Fayette residents voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to keep Starling Hall, above, under town ownership. A referendum question asking whether town voters supported the sale of Starling Hall by the end of next year failed 574-304. Rebecca Richard/Franklin Journal file
FAYETTE — Voters chose convincingly Tuesday to block the sale of Starling Hall, following a monthslong controversy over the future of the historic building.
Votes in favor of the sale totaled 304, while votes against the sale totaled 574 — adding up to more than 65% voting against.
Fayette voters were asked whether they supported the sale of Starling Hall by the end of next year, a question brought via a petition led by former budget committee chair Brent St. Clair.
St. Clair argued Fayette’s taxpayers spent far too much maintaining, restoring and renovating the hall — the oldest building in Maine purpose-built as a Grange Hall and a new addition to Maine Preservation’s Most Endangered Historic Places list. St. Clair successfully led a petition effort to limit taxpayer spending on the hall to just $5,000 per year in 2022, but failed to prevent the approval of $15,000 in town surplus for an engineering study at this summer’s town meeting.
He said he hoped to solve the issue once and for all with Tuesday’s referendum, allowing voters to decide the future of the building in a secret ballot.
Almost all restoration work on the hall has been funded by the Friends of Starling Hall, a nonprofit group founded in 2014 in response to an effort to sell the hall. In those 10 years, the group has raised and spent more than $300,000 on renovations. The nonprofit funded “Save Starling Hall” signs urging Fayette residents to vote no on the referendum.
The Board of Selectmen approved a statement during an August meeting officially opposing St. Clair’s referendum question while committing to not spending any taxpayer money on further renovations, leaving that responsibility to the Friends of Starling Hall.
Supporters of the building said during the four public hearings on the referendum that they see Starling Hall being used in the future as a community gathering place, and potentially even as a new town office.
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