SHUTESBURY — A home that served as the parsonage for the Shutesbury Community Church congregation could be sold to the town, which if approved by residents would provide Shutesbury municipal land adjacent to the fire station and give the church money needed to make its historic building fully accessible.
A special Town Meeting will be held Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the elementary school to consider transferring up to $110,000 from free cash for the purchase of 32 Leverett Road, which includes a four-bedroom, two-story home that dates to the 1880s, a barn and 1.1 acres.
The potential purchase is one of two articles on the warrant, with the other article moving the date of annual Town Meeting from the first Saturday in May to the last Saturday in April.
Church pastor Mark Ellis said the decision to sell the property comes as a way to cover the $100,000 or so cost of installing a wheelchair lift in the 1827 church, which has a renovated second-floor sanctuary that isn’t accessible to all congregants and has therefore prevented use of that space for weekly services.
“The decision by the church earlier this year was to attempt to sell the parsonage and then use the funding to put in the lift,” Ellis said.
The church also got support for the sale from the American Baptists, the official owner of the parsonage building. The parsonage, which was last used by a pastor more than a decade ago, hasn’t been rented for a few years after much of the interior was gutted during a 2016 renovation project that was never finished.
While the Select Board called the Town Meeting, members have expressed concern about potential costs of demolishing the building and any potential remediation on the site, such as lead paint in the building and gasoline contamination in the soil. There is no specific municipal use for the property and buildings.
Ellis said the up or down vote will help give his congregation direction on whether it has the town as a buyer, or will have to seek a private buyer.
Whatever happens, Ellis said the church is working hard to become a participating member of the community and will be able to better do that with an accessible building.
“We’re very eager to do that,” Ellis said.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
