Town mulling Libby Hill land purchase
By Elizabeth Prata
Gray--the Gray Town Council and Manager went into
executive session Monday night to discuss the possible
acquisition of land atop Libby Hill. Their talk, which
was closed to the public, lasted three hours.
Libby Hill open space begins behind the SAD 15 Middle
School (towns of Gray-New Gloucester) and rise the
hill over land owned by Hancock Land Management (HLM)
land to trail around land owned by the Town of Gray.
The trails were developed by a volunteer organization
that worked cooperatively with HLM. Earlier this year,
HML decided they wanted to sell their parcel to a
private developer. If the sale had been successful,
it would have split the land that the Town owns from
the SAD-owned land, rendering the open space landlocked
by private land and the trail work on the HLM land
for naught. Right, the tax map, showing the parcel
under discussion.
The talks fell through and soon the Town indicated
a possible interest in buying the land from HLM.
In May, the Town had authorized splitting the cost
of an appraisal with HLM. When the appraisal figure
came in, the Council convened to Monday night discuss
whether they would like to go forward with further
negotiations with HLM to buy the land.
Council Chair Gary Foster reported that Monday night's
session was three hours long. He declined to discuss
any figures regarding the potential sale, saying,
"The figures discussed in Executive [Session]
are still confidential - sorry."
Vice-Chair Andy Upham and Manager Mitchell A. Berkowitz
will be meeting with Hancock representatives on Tuesday,
September 6 at 10 a.m. At the September 6 Council
meeting, the Council will receive an update from Mr.
Upham in Executive Session, to be held prior to the
regular meeting.
Mr. Foster continued, "There will be an Order
sometime after the Sept. 6 meeting to present a question
to the voters for approval of the purchase."
Mr. Foster said that he is opposed to the purchase.
"I have stated several times that I don't support
the purchase of the property, but will support a decision
by the voters. But this is all pending on the results
of the Sept. 6 meeting with Hancock," he said.
"There are several pieces to this puzzle, any
one of which if missing would kill the purchase. I
supported entering into negotiations with Hancock
for the purpose of providing the information to the
voters when the time comes, but as I said, if any
of the pieces of the puzzle are missing, there will
be no deal. The SAD would be one of the participants,
so they are one of the pieces. Gray taxpayers, of
course, would pay 60% of the SAD's commitment, if
it were to go that far," Mr. Foster continued.
The Town of Gray owns 73 acres and HLM owns 29 acres,
with the SAD owning 36 acres. Other abutters are the
Gray Community Endowment which owns 26 acres, and
Jean and Phil Pulsifer who own 84 acres. Herbert McAllister
owns 42 acres.
The Endowment, SAD, Town, McAllister, and Hancock
have worked together in a public-private consortium
that has managed to hang together long enough to see
volunteers build five miles of trails across the above
mentioned parcels. The Hancock land, though between
the Town and the School Department, was improved for
recreational purposes based on a verbal acknowledgement.
The appraisal was commissioned in order to establish
a purchase price.
For more information on the Libby Hill Forest please
visit the website at www.libbyhill.org where this
trail map resides.
