TOPSHAM — The newly forming Mid-coast Veterans Council will hold an organizational meeting Saturday at 2 p.m. at American Legion Post 202 on Foreside Road.

“We expect between 40 and 50 local veterans from Phippsburg, Bath, Lisbon Falls, Freeport, Topsham, Brunswick, (and) Harpswell,” American Legion spokesman William “Chick” Ciciotte said Thursday.

The group held its first organizational meeting in January and will continue organizational efforts Saturday. Attendees will discuss bylaws and election of officers, Ciciotte said.

“We’ll have a special guest coming from the state governor’s office,” Ciciotte said, identifying the guest as Daniel Goodheart, who is the deputy commissioner of the Maine Department of Defense, Veterans and Emergency Management.

Attending to advise the local veterans will be Paul L’Heureaux, the National Executive Committee alternate for the American Legion.

Ciciotte said the Mid-coast Veterans Council is trying to obtain the chapel on the former Brunswick Naval Air Station to use for a veterans center.

“If we do that, we will be able to provide veterans counseling, we will reopen a military retirement office, we’ll be providing help with TRICARE and other insurance, and providing help with veterans employment,” he said.

Volunteers would provide services at the proposed center, Ciciotte said.

The group is working with the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority to acquire the chapel, with the understanding that the chapel has been slated for use as a museum by the Brunswick Naval Museum and Memorial Gardens group — an organization that has said it hopes the building can be used for other community purposes as well.

Ciciotte said his group plans to continue conversations with the museum group about sharing the chapel. The first step, however, is to organize.

For more information, call Ciciotte at 725-8543.

dmoore@timesrecord.com