PERU — Voters are expected to decide the fate Thursday of the Peru Community Center.

At a special special town meeting, scheduled for 6 p.m. at the Town Office, residents will be asked if they want to keep the community center, formerly Peru Elementary School.

If they choose to keep the building, voters will be asked if they want to take $170,000 from a surplus fund to bring the building up to code. Improvements are needed to maintain the building’s current uses, including a business and a place for gathering.

Another option would be to close the building to allow time for the Select Board to determine the best uses for the facility.

If residents vote to get rid of the facility, they would then have to decide whether to sell or demolish it.

Selectwoman Carol Roach said Monday the town’s surplus fund would cover the $170,000 needed for improvements.

“The issue is really if the $170,000 is taken from surplus, that, unlike in past years, the referendum ballot that we put forward in June would not include an amount in surplus to reduce the potential tax burden on the taxpayers,” Roach said.

She said voters in November already approved taking $170,000 out of surplus.

“We didn’t move on that because the citizens’ petition was presented to us in December challenging the vote,” Roach said. “That’s why Thursday’s meeting is being presented.”

The community center is operated by the Friends of the Peru Elementary School. Tenants are the Servants Heart food pantry and the Rumford Senior Citizens.

Roach said a volunteer raised a concern Sunday about the food pantry and its possibly moving back to the church.

Roach said the senior center also offers a meeting place for local Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and other nonprofit and civic organizations.

“So the community is split on whether or not the town can afford to maintain the building,” she said, “and whether or not the options available to the citizens and others are valued sufficiently enough to keep it open.”

Nick Waugh, president of Friends of Peru Elementary, said Sunday: “It has always been the intent of the Friends of Peru Elementary School to do something nice for the town. We’re not looking to jack up anyone’s taxes, nor sow the mystifying divisions that have arisen in the town. Our mission is to create community, not trash it.

“We have a building that with $170,000 to $200,000 in tax support and/or grants could become an income generator for the town, in addition to being a thriving community center. Before being shut down by the fire marshal, we had already demonstrated these things.”

Waugh said the group has pledged to pursue grants and is prepared to manage the building for the next three years, after which it would like to hand it over to a new generation.

“But this cannot, nor should it, occur without an investment from the town,” he said.

An engineer’s report commissioned by selectmen and delivered in July offered two options for the former school. The first, approved by voters, called for bringing the building up to code — for business, mercantile and assembly use — at a cost of $168,500, which would include installation of a sprinkler system, at about $120,000.

An inspection by the state Fire Marshal’s Office found the building violates safety codes, which meant an end to theater shows and the thrift shop at the former school.

The second option in the engineer’s report had a projected cost of $39,500 and would only allow business uses, prohibiting residents from using the center’s gym and kitchen and disallowing the display or sale of merchandise.

Roach said the property tax rate could increase between $2 and $6 per $1,000 of assessed valuation, depending on what happens with the school budget. The school budget alone would increase the town budget by $2.

The town’s operational increases could increase the tax rate between $2 and $4. And the impact of the $170,000 from surplus would be about $2.

Peru is also affected by increases from the Med-Care Ambulance assessment and the Oxford County budget.

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Residents will decide the fate of the Peru Community Center at a special town meeting on Thursday. (Submitted photo)