Lebanon
The city’s Planning Board voted unanimously last week to subdivide the Elks’ nearly 63-acre lot, carving out a 7.6 acre parcel that contains Elks Field and a Dartmouth Coach parking lot.
The new, smaller parcel is currently being eyed as an expanded parking lot for Dartmouth Coach, which floated the idea at a Planning Board meeting in July of paving over the space.
Between 250 and 300 spaces would be created to meet an unexpected demand at the company’s new terminal across the street, Dartmouth Coach officials told the board. The two organizations have signed a purchase and sale agreement, according to Gary Ward, a club trustee. But if the deal falls through, he said, dividing the land would clear a regulatory hurdle for a future developer.
“This is an asset that the Elks Lodge owns. Right now, we are interested in basically putting it out there as an asset to sell,” Ward said in an audio recording of last week’s meeting. “We don’t have anything concrete yet.”
The Elks are hoping the sale will help the club recover from financial difficulties reported in February and now under investigation by Lebanon police and the FBI.
Club members recently submitted an abatement to the IRS requesting it remove $55,000 in penalties from nearly $144,000 in unpaid taxes, according to the Elks’ October newsletter. They’ve also reached out to the city’s tax collector to discuss $291,000 owed to the city, as well as the state of Vermont to talk about potentially reducing penalties acquired over years in that state.
“All have been very sympathetic to our situation an are willing to work with us,” the club’s exalted ruler Scott Merrihew wrote in the newsletter.
The Thor’s Stone Athletic Club, a Lebanon-based track and field and weight lifting group, also recently donated $1,750 to the Elks with the stipulation that the money go toward outstanding debt, the newsletter said.