HHLT Undertaking Permanent Home Campaign
HHLT Undertaking Permanent Home Campaign to Finance New Office
HARPSWELL— The Harpswell Heritage Land Trust’s modest new office and meeting room is under construction in North Harpswell as anybody who goes to Brunswick via the Harpswell Neck Road can see. What is not so obvious is that the Trust has undertaken a fund raising campaign to pay for the new building. The Trust’s Permanent Home Campaign has a goal of $365,000 with $335,000 budgeted to pay for the new building, $15,000 budgeted to repair the Trust’s historic boathouse at its Skolfield Shores Preserve, and $15,000 budgeted for the costs of the campaign.
Trust President Keith Brown said “The Harpswell Heritage Land Trust has assumed, with its 19 conservation easements on 950 acres of private land and the management of the 200 acres of its own preserves, obligations ‘in perpetuity’. The trustees believe the Trust needs a permanent home from which to carry out those permanent obligations.”
Brown added “In its first seventeen years of existence, the Trust worked out of the homes of its trustees and volunteers. For the last five years, the Trust has worked from small rented offices and prevailed upon the generosity of the Kellogg Church and others when it needed larger spaces for Board meetings and other activities. Now, not only will we have adequate office and work space for our growing needs, we will, in turn, lend our space for events and meetings of other community organizations.”
The Trust has already received contributions from many local businesses and individuals as well as several foundations. Bill and Jomay Barron contributed the land for the new home. Maroney Gay Design contributed the building design. D.W. Newberg & Associates contributed the septic design. Vail’s Tree Service contributed the lion’s share of the site clearing. R.W. Webber & Sons is providing site preparation at a discount. Downeast Energy and Building Supply are providing materials at a discount. Ralph H. Black, Jr. is constructing the building.
Four foundations, including the Aldermere Foundation, the Alfred Senter Fund and the Davis Conservation Foundation, have provided grants totaling $23,000. In addition, fifty-five individual have given $87,000 so far. Brown noted that “The Trustees are very grateful to all those who have donated to date. We will soon be making an appeal to all the Trust’s members and other supporters as well as applying for additional grants and hope for an equally generous response.” Donations may be sent to the Trust at PO Box 359, Harpswell ME 04079.
The Trust’s new building is patterned after a traditional farmhouse and barn with an office and work room at one end (the ‘house’), a meeting room capable of hosting 40-50 people at the other end (the ‘barn’), and a connecting building containing an entrance, bathroom, small kitchen and utility room. The building will provide the Trust the space it badly needs to meet its permanent obligations to manage its preserves and monitor its easements, to pursue new conservation projects, and to expand its public programs. The Trust’s new meeting room will be available for meetings by all community groups in Harpswell. The historic boathouse was acquired as part of the Trust’s Skolfield Shores Preserve. Built in 1900 by Daniel True Skolfield, his sister Lydia, and her husband, Captain Clement Dunning, the Trust faced the choice to let it deteriorate and ultimately fall into the water or to renovate it. It is an integral part of the history of the preserve and the Trust has chosen to renovate it.
Since 1983 the Harpswell Heritage Land Trust has been a membership supported non-profit land trust working in Harpswell. The Trust holds conservation easements on 19 properties comprising over 950 acres and 5 historic buildings. The Trust also owns 9 preserves comprising over 200 acres. Eight of the preserves are managed for low impact public recreational use. The Trust has built and maintains trails on 6 of the 8 preserves. The Trust anticipates obtaining 2-3 new easements or preserves a year for the foreseeable future.
HHLT also operates a day camp for one week each summer for kids ages 7-11 to introduce them to Harpswell’s natural world and has initiated a community garden program integrated into the curricula at Harpswell’s two elementary schools. HHLT also sponsors walks and talks about Harpswell’s (and Maine’s) natural and cultural heritage, and cooperates with other organizations of like purposes.