Stimson Hall in Gray may stay open this winter after all.

Gray Town Manager Deborah Cabana has been looking for an alternative spot for the Town Council to hold meetings this winter to save the cost of heating the 105-year-old town hall, and is finding the available options to be lacking.

School Administrative District 15 officials have offered the use of Gray-New Gloucester Middle School, but Cabana said using that building may cost the town as much as remaining at Stimson Hall.

Because Gray Community Television’s equipment cannot be removed temporarily from Stimson Hall, where the station’s permanent controls are located, a person would be needed to man that station while a second worker operated the cameras at the meeting, Cabana said.

Some portable equipment would then have to be purchased in order to broadcast the signal back to the home base in Stimson Hall, and someone would have to set up the middle school room for each meeting, she said.

“By the time we invest in the staff and the rest of it, I’m not sure it’s worth it,” said Cabana, who said she would continue to research the issue. “These are all challenges. It doesn’t mean it can’t be done.”

Unanticipated increases in fuel costs led to a projected $56,000 budget deficit, Cabana told councilors in June. The town locked into a heating fuel price of $4.32 a gallon earlier this summer, significantly more than the $2.90 per gallon used to figure the current budget. Stimson would cost around $8,000 to heat this winter, Cabana said.