WOODSTOCK — Town Manager Vern Maxfield told selectmen at Tuesday’s meeting that a West Paris resident agreed to remove the Union Church building from the corner of Andrews Road.
The church, which sits on 0.6 acre, was built in 1856 and has not been used for decades. The original contents have been removed.
The town formed a committee and in 2014 agreed that the building should be removed and the land be used for a parking lot and a memorial. For more than a year, the board has been looking for a person or a business to remove the building.
Maxfield said Ted Morse of West Paris expressed an interest in removing the building for materials.
“He said that he’s doing interior renovation in a building on Congress Street in Portland, and that he would use the lumber and some of the items from the church in the renovation,” Maxfield said.
He said Morse also expressed interest in obtaining some of the granite blocks left over after the building removal.
“He said that we get the choice on how many of the granite blocks we want to give to him and what size they are,” Maxfield said.
Chairman Ron Deegan asked Maxfield how many granite blocks would be left after the church is removed.
“I think there’s between 15 and 20 there, and two or three really big ones,” Maxfield said. “He asked me if he could have the front steps, and I think he just about cried when I told him that it was the one thing we wanted to keep.”
Maxfeld said Morse was going to remove the plaster from the church first to prevent a mess while he took down the rest of the building. “After that, he’s going to take the roof out in sections.”
Selectman Mike Nadeau asked whether there was anything inside the Union Church that Morse was going to take.
“I think he’s interested in the dish cupboard, and he’ll be putting together a pew using leftover materials in the church,” Maxfield said.
“No one locally is going to miss the cupboard, or wants anything inside the church?” Selectman Stephen Bies asked.
Maxfield assured Bies that people had been given plenty of time to take any items from inside the church.
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