WATERBORO — The Waterboro Community Pantry, a group poised to build a new food pantry in town, is looking to selectmen to move forward on a lease on some town-owned land.
Cleo Smith approached selectmen on Tuesday. She said the non profit agency has obtained a survey and had an existing well and septic system tested.
The land is located adjacent to the town hall on Townhouse Road.
Waterboro Community Pantry emerged after a longtime pantry, Food for Life, closed last fall when the former St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church building, where it was housed, was sold. The pantry had operated since 1984. The goal of the group that emerged is to build a permanent location to help provide sustenance to the needy.
Cleo Smith, who heads the effort, told selectmen Tuesday that the pantry was looking for a 99 year lease at $1 a year. She said if the new pantry that volunteers plan to have built ever ceases to operate, “the town gets the building.”
“I think it’s a pretty good deal,” said Smith.
Waterboro Community Pantry has been given a land parcel adjacent to the town-owned property it is seeking. The two parcels together would provide enough for a building and parking, proponents say.
Smith said Sanford Institution for Savings has offered to clear the land.
She said the existing well and specific system have proven to be unusable, so both will have to be replaced.
Selectmen agreed that the matter would be on the July 28 agenda; in the meantime, Town Administrator Gary Lamb, Codes Enforcement Officer Glenn Charette and Smith will meet. The matter would be forwarded to a town attorney to prepare a lease agreement, said selectmen’s board chairman Dennis Abbott.
Waterboro selectmen in February approved, in concept, the lease of town-owned land for a food pantry.
Smith told the board that a raffle conducted over Old Home Days resulted in more than $2,000 toward the growing pantry building fund.
In a 2013 posting on the former Food for Life Facebook page, a pantry spokeswoman said 1,050 families had been served in 2012.
— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or [email protected].
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