ORFORD — For 168 years, the Orford Congregational Church has ministered to the needs of the community.

Now the Orford community is being asked to minister to the needs of the church.

Voters at Town Meeting on Tuesday approved — excluding a solitary audible “no” — by voice vote an article on the warrant for the Selectboard to “consider the feasibility” of purchasing the Orford Congregational Church building, a familiar presence along Main Street which, like many churches dotting the New England landscape, once symbolized the locus of the town but is now struggling to maintain itself as the number of worshipers declines with every passing year.

Taking the floor microphone before the vote in support of the article — the antepenultimate of 21 articles on the warrant that took nearly two hours to vote through — resident Mark Blanchard framed the prospect of the town purchasing the church as “akin” to when the town repurchased what had formerly been its old town hall in Orfordville and then leased the building to the Orford Historical Society, which developed it into the Town Hall Heritage Center.

The Heritage Center “has wonderful exhibits during the summer,” Blanchard said, which educate the public about Orford’s history and culture, and the old church could evolve into a similar purpose.

“If that is a reasonable model, I would say this article is well worth it for the effort in how we preserve the building, continue the congregation and enrich the community,” he said.

The church congregation petitioned to place the article on the warrant because “we take stewardship very seriously and are sadly no longer able to keep up with the cost” of maintaining the church building which dates back to 1855, deacon Paula Graves told community members filling the gymnasium at Rivendell Academy on Tuesday evening.

Graves explained that rising utility and insurance costs — insurance alone shot up $30,000 last year, she noted — has far outstripped the “old and small” membership’s ability to support the burden, leading members to believe having the town purchase the property is logical since it is already utilized for many community events.

She pointed to a number of community uses the church already hosts, including as a distribution hub for Meals on Wheels and Orford Cares/Grafton County Senior Center Thursday meals. It’s the designated emergency evacuation site for Rivendell students, hosts flu shot clinics, provides meeting places for the historical society and Friends of the Library, “occasional bingo” and — where the pews overflowed in January with 300 community members — recently gathered to celebrate the life of Jim McGoff, the owner of McGoff Salvage and a beloved town figure, who died on Jan. 1.

“There was no other place in town that could hold that many people safely,” she said.

Graves next pitched the property with the gusto of a real estate agent, noting it boasts a “commercially approved” kitchen, has handicapped-accessible bathrooms and main floor, “hard-wired” smoke alarm, “up-to-date electrical,” “two large classrooms” in the lower level and “a septic system less than 10 years old.”

At the same time, she acknowledged there are some “deferred maintenance” issues, “one of which is painting the building.”

How much money the congregation would hope to see in a sale, and how much the town would be willing to pay, was not brought up at Town Meeting. The warrant article called for merely a purchase price “at an amount to be mutually determined by both parties.”

But Selectboard Chairman John Adams emphasized that the article only grants approval to the Selectboard to “consider the feasibility” of a purchase and that any authorization to purchase would have to be put before voters to approve or reject at a future Town Meeting.

And there would be other questions the town would have to weigh as well even before a decision goes before voters.

“This feasibility ... there is no money allocated (for it). If we want to an engineering study, what pocket does it come out of?” Adams said of one of the questions that will need to be decided.

“The minute we pass this, I am going to be asking for volunteers for the feasibility study,” he said, noting a yes vote “comes with a cost.”

In other routine Town Meeting business, voters passed the Selectboard’s proposed operating budget of $1.35 million, which is up nearly $145,000 from last year’s $1.2 million operating budget.

Sharp questions came from the floor over the Selectboard coming back to voters to ask for approval to tap $45,000 from the Highway Department Trucks Capital Reserve Fund for extra money to pay for two dump trucks whose suppliers jacked up the price after voters approved the initial expenditures at prior town meetings.

A back-and-forth ensued with some voters pressing Selectboard members to explain why and how this happened — short answer: supply chain issues and inflation — and what assurances could be given it won’t happen again.

After nearly 30 minutes of Selectboard members Adams and Chase Kling fielding questions about article, the sometimes-sharp exchange prompted Blanchard to observe it proved the adage that Orford is a town where half the voters “know and love trucks.”

Contact John Lippman at jlippman@vnews.com.

Elected officials:

Number of voters: 149

Number on checklist: 859

Selectboard: Jennifer Carter

Town Clerk: Deborah Hadlock

Tax Collector: Deborah Hadlock

Planning Board (three years): Faith Knapp

Planning Board (three years):vacant

Planning Board (one year): Kenny King

Trustee of Trust Funds: Christopher Crowley

Orford Free Library Trustee: Susan Kling

Cemetery Commission: David Smith

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