of a loss, but like I say, as it turned out we’ve gained,” he said. “The facility we had before was adequate, but this is so much nicer.”
Jakubec said the new clubhouse is on the same square footage as the previous clubhouse, but the group went through a longer permit process than expected. Hunt club members did work on the new clubhouse as much as they could, but some work was contracted to make sure the building would be built to code.
“Things are finally back to normal,” said Eli Alexander, club trustee. “Everybody’s real excited about getting it going.”
Jakubec said the group worked with David P. Harris Jr., principal architect of DPH Architecture, based in Canfield, on the clubhouse.
“We worked well with them and when we had questions they were there to answer them,” Jakubec said. “Once the building shell was up a lot members did a lot of work themselves to save money in the long run for the insurance and us. Plus doing it ourselves we did it where someone else might make a mess. [We] made sure it was done right.”
The clubhouse had its roof put on by the end of December, with interior work done since then.
Coon club members weren’t sure how canceling last year’s annual festival might affect this year’s turnout.
“We have a pretty faithful crowd that came and they understood the situation” with canceling last year, which was “far beyond our control,“ said DeZee. “I hope we don’t lose [many people], but we’ll know pretty soon.”