OTISFIELD — The Otisfield Historical Society hopes to use $22,606 from the Sybil Lamb Trust Fund to finish off the interior of the new basement of the Otisfield Town House.
President Henry Hamilton said Monday that the organization needs at least 25 more signatures to meet the 115 signatures legally necessary to place a citizens article on the June 29 town meeting warrant. The article will ask voters to approve the expenditure of $22,606 from the Sybil Lamb Trust Fund. The fund has $115,000 in accrued interest.
The signatures must be gathered by May 20.
The wood-frame building was deeded to the society by voters in 2009 after it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005. The society has been renovating the 1905 building on Bell Hill Road.
If approved, Hamilton said the money will also be used to create a secure, climate-controlled space for the archival collection of the society.
According to Hamilton, the Sybil Lamb Trust Fund will bequeath the town certain property in order for the town to use any resulting income as the selectmen “deem prudent and best for the interest of said town.”
The society has raised $96,403 on its own, including the recent $20,000 from the Davis Family Foundation that was used for construction of the addition on the back. Hamilton said the $22,606 is needed to frame and insulate the basement perimeter, install a sump pump and dehumidify, frame and insulate the 25- by 20-foot archival room, as well as installing sheet rock and a climate-control system.
This phase of the total project will make the building fully accessible and allow the society to move the archives into the new space, Hamilton said.
In addition to the Davis Family Foundation donation, the society has raised money through member donations, society savings and in-kind donations from contractors, the Clerk of the Works and member volunteers.
Hamilton said the society needs an additional $64,000 to complete the project. That money will be raised through donations and grant writing.
The society has two pending grant requests, including a $5,800 request from the Carol and David Hancock Charitable Trust to cover costs to apply 40-year asphalt shingles to the existing building and the new addition. Additionally, the society has a grant request of $7,900 to the Max William Beck Memorial Fund. If successful, that money will be used to create a driveway to the back of the property, an ADA-compliant parking lot at the rear of the new addition and off-road parking in front of the building, Hamilton said.
The Town House replaced an earlier one at the same location and was used for town meetings, the selectmen’s meeting and a polling place. It was also used as a social and meeting hall through the 1920s, but in 1985, town meetings were relocated to the current municipal building, according to information from Maine Historic Preservation Commission records. Voting continued at the town house until 2002, when the building was closed to public use.
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