CORNISH — At Saturday’s annual Town Meeting, residents rejected an effort to rescind a two-year-old decision to convert the former Cornish General Store into a new library.

A warrant article petitioned by residents to overturn the 2023 vote was shot down by paper ballot, 245-187, during Town Meeting held in the Cornish Elementary School gymnasium.

The decision reinforces a choice that voters made in 2023 to close the George H. Stowell Library, which lacks indoor plumbing and accessibility, and open a much larger library — following renovations — in the shuttered general store on Route 120.

“I’m looking forward to being able to go to the bathroom while I’m at work,” Judith Kaufman, a library employee for 21 years, said Saturday.

In 2023, voters supported the library move by a slim majority, 268-256, and it remains a contentious issue in town. 

It’s a matter of finances, proponents of rescinding the vote argued Saturday.  

“We have elderly people who are going to have to move because they can’t pay their taxes,” Alicia Simino said during the floor debate.

Over the past two years, Cornish Community Initiative, a nonprofit founded in 2019, has raised $2.2 million in donations and pledges. The nonprofit has also received a federal community development grant of more than $700,000 that will allow the project to be completed at no cost to Cornish taxpayers, supporters say.

The nonprofit has already spent $241,000 on construction planning. If Saturday’s article had passed, the town could have been held liable for returning the money, said Matthew Decker, an attorney with the Lebanon office of Drummond Woodsum, which represents the town.

Some residents remain worried about an increase in annual operating costs when the library moves into its larger new home. 

“We’re a little town and we don’t need this fancy building,” Penny Hull said as she stood in line to cast her paper ballot. 

Larissa Sharff and her two children visit Stowell Library once a week. Her 9-year-old daughter has a disability, which makes it difficult for her to get up and down the library’s steps, said Sharff, who supported the move to a new building.

The 2023 vote has divided residents, Lyle Parry said.

“I’m very unhappy and disappointed in the town for skewing the facts from every angle,” he said while in line to vote. “I find it very shameful and I hope we can heal from it.”

At Saturday’s meeting, residents also rejected an article to appropriate $2,000 to contract with Avitar Associates of New England to make property assessing data available online.

Voters supported a motion made by Joanna Sharf, who chairs the town’s energy committee, to pass over an article that asked residents to adopt so-called community power. 

The town’s energy committee unanimously supports the concept of community power, which is designed to lower utility bills for residents and businesses. However, Community Power Coalition of New Hampshire, or CPCNH, which Cornish could partner with to launch community power, has undergone recent staffing changes and faced financial troubles, Sharf told residents at Saturday’s meeting.

“It seems prudent to delay the vote on this article until next year to allow CPCNH to address its issues and for the energy price market in New Hampshire to settle,” Sharf said.

Voters rejected a petitioned article asking to change the Conservation Commission’s bylaws, regarding the board’s makeup and spending rules. 

If approved, the measure would have only been advisory, said Decker, the town’s attorney.

In the nearly six-hour meeting, a majority of voters supported all other articles, including a town general fund budget of $695,000 and a highway budget of $817,000.

Emma Roth-Wells can be reached at erothwells@vnews.com or 603-727-3242.