Alna citizens have the potential of settling a growing controversy over ownership of the Alna firehouse and property on which it sits July 15.
Two different deeds to the property pose a legal question the town needs to answer by voting at a special town meeting Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Alna Meetinghouse on Rt. 218, including seven warrant articles on other issues.
To compound the issue, Second Selectman Tom Smith has circulated a letter throughout the town in favor of town ownership, the wording of which has created an opposing reaction this week as lawn signs show.
Recently, Selectmen found a 1950 deed with stamps on it so re-recorded it at the Lincoln County Registry of Deeds after failing to find a record of it following a “quick” search. They said stamps meant it had been recorded even though not found initially.
Furthermore, First Selectman Billie Willard said this week she found an entry in a leather-bound town ledger recording a $300 payment to the fire department specifically for the land, which had no building until more recent years.
“I know they paid $300 for it, and if they paid for it, they own it,” she said.
However, fire department attorney Eliot Field questions the action the board made, since the department as the Alna Volunteer Dept. Inc. has a 1950 deed with document stamps indicating the book number and page where it is recorded. He verified the record of the deed as dated January 1950 at the county registry.
Concerning the deed found at the town office, Field speculated the town may have intended to purchase property contingent on a town vote, but no record of such a vote to raise and/or appropriate funds for that purpose exist, according to Field.
“Something never got completed,” he said.
Apparently the former un-incorporated department signed over the deed to the Alna Volunteer Dept. Inc. in 1959 when the group became incorporated, Field said.
Willard said she was unaware about the fire department deed. “This is the first I’ve heard of it,” she said.
Monday she said she intends to take a copy of the ledger entry to the special town meeting this week and express her sentiment in favor of town ownership.
Meanwhile, Second Selectman Tom Smith has circulated letters throughout the town purportedly on town stationary in favor of the town’s ownership and getting some flak for it.
Willard said he should not have made out a letterhead with the town seal on it giving people the impression he was speaking for the whole board, including Third Selectman David Seigars, who is a fire department member. Willard characterizes herself in the middle on the issue.
A few signs in Alna say “Impeach Smith” and “Selectman Smith is lying”, which she said she has seen in town.
Smith said in the letter urging people to attend the meeting this week, “The fire department leadership has articles on the town warrant that, if passed, leave Alna residents out in the cold with the bill.”
He claimed by voting down the petitioned articles (Article 9 and 10), the town would “stop taxes from rising by keeping legal benefits of town ownership, retain control over town facilities, fire protection, and expenses, and keep Alna from getting sued over whether transferring $400,000 of Alna residents’ property to a small group of individuals for $1 is in the public purpose.
Ultimately, a vote in favor of the first article submitted by fire department petition (Article 9) on the sale of the firehouse to the fire department would settle the question of whether the fire department owns the property by town fiat and avoid possible lengthy litigation over the deeds, he said.
A vote against it would mean voters would have the option to approve leasing the firehouse to the department on its terms petitioned by the fire department or vote it down and approve a board-submitted article for leasing it on the board terms.
