A hearing on the contentious decision by trustees of a former Girl Scout Camp in New Hampshire to sell the land was held in Middlesex Probate and Family Court Monday. There, a judge heard arguments about whether attempts by two people who seek to block the deal can move forward.
At stake is the future of Camp Monotomy on Lake Winnipesauke in New Hampshire, a 95-acre property scheduled to be sold to a developer for $18 million to build luxury housing.
Camp Monotomy is the central focus of a heated legal debate about whether trustees have the right to sell the land despite language in the land trust that denotes that sale of the property is a last resort, only after all attempts to retain it as a camp have failed.
There are at least two interested parties, or interveners, have come forward to express an interest to maintain the shoreline land as a camp as cited in the 65-year old trust created by the Arlington Girl Scouts, later succeeded by the Girl Scout of Eastern Massachusetts.
Stacie Kosinski of Verrill Law firm told Associate Justice Carla Salvucci that she is a new legal representative to the charitable trustees, including trustee chair Tom Smurzynksi, who want to move forward with the sale.
“I’ve learned relatively quickly that this is a highly publicized and personalized matter, and I’m hoping today we can kind of offload some of the business and get back to the just passionate review of how to move things forward and stay intentional and goal-focused,” Kosinski said.
Kosinski asked the judge to dismiss the appeal filed by two interveners in the case, Jessie Trowbridge — a Princeton, Mass. resident who grew up going to the camp — and Eric Carlson, who made an offer to take over operations of the camp. Both of them oppose the sale, and argue that not enough effort was made to find a suitable owner. Carlson already operates a camp in NH and has offered $1.5 million to take over the camp.
During the hearing, Kosinski said that “the motions to intervene, I believe, were improper and unnecessary. The trustees essentially moved to strike down the opposition and oppose those interventions.”
“I just think what’s happening now is by conflating the affidavit of objection with the motion to intervene, we’re now stuck in this kind of procedural muck. And, and we do appreciate Your Honor’s assistance with moving us forward in this,” she said.
Andrew Hamilton, the attorney representing the intervener’s interests said it would be improper for the court to dismiss their appeals because of procedural errors.
“The petitioners argue that this court can dismiss this case because our appeals were improper. As we detailed in our opposition, this is simply wrong,“ he said, citing what he said is relevant case law.
Emily Gabrault, from the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office public charities division, briefly addressed the court.
“I think I would just have to say that the Attorney General is interested in the ability for us to move forward in this matter and to protect the charitable assets that are at stake at the moment,” she said, saying she hopes things more forward efficiently.
In January, the AG’s office filed a motion opposing Carlson and Trowbridge’s legal efforts, saying the two have no standing in case.
Outside the courthouse, Bette Higley, who lives on Bear Island across from Camp Monotomy, said it was an interesting choice of words by the trustees attorney,
“I’d say that I was surprised that they would call this process ‘procedural muck,’” Higley said. “I heard that word. And obviously try to short-circuit the process to avoid the courts from hearing the real story. If the rules and procedures of court voted on don’t matter, we have bigger issues than the issue today.”
Justice Salvucci said she would take the arguments into consideration, and did not issue a decision.
