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http://www.unionleader.com/article/20160124/NEWS0606/160129363Conflict between town and church at Grafton meeting following fatal fire
By DAN SEUFERT
Union Leader Correspondent
GRAFTON — Several people walked out Sunday during an emotionally charged meeting that included about 75 residents, two selectmen and the new board of directors of Peaceful Assembly Church, which suffered heavy damage in a Jan. 12 fire that killed its pastor.
The town’s planned seizure of the church’s deed for unpaid back taxes still loomed after the two-hour session, which began as a selectmen’s meeting, and then continued as a meeting between residents and church directors. Selectmen said they would take no action until all three selectmen could be present.
Dave Kopacz, new chairman of the church board, said the directors would pay the past taxes pending appeals in court; the church has argued it should be granted tax-exempt status.
“I will be making this payment, but I am not acquiescing that we owe taxes,” Kopacz said.
The building was purchased in 2010 by deceased pastor John Connell, who church officials said was a member of the Free State Project, several members of which had moved to Grafton in past decades.
The board of directors’ former chairman, Tom Ploszaj, confirmed that Connell had been asked by the board to leave the church in September “because he had mixed too much of his politics with the church,” Ploszaj said.
The cause of death for Connell, 57, who lived in the church, has not been released by state fire investigators.
Connell was still living in the church at the time of the fire “because we could not force him out; we believe in peace,” Ploszaj said.
During Sunday’s meeting, Kopacz had said there are “clear battle lines already drawn” in the town between church members and those against them. That led Selectman Merle Kenyon — who had just said he supported the idea of revitalizing the church — to say he took the words as “a personal affront.” He then left the meeting.
Kopacz explained that the church had a plan to pay the back taxes for the past two years — a little more than $6,000. He said the directors had investors who would be willing to pay the entire back tax bill of $13,853.
Several people left the meeting after one resident said she wasn’t happy that the group was opposed to paying its taxes as a traditional nonprofit group, and after Kopacz said “every penny” to pay the taxes would come from private citizens in Massachusetts. Residents were also upset when it was learned that the new board of directors was made up, in large part, of Massachusetts residents.
Another angry departure from the meeting came from a public school teacher after Kopacz, who said that he home-schooled his children, called public schools “re-education camps.”
Selectman Sean Frost — who left after the selectmen’s portion of the meeting — returned later, but left again telling the new church board that the church needed “to separate the politics from religion.”
Kopacz said the new church would provide new services, including a full food pantry for the town to use, a food kitchen and a public meeting place for town events.
Fire Chief John Babiarz, in answer to a question from the audience, said the church was thought to be unrepairable until the day after the fire, when, he said, investigators found it was in remarkably good shape.
“As sure as I’m standing before you, I see that church being rebuilt,” Kopacz said, adding that signs that Connell had posted in front of the 217-year-old church would be removed — the only point at which most of the audience applauded.
