To the editor:
Here are the facts concerning the revocation of the care and maintenance of the Meeting House.
In February of 2021, a Select Board representative, the town administrator and town counsel verbally informed the Lynnfield Historical Society that they could no longer manage the Meeting House.
The issue was that the Society was not registered with the Attorney General’s Office/Public Charities Division, although we were registered with the Secretary of State. Our 501c3 had also lapsed.
As a consequence, locks were changed to the Historical Centre and Meeting House to prevent our access and all utilities bills and maintenance costs were transferred to the town.
The Society has been prevented from managing the rentals of the Meeting and we are no longer able to have possession of our artifacts, donated to us by private citizens.
Many misleading and false statements were reported on the front pages of local news over the last many months. We all know how sensational headlines sell! They even went so far as to print my picture along with one of these articles, like I was public enemy No. 1.
I have to say at least it was a nice picture of me. The Society was made to look like we had committed a crime.
Come to find out, this is an extremely common occurrence among volunteer-run nonprofits (you can look up online to see how many Lynnfield nonprofits are lapsed right now).
We immediately set about rectifying the situation. It was our original assumption from talking to the Select Board representative, town administrator and town counsel that this was all that would be needed to get back to managing our beloved Meeting House. It is now clear that the town government has no intention of ever allowing us to be custodians of the Meeting House again.
COVID-19 held up the process, but we are now happy to say that, after paying for a couple of application fees to the state and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as well as four years back-filing fees, we are retroactively in good standing with the state.
As of today, we are in close contact with our IRS representative, and she has confirmed that we should be getting our 501c3 reinstatement notification momentarily.
Absolutely no penalties were accessed by either the state or the IRS (no crime committed). Again, this happens all the time and they have, what we have come to find out, a very easy process to rectify these lapses.
The Lynnfield Historical Society has remained silent, not wanting to debate issues in a public forum, instead handling this in a professional manner. Unfortunately, the other side has taken advantage of this and printed much that is untrue and misleading.
This beautiful, historic building has cost the town of Lynnfield nothing for the last 60 years. Now all care and maintenance of the building will be borne by its citizens — the taxpayers.
Please make your voices heard. This is a travesty. The town government has ignored a unanimous vote of Town Meeting and will now cost you money. They need to know that we will not accept this.
The Lynnfield Historical Society is an open book. If anyone would like further clarification regarding this ongoing issue, we will be more than happy to answer any questions or provide further details. The Society’s email address is [email protected]
Linda Gillon, president
Lynnfield Historical Society
