PARIS – The nonprofit organization HOPE is leaving its center on Park Street and is looking for community help in returning to the building.

Dr. Ken Hamilton, founder of Healing Of Persons Extraordinary, said the nonprofit organization had occupied the building at 52 High Street, known as the Center for Hope and Healing, for 18 years. Hamilton said the departure from the premises is an indirect result of corporate scandals, which led to the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act by the United States Congress for corporate reforms.

“This imposed an additional cost on the management of the estate, amounting to as much as $9,000 a year,” said Hamilton.

The estate is managed by Key Trust of Portland, which gave HOPE a one-year notice prior to termination of the agreement with the organization to use the building. Hamilton said Key Trust requested that the building be vacated, at which point the trust will have the building appraised and put on the market.

A spokeswoman for Key Trust said the company had no comment on the matter.

The building is the former residence of Perley and Mary Ripley who specified in their wills that the building be used for health-related purposes. Hamilton said HOPE began to use the building for its center after the death of Mary’s nurse, Lydia Ross, in 1987.

Hamilton said the center is used for office space and meetings, as well as Quaker meetings on Sunday. HOPE has permission from SAD 17 to transfer those functions to a classroom at Fox School in Paris, a former elementary school.

Hamilton said buyers would have an equal opportunity to purchase the center, although he is hopeful that the organization will be able to move back in. He said he has received pledges toward that goal, including one $50,000 pledge and one $10,000 pledge.

“It’s possible for the community to buy it and develop it further along the lines of Mary Ripley’s will, that it be used for health-related purposes,” he said.

Hamilton, a former surgeon at Stephens Memorial Hospital, held his first HOPE group meeting in 1987 with five cancer patients. The organization’s mission is to assist people in crisis by helping them find personal meaning and value in their lives. Hamilton said he has conducted over 4,000 HOPE meetings since then.

How to help

To assist the HOPE organization, call Dr. Ken Hamilton at 743-9373 or write to P.O. Box 276, South Paris, ME, 04281.