PERU – The Board of Selectmen unanimously voted Monday evening to accept a citizen petition asking for an article in the town meeting warrant for $10,000 to maintain the former Peru Elementary School.

The Friends of Peru Elementary School maintain the property.

During a special town meeting Nov. 4, 2015, residents voted to have the town in charge of the building again and to spend $10,000 to help maintain it. It meant Friends of the Peru Elementary School were no longer tenants and would retain management of it.

During the board’s last meeting, selectmen voted 2-2 on whether to place an article on the town meeting warrant that would raise another $10,000 to help the group maintain the building. The tie meant the measured failed to pass.

The group manages the building and pays for its maintenance through fundraisers, grants, fees from events held there and rent from various groups.

Chairman Larry Snowman and Selectman Jim Pulsifer voted in favor of the article, while Selectman John Witherell and Selectwoman Wendy Henderson voted against it.

Following the vote, members of the Friends group circulated a petition that asked for the article to be placed on the warrant.

Anne Stickney, a member of the group, told the board Monday evening that the group had gathered 139 signatures, which were all verified.

Pulsifer quickly made a motion for the board to accept the petition and place the article on the warrant.

Witherell said that he “would be OK with that, as long as we say that we don’t have a recommendation.”

“I don’t want the selectmen to have a recommendation of ‘yes’ or ‘no,’” Witherell continued. “I want it to appear blank when people go to vote.”

The board unanimously voted to accept the petition and place it on the warrant, but deadlocked again when voting on whether to recommend the article to voters.

FPES member Yvonne Allen asked Witherell and Henderson why they opposed placing the article on the warrant.

Henderson said she thought the article was “supposed to be a temporary boost in the beginning, but now it’s on every referendum, and it’s getting so more and more people are coming to me and complaining that we weren’t supposed to be funding the building.”

Stickney pointed out that there was never anything said in previous meetings that said the article would be a one-time thing.

Witherell said he had no problem donating money to the building, but felt that the article requesting $10,000 was “a burden on the taxpayers.”

Allen shot back that the group is “not a burden,” and is “providing the community with a building to use for anything that they need.

“We provided a venue for the Wayne and Adelia Thurston spaghetti dinner benefit, and we’ve provided places for different organizations to hold their meetings,” she said. “It’s a building for everyone in our community.”

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