Selectmen Review Searles Chapel Needs

The Board of Selectmen reviewed both short-term and long-term needs for Searles School and Chapel on July 9, voting to approve exterior painting at the back of the building.

The paint job will be on the trim, along with necessary repairs for any rot on that trim.

The project will be funded by the Property Maintenance Expendable Trust Fund, which according to Town Administrator Dave Sullivan has enough money to accomodate the project this year as well as other budgeted projects.

Sullivan said that the Property Maintenance Trust has been used for Searles School and Chapel before, specifically giving the example of the building having its furnaces replaced.

"The trust has been used in this building no different than it has been used for other buildings," he said.

Sally D'Angelo of the town's Historic Commission walked the Selectmen through a tour of the chapel to show them some of the immediate concerns.

She explained that the need for paint work on the back of the building is timely, as one wedding in July and three more in August are scheduled.

Several board members suggested that major cost items needed to restore the school be submitted as Capital Improvement Plan items, which are due by July 14.

Board member Roger Hohenberger said once the building is revitalized, it can be self-sufficient, which he recalled as a goal for the chapel when the building was sold to the town nearly a decade ago.

But Hohenberger was the only Selectman who voted against funding exterior paint work through the Property Maintenance Fund, saying he did not see the need to get the work done immediatley since it has been sitting for four years.

He added that he didn't want a "backdooring" through the Property Maintenance Fund, which he believed could become a slippery slope of money being awarded in that manner.

D'Angelo argued that the goal is to run Searles as a business, which sets the building apart from others in town.

"We really need some way I think when things become critical to us, of getting some help from the town, and ultimately we're trying to make this very self-sufficient," she said.

The town also accepted an anonymous donation of $1,800 for a set of 12 bell sallys, which according to resident Betty Dunn can only be found in England.

The 'sally' is the colored part of the rope that is pulled to ring the bell.