WEST PARIS — A vote by townspeople Monday night to transfer $8,000 from the Old Home Days Fund to the Recreation Fund is frustrating, two former members of the defunct Old Home Days Committee said.

The 15-7 vote authorized moving the money, a combination of town appropriations, donations and fundraising efforts on the part of the Old Home Days committee and from the event itself, Town Manager John White said.  The intention is that the West Paris Athletic Association will use it in the spring to upgrade the Harold Perham Field baseball diamond.

The Athletic Association had hoped to begin the project this fall, but time and financial constraints forced them to push the project back to next spring.

Karen Birney, former president of the Old Home Days Committee, said that while she doesn’t want it to seem as though the committee members are unsupportive of the West Paris Athletic Association and their effort to revive the ball field, she wished the town had spent more time exploring other avenues for funding.

“It’s just disheartening when you work so hard to build something up,” she said. “I think it’s too bad that the money did get taken away from the Old Home Days Committee, because it’s just going to be hard for some to start it up again. I think the West Paris Athletic Association is a good cause, but I think that the money could have come from somewhere else. I would have felt better if the money had sat there for five years, but there had been some talk of someone starting it up again recently.”

West Paris Old Home Days began decades ago as an annual three-day celebration featuring music, food, games, races, a parade and fireworks. It restarted in 2000 after a 20-year hiatus, but the committee disbanded after the June 2014 celebration because of a lack of committee members and energy.

“The people who were doing it had been doing it for many years and they were all tired,” Town Manager John White said.

Jaci Glines Presby, the former Old Home Days vendor coordinator, said the previous committee of about 10 members did disband, but it was not their intention for Old Home Days to never return. They had hoped to use a year or so of downtime to find new volunteers interested in taking over the organization of the event, she said.

After the vote, Presby took to the social media page she created on Facebook for West Paris Old Home Days and expressed her frustration with the vote. What followed was a firestorm of reactions, both for and against the vote.

Fewer than 30 people attended the special town meeting, which White said was still a bit above average for one. The town mailed individual notifications announcing the meeting and the two articles on the warrant.

Birney said given the timeline for the project, she doesn’t understand why there was a need to make a decision on the funds when the regular town meeting is in March.

“It’s a bummer,” Birney said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t have a lot of people from the community turn out. I wish they would have waited until the regular meeting in March because as I understand it, the work won’t start until spring, and they could have brought this up when there would have been more voters in attendance.”

White said that in the event another committee forms for Old Home Days, members can request an appropriation of funds.

Presby countered that the seed money was already there for a new committee to put together a nice event and it’s unlikely the town would reimburse the full $8,000.

“Bands cost more, parade performers’ costs rise, fireworks, generators, bounce rides, animals; prices raise yearly,” she said. “No one really understands the costs unless they attend planning meetings. Now, with all our $8,000-plus funds gone, any committee in hopes of starting this wonderful, historic, traditional event will have to go back to the town and ask for startup funding yet again. I can assure you, those complaining how small (Old Home Days) used to be will be seeing an amazingly smaller one than has taken place in the recent years.”

The West Paris Athletic Association plans to continue fundraising throughout the winter and will likely ask voters at the annual town meeting for the rest of what it will need for the baseball field, White said.

Andrew Merrill, chairman of the association, said last month that the group had $14,000 in its account and $4,900 in cash and material donations toward the estimated $35,500 cost.

Also, Monday voters passed a second article appropriating money for energy conservation projects in town buildings.

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