News

Pennell still pending
Court won't consider case until May
By Elizabeth Prata

Gray-Creaky doors, cobwebs, and smelly furnaces greeted all five Gray Town Councilors as they began their tour of several Town buildings Tuesday afternoon. With several Councilors not having seen all or parts of several of the buildings in the spotlight for upcoming Capital Improvement renovations or expansion requests, they wanted to see for the buildings themselves. On the tour were the Gray Library, the old Post office, and Pennell. Right, Council Vice-Chair Andy Upham taking notes in the basement furnace room. The Monument: Prata photo

Councilors, along with Manager Mitchell A. Berkowitz began their tour at Pennell Institute in Gray center. Owned by the School Department, Pennell is a building that was established by Henry Pennell to educate Gray children and it says so in his will and Mr. Pennell put the building and lands in a trust to ensure that educational stipulation continued to happen. For one hundred years, it did, until the School Administrative District was formed and then Pennell by statute was taken out of the Town's hands and put into trusteeship with the SAD. Education continued at the building, now under SAD trusteeship with School Board members handling the education oversight and adherence to the stipulations.

The building was an elementary school, a kindergarten, an alternative school and in its last use, housed District Administrative offices. For the last three years it has been unused by the SAD, although the Historical Society have been long-time tenants and still occupy the upper floor.

When the SAD decided to dispose of the building three years ago they found that the School Closing statue did not apply, but was governed by the trust and that meant the Attorney General was the top dog, not state statutes. He rendered a decision that the SAD could not just give back the building to Gray unless it was for fair market value. The fair market value phrase angered the Council, and so two years ago the previous Council lodged a lawsuit in civil court.

The SAD and Gray officials soon decided to talk it out, sent a stay to the court, and for two years tried negotiating. One idea was to house both SAD and Town offices in the building. With the SAD occupying the building along with the town it would satisfy the educational stipulation, the Council had said. Those talks eventually fell through at a vote of the Council, and the momentum stalled. A new Council was voted in and they decided to revive the matter in civil court. Meanwhile, two citizens had researched the deed, and discovered that the disposition of the trust was at question, possibly having been extinguished years ago.

Last June, the Council decided that it wanted a legal judgment on the situation. If the court said the trust was extinguished, then the Town would own it free and clear. If not, then the Town would have to work with the SAD again to determine a proper and appropriate transfer of the building.

Town Attorney Bill Dale sent a communication to the Town on November 7 that described a timeline sent down by the court. One timeline item in the correspondence is that the court will expect the Town to decide whether to have a jury trial or a judge decision. Vice-Chair Andy Upham asked Town Manager Mitchell A. Berkowitz to ask the Town Attorney to offer the Council a recommendation as to which is the better course.

The discovery period ends on April 30, 2006. No decision could possibly be forthcoming prior to that date, though Mr. Dale had indicated to the Council at the outset that the decision could be as soon as December 2005. With the decision of the court to extend the discovery period, there is no hope of a decision before May and no hope of putting Pennell on any town ballot for consideration in June, as Council had expected.