Stetson may clarify deed to meetinghouse

STETSON — The pride of the community, the historic Stetson Meetinghouse has been owned by the people of the town for 154 years.

They just can’t prove it.

An article in the annual town meeting warrant for May 17 will take care of that discrepancy. Voters will be asked to authorize town officials to clarify, and create, a deed once and for all. The process is eminent domain.

In 1843, Amasa Stetson, the town’s founding father, built the meetinghouse especially for the town. A list of his estate property in 1844 confirms it. The town has owned and operated it ever since — but there never was a deed.

Voters at the April town meeting in 1845 appointed an agent to procure a deed from Stetson’s heirs. But six months later at another town meeting with presumably the same crowd, voters decided not to accept a deed to the meetinghouse property. When another six months had passed, and a new year had begun, the town voted to assume occupancy of the meetinghouse and elected five trustees to oversee its maintenance.

A title search in Penobscot County records failed to turn up any deed conveying the meetinghouse to the town.

As recently as the 1980s, the town invested $120,000 in the property for a foundation and heating system.

Fortunately for the town, Stetson and his wife never had children, and a search of his genealogy also failed to turn up any other heirs.

Still, the eminent domain proceedings must be held to clarify the deed in conjunction with the town’s Community Development Block Grant to construct a library-fire station complex on meetinghouse property. The sum of $100 will be appropriated to carry out the process.

The annual town meeting opens at 10 a.m. May 17 at the meetinghouse for action on 23 articles. The election of town officers will be decided one day earlier at the polls, also at the meetinghouse.

Six candidates will be on the ballot. Only two of the positions are contests. Donald Carroll and Andrew Gray are vying for selectman, and Deidre Caluri and Daniel Davis are competing for another selectman’s position. The remaining candidates are unopposed: Lawrence Johnson as school director and Charles Merrill as road commissioner.

Land issues make up the last three articles in the warrant, including the eminent domain action. Another article seeks permission for town officials to sell Stetson-owned property in the town of Levant. Stetson and Levant jointly operated an open dump on 5 acres of the site at one time, but there are 157 acres to sell.

In a final action, a property owner would like the town to provide her with easement to landlocked property she acquired in a divorce settlement.