Starling Hall in Fayette, seen Aug. 7, has been the focus of a petition effort to force the town to hold a vote and see whether voters want to sell the building. The Board of Selectmen opposes the sale, but has set a referendum for Nov. 5 to let residents’ voices be heard. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal file

FAYETTE — The Fayette Board of Selectmen adopted a letter Tuesday opposing the sale of Starling Hall and committing to renovating the historic building without the use of taxpayer dollars.

Earlier this month, more than 110 residents signed a petition demanding the town hold a vote to sell Starling Hall, the oldest building in Maine that was constructed as a Grange Hall, over concerns about extensive taxpayer spending on renovations.

An old Starling Grange banner hangs on the second floor of Starling Hall in Fayette. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal file

During a meeting earlier this month, the board chose to hold the referendum on the sale alongside the presidential election on Nov. 5 to get higher voter turnout.

Tuesday’s meeting was the board’s first since the referendum was scheduled, and also served as the first of three public hearings to be held before the election.

“The Fayette Board of Selectmen, in the interest of the public good, opposes the Nov. 5 ballot question requesting the sale of Starling Hall,” the letter, signed by all five board members, reads. “Currently, there is no request for taxpayer funding of Starling Hall renovations. Neither the town of Fayette nor the Board of Selectmen have any plans to appropriate, or support appropriating funds, from taxation for the renovation of Starling Hall.”

“Simply put, the future benefits that Starling Hall provides to the town are of greater value than the proceeds from its potential sale,” the statement continues. “The Fayette Board of Selectmen therefore expresses its opposition to the ballot question requesting the sale of Starling Hall by the end of 2025. The Board of Selectmen is committed to finding a path forward to complete the renovation of Starling Hall without the use of local taxpayer dollars.”

The town’s statement is not necessarily binding because of the possibility of future petitions and votes, board Chairperson Lacy Badeau said during the meeting, but she said it does represent a commitment by the current board to prevent town money from going toward renovations of the building.

Town funding for Starling Hall renovations has been the center of controversy in town for several years.

In 2014, residents rejected a proposal to sell Starling Hall and approved $3,850 for an engineering study on the building a year later.

The town appropriates funds each year to pay for utilities and regular maintenance — averaging a little more than $4,000 each year for the last decade — while the Friends of Starling Hall, a fundraising nonprofit, has generally paid for major renovations. The town’s contributions to capital improvements of the building since it bought the property in 1986 add up to $65,900, while the Friends of Starling Hall have contributed more than $300,000 to renovations since the group was founded in 2014.

The town also took out a $100,000 bond several years ago for renovations, on which the Friends of Starling Hall has made every payment to date.

The town expects to need to pay the remaining $66,266.50 owed on the bond if the building is sold. While some residents at the meeting said they were concerned about how the town would pay the remaining balance, Brent St. Clair, the leader of the petition effort to sell the building, said he expects the proceeds from a potential sale to be more than enough to pay back the bond. Other residents said they have concerns the building will not sell for an acceptable price before the petition’s deadline at the end of 2025.

In 2022, residents narrowly rejected a $500,000 bond to match a federal grant for renovations to the building in a secret ballot. But at this year’s town meeting, against the recommendation of the budget committee, residents approved $15,000 from the town’s surplus for another engineering study on the hall.

Jon Beekman, a member of the Friends of Starling Hall and a leader against the sale, said the engineering study would help the nonprofit apply for more grants and know the costs of completing the renovation. The $3,850 engineering study approved in 2015 has more than paid for itself, he said.

“I’ve written many of the grants we’ve received for Starling Hall over the last 10 years, and without that study, you can’t write the grant,” Beekman said during the public hearing on Tuesday. “Because the first thing they ask is, ‘What do you have to support that need?’ ‘Well, it’s OK.’ That doesn’t cut it.”

After the approved $15,000 on the study is officially expended, the town’s total taxpayer money spent renovating Starling Hall will add up to just under $55,000 since the renewed renovation effort began in 2017. More than half of that total spending was appropriated by the town to a reserve fund before 2011, according to a report compiled by Fayette Town Manager Mark Robinson.

The engineering study is not expected to be done before the Nov. 5 referendum, according to Robinson, and many residents in support of restoring the hall said the board should delay the referendum on the sale until the results of the engineering study are in.

St. Clair said he believes potential delays are a tactic by the Friends of Starling Hall to prevent the referendum, which he said he believes the group is likely to lose.

“They know they will not win, so they’re trying to find ways to delay it,” he said.

The board did not make any decisions on delaying the referendum at Tuesday’s meeting. Its last opportunity to do so before the Nov. 5 election is at its next meeting on Sept. 3, which will come after a public hearing to begin at 7 p.m.

During the two-hour public hearing before the board meeting, several residents also said the town needs an official “community center” — a role Starling Hall has increasingly filled in recent years, with nearly 90 events in 2024.

Without Starling Hall, Fayette resident Jim Wright said during the meeting, the town wouldn’t have that community space. St. Clair said he expects the Fayette Central School gym and the town’s library to be more than enough space for town events.

“Are we going to be the town without a community center?” Wright said during the meeting. “Where we don’t have a place to get together to have barbecues and other things people have been talking with Mark (Robinson) about? I think it’s a mistake. I think it’s premature, Brent (St. Clair).”

Editor’s note: This story was updated to correct an error in a quote.