(This article has been updated to fix an inaccuracy. See correction below. 9 a.m. March 25.)
NIMISHILLEN TWP. − The Veterans of Foreign Wars has permanently shut down its 50-year-old Louisville-area post amid mounting debt, unpaid taxes and an ongoing theft investigation.
The national VFW headquarters in Kansas City canceled Post 7490’s charter on March 17, according to an order posted on social media.
The Stark County Sheriff’s Office has been investigating theft allegations since October. A sheriff’s spokeswoman confirmed the probe but said the agency had no other additional information to release at this time.
In addition to missing money, the VFW Department of Ohio said its investigative committee uncovered other missteps at the Louisville-area post at 7459 Columbus Road NE.
The organization was selling alcohol without a valid liquor license between February 2025 and December, according to the state VFW. And the Ohio Division of Liquor Control revoked the alcohol license for failing to pay state sales taxes on the beverages since at least 2024, said Richard Curry, the VFW Department of Ohio’s quartermaster/adjutant.
Due to the unpaid sales taxes, the Ohio Attorney General’s Office in early 2025 took away the post’s license to operate bingo machines, Curry said.
But people continued to play on the machines until December. The unit failed to pay at least $100,000 owed to the business that provided the post’s 10 bingo gaming machines.
After discovering the license revocations, the VFW Department of Ohio shut down the post’s building on Dec. 11, the day before its 50th anniversary.
What led to Louisville VFW closing?
The club’s debt issues caused a rift between the post’s former commander Lisa Noble and the state VFW leaders over how much was owed to creditors.
Noble said it was at least $250,000. The figure was likely at least twice that, according to Curry.
Noble contended the VFW investigative committee is counting the unpaid bills and missing money from VFW’s bank accounts separately when they are the same.
They also disagree on whether the state gave the Louisville post leaders enough of an opportunity to save the post from closure.
“Without those licenses, they’re no longer a business,” said Curry.
“They all agreed there’s no way they can keep the doors open because of the amount of money that was missing,” he said. “We did not want to have to close that post. It’s a very nice post. If it was run properly, it probably would have done very well and served the community well …”
Curry said Noble’s plan was not sufficient to repay what the post owes.
”It would take them 30 years to repay the vendor,” he said. “How’s that a viable plan?”
Noble strongly disagreed.
“They said we were not allowed to move forward. Being good soldiers and good veterans, we didn’t move forward without their permission,” said Noble, who added that the post’s creditors had agreed to write off much of the debt.
“But we had everything to move forward if they had given us the authority to do it.”
Noble, a retired project manager and Desert Storm Army veteran, takes responsibility for not delving deeper into the post’s financial figures.
She said she did not learn about the missing funds until October and the revoked licenses until December.
“I have been embittered by the (state) organization’s actions,” said Noble, who added that she plans to transfer her VFW membership outside of Ohio so the Ohio VFW doesn’t get her membership fees.
“I don’t think they deserve it,” she said.
Members of the post remain VFW members and can transfer to other posts or remain at-large members.
Louisville VFW theft investigation
Noble, 58, of Canton, said she joined the Louisville post about five years ago on the recommendation of a friend. She was elected commander in the post’s July elections in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
She blamed the disappearance of the funds on a former post employee who controlled the finances since 2024. The employee abruptly quit in September amid a dispute tied to the departure of two of the employee’s family members who had worked for the post.
The former employee had presented financial reports, paid the bills, emptied the cash from the bingo gaming machines, deposited funds at the bank, administered the payroll, controlled the unit’s email system and received all of the post’s mail, she said.
Noble said she discovered that the deposit amounts in bank statements did not match the amounts withdrawn from the bingo machines.
She said the employee overpaid himself, inflated the work hours of a family member who worked at the post and destroyed payroll records before departing. It’s not clear what happened to the missing money.
Attempts on March 24 to reach the former employee by phone were unsuccessful. The Repository is not naming the worker because no charges have been filed amid the county investigation.
Second guessing
Noble said the financial reports given to her by the former employee looked correct. But in hindsight, she said, she should have at least spot-checked the numbers against bank statements.
“So I wouldn’t look at all the individual transactions. I didn’t look deep enough,” Noble said. “That’s the worst of it is I trusted … and didn’t verify enough.”
Noble said due to the crisis she stepped down as post commander and in an emergency election, members chose her to manage the post’s finances so she could focus on repairing the damage. Jacob Cummings, the senior vice commander, was elected the new post commander.
She said she reported the theft to the sheriff’s office in late October and to the VFW Department of Ohio in early November.
Noble said she was in the midst of negotiating repayment plans when the Ohio VFW investigative committee announced it was taking over operations on Dec. 11. And that the post had to be shut down because it was operating illegally without liquor and gaming licenses.
In a meeting with post members on Feb. 7, Curry and VFW Department of Ohio Post Commander Mike Milam said they were going to recommend to the national VFW that Post 7490 be closed unless the members filed an appeal.
“The members at the meeting decided it wasn’t worth the effort to keep the charter alive and continue to run the VFW and it was decided to let the department take over and do what they have to do,” Curry said.
Cummings countered that members very much wanted the post to stay open. But Curry told them that the appeal was unlikely to be successful unless there was a viable plan to raise $250,000 to cover the post’s debt. No member wanted to risk incurring that liability, Cummings said.
Curry said the post’s property, which could be worth at least $300,000, will be sold to pay debts. The post’s auxiliary club will also close by May.
Reach Robert at robert.wang@cantonrep.com.
CORRECTION: Jacob Cummings was the latest post commander. His first name was incorrect when this story first published.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Louisville-area VFW forced to close amid debts, theft investigation
Reporting by Robert Wang, Canton Repository / The Repository
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