News

GPLA fundraising for Pennell
Letter to Gray Historical Society members asking for help
By Elizabeth Prata

The Gray Public Library Association (GPLA) is raising funds to match a $100,000 donation intended for Library expansion. The GPLA is hoping to occupy Pennell Institute, if the Attorney General allows the trust overriding the building to be transferred from the School Administrative District (SAD) to the GPLA. The building, currently empty, needs about $1.5 million in repairs before occupation can begin.

To that end, the GPLA is raising money to go toward the Library's expansion into Pennell. The Institute is a 120 year old building in Gray center that originally served as the town's main school, until the SAD was formed with New Gloucester in the mid-1960s and new schools were built. The Institute then served as a leased home to the Collaborative School and also as a kindergarten for the SAD. Until three years ago, it served as Administrative offices for the School Department.

Now, the SAD would like to dispose of the complex, which includes 5 acres of land and the Anderson Lab. The SAD cannot go through the school closure act, as would normally be the procedure, because there is a Trust overarching the buildings. The trust stipulates the building is to be used for educational purposes the building is attached to it. The Attorney General reviews trusts in the State of Maine.

The GPLA, Directors sent a fundraising letter to the Historical Society members, it is excerpted below:

Dear Member of the Gray Historical Society:

As you know, Pennell Institute, one of Gray's few remaining historic public buildings, has fallen on hard times in recent years.

MSAD#15 and the Town of Gray have been bickering over the priceless symbol of our heritage for years, and all they've accomplished is to enrich a few lawyers.

On June 14, we will vote on whether to support an effort by a group of people who love both Pennell and the Gray Public Library. This group, formed as a nonprofit educational and fundraising corporation, has been involved in talks with both MSAD#15 and the Gray Town Council to find a way to save Pennell. Our idea is simple: our Gray Public Library has outgrown its space on Hancock Street, and there's little room for expansion. At the same time, Pennell sits as a warehouse, with tons of desks, old computers and other stuff. The only people who use it now are members of the Gray Historical Society, which has its exhibit room and collections on the second floor, almost impossible to get to, unless you're younger and spryer than most of us.

Under our plan, MSAD#15 would turn the Pennell property, including the trust associated with it, over to the Gray Public Library Association. The MSAD#15 Board of Directors have voted to support the idea. Our group has committed to raising the money necessary to refurbish the Institute for use as a library. We have among us a professional fundraiser, and another member with extensive experience in fundraising. We intend to apply for governmental and private grants and gifts.

We already have a matching-grant pledge of $100,000, and thousands more in hand from the Library's annual book sale and other sources. When work is complete, we would enter into a long-term lease with the Town to use the building as Gray's Town Library, with the Town funding upkeep and utilities and other costs associated with the Library, just as it now does for Hancock Street.

The alternative, as far as we can see, is to do nothing: to let this beautiful old building crumble into dust, or worse, to sell it, leaving those who love it with no control over what happens to it. The people who oppose this idea have had years - years - to come up with a plan, and they haven't. Could their goal be for the Town to acquire the building and then sell it? We simply don't know.

From:

The Gray Public Library Association: Ray Clark, Peter Gerardo and Priscilla Payne; Miriam Bisbee, Elsie Bisbee, Judy Huff, Anne Bucklin, Mary Berry, Cora Skilling, Vera Berry, and a lot of people who love Pennell Institute and the Gray Public Library.