AUBURN – A denial of a tax exemption by Poland selectmen more than six months ago prompted an appeal that was heard by the county commissioners Wednesday.

The commission will make a decision within a few weeks and both sides will be notified by certified mail.

At issue is a former house on the property of the Poland Community Church that the church has owned since 1948. It officially served as a parsonage until 1981, although the church maintains that it was used for residential quarters for a pastor about two years ago. The building houses several community outreach programs including a food pantry, thrift store and a meeting room used by a Lions Club. The town has had the structure on the tax rolls since 1993.

The Board of Selectmen denied the tax exemption on Oct. 1 with less than a unanimous vote. The basis for the denial was that the building was being used for other than religious services. The 3-1 vote came after Selectman Lionel Ferland asked the board to table the matter until Oct. 15 so he could get additional information. Ferland cast the dissenting vote.

State law specifies that church parsonages may qualify for a reduction of $20,000 in tax valuation if the building is used solely as a parsonage.

According to John Lasky, a trustee of the church, more and more people need help with food and clothing. Linda Lasky, also representing the church, said an average of 12 families per month were helped in 2002. That number is up to 20 monthly with about three families being referred to the church each month by the town.

“We try to help people with dignity as a hand up, not a hand out,” she said.

“I don’t know why we aren’t tax exempt. How can you get more charitable than with what we are doing?” John Lasky said.

Linda Lasky presented the commissioners with a copy of a letter to the church from the Board of Selectmen dated Sept. 2, 1997, that she said acknowledged the church’s tax exempt status.

Robert Duplisea, the town’s assessor’s agent, said the former parsonage couldn’t be both a church and a charitable and benevolent organization under state law. He did say that if the church had a separate charter for the building and its charitable uses it might qualify for an exemption. In effect, the parsonage and the church would have to be governed under separate charters.


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