WEST PARIS — The vote to acquire Agnes Gray Elementary School was followed by cheers Saturday night as more than 100 residents said the town should take over the building from Maine School Administrative District 17.

The celebration came as Town Manager Joy Downing announced the result — 109 yes and 2 no — of a closed-ballot vote during the special town meeting held at Ring-McKeen American Legion post 151 on Church Street.

Debate over whether to take the building and 8.2-acre property back was as one-sided as the vote.

Resident Alvin Yates, who attended the school when it was West Paris High School, asked for reassurance that the town could own it without adding more burden to property tax payers.

“It’s just an old building,” Yates said. “It had problems back when I went there.”

No definitive answer could be provided. The cost to take it back will be a little more than $5,000, the amount of the next outstanding bond payment allocated for the school.

Repairs to the school — a long list — would have to be funded by the town. But its former PTO group, the Bobcat Committee, is transitioning to a community-focused 501(c)(3) organization that will research and apply for charitable, historic preservation and economic development grants for improvements and renovations.

In addition to Yates, a few people thuoght the property should be sold to ensure it generates tax revenue in the future. Downing told the crowd that after a recent assessment by the town’s tax assessor, the building would have had an annual tax value of about $4,600.

During the hourlong discussion, speakers were overwhelmingly in favor of taking back the property and determining how to monetize it later.

Nick DiConzo reiterated that an architectural report done on the building in 2023 rated it as structurally sound and he pointed to external restoration of the Gingerbread House in Norway, which was entirely funded with no taxpayer dollars.

Alta Pierce, a resident in her 90s, attended high school and worked at Agnes Gray for 40 years. Her four children and their children attended elementary school there. When it was suddenly closed by SAD 17 in February 2024 due to unsafe conditions, her great-granddaughter was a fourth grade student.

“The Agnes Gray school is more than a building,” Pierce declared, as people applauded.

Pam Davison pointed out that when her family moved to town in 1996 it had a bank, a general store, a hardware store, a restaurant, lumberyard and post office. “It’s all gone,” she said. “Now we have a piece of property right here in town. Why don’t we invest in ourselves?”

“This is an opportunity,” said Richard Gagne, one of West Paris’ more recent residents. “We have an opportunity to renovate it and turn it into something magical. Bring some new life to this community, whatever it may be. Take it back.”

If the majority had voted to refuse the property, SAD 17 would have been responsible for selling it. Private and charter schools would be given first right of refusal, as dictated by Maine law. If not sold for educational purposes, then SAD 17 could have sold it on the open real estate market for fair value. In that scenario, West Paris would receive the proceeds as a credit toward its local share of the annual school district budget.