CORNISH — The family of a donor to the Stowell Library alleges the money was misused by a committee seeking to renovate the former Cornish General Store into a new library for the town.

Brian Meyette is asking the Cornish Library Trustees to return $15,000, which is half of the donation his late mother, Margaret “Peggy” Meyette, made in 2020, four years before her death earlier this year at age 93.

The donation was intended solely for the Stowell and the trustees should not have allowed any of it to be spent on developing cost estimates to renovate the former store, Brian Meyette said during last Thursday’s trustees meeting, which at times became heated.

“Half has already been squandered and misused,” Meyette told the trustees. “The request is for $15,000 before that gets wasted too.”

In August 2021, a year after Peggy Meyette donated $30,000 to the library, an exploratory committee formed to look at what it would cost to relocate the library to the nearby store on Route 120, which was being offered as donation by its owner, Colleen O’Neill.

Voters narrowly accepted that donation at Town Meeting in March 2023, and the nonprofit Cornish Community Initiative has five years to raise about $2.5 million to renovate the store as a library and community center. Stowell, which opened in 1910, is 1,000 square feet and lacks handicap accessibility and indoor plumbing, while the store is substantially larger at 6,000 square feet.

The library trustees combined all donations into the library’s building fund, and the trustees and town agreed that using the money to have plans drawn up with cost estimates to renovate the store and renovate Stowell was an “appropriate use” by the committee, Laura Cousineau, the trustees chairwoman, said.

Beginning in January 2020, the building fund had Meyette’s $30,000 donation and another $150 donation was added in May of that year. There is $14,700 remaining. A septic design for Stowell cost $2,500 and the rest was spent on architect fees and legal fees.

The trustees want an opinion from the Charitable Trusts Unit of the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office before making any decision, Cousineau said.

“The reason we are going to the trust and the reason we might bring in a lawyer is because we want the correct ruling on this,” Cousineau said. “That is why we are going through the proper channels and if the answer is: ‘Give the money back,’ we are not going to get a lawyer to fight it. We are going to say here is your money back.”

Brian Meyette and resident Alicia Simino said it should not have to be so complicated because when the money was donated in 2020, there was no other town library except the Stowell and the former general store did not come on the radar until a year later. Meyette’s donation did not come with any documentation in addition to the check and only said, “for the library.”

“So I guess I am confused as to why the trustees are having such a hard time trying to decide what Mrs. Meyette’s intention was,” said Simino, a member of the group that advocates keeping the Stowell as the town library.

At the time of the donation, the only library in town to support was the Stowell Library so Meyette’s intention was clear, trustee treasurer Kathi Patterson said, according to minutes of a June 12 trustees meeting. At that same meeting, Meyette said his mother’s donation was for a ramp at Stowell to make it more accessible.

Cousineau, however, said the donation was “too vague,” the minutes state, so the trustees voted to seek the advice of the Charitable Trusts Unit.

Rather than get a clear answer, Cousineau said the unit’s response suggested the trustees contact the town’s attorney. The trustees voted again Thursday to contact the Charitable Trusts Unit once more hoping for a more definitive answer, and possibly involve the town’s lawyer.

Simino was angered by the trustees’ actions and its refusal to take an immediate vote to return the money.

“So why will you spend town money and hold up Mr. Meyette,” Simino asked. “Why can’t you guys just make the decision yourself? You don’t have to get a lawyer. You could do the right thing right now and give that money back.”

Trustee Marie De Rusha said a vote Thursday would not give Meyette the money.

“It is probably better to go through the lawyer and the trust because if there is a vote, Brian is not getting his money back. I think it would be 2 to 1 against,” De Rusha said.

Patterson warned that they are opening themselves up to a lawsuit if they act without a legal opinion to back up their decision.

During the meeting, Cousineau and Patterson recalled that Peggy Meyette came to at least one exploratory committee meeting with her son when the new library building was discussed.

Patterson said Meyette did not object, when asked about spending money. Her son has a different recollection of the one meeting his mother attended.

“Her comment at that meeting was, she didn’t hear or understand a single word of what was being said,” Meyette said of his mother, who 92 at the time with failing hearing.

Brian Meyette later pulled out his phone and showed the trustees a picture of a sign on his mother’s front lawn in 2022 that said “Save the Stowell.” Simino added that Meyette had contacted her for the sign and she brought it over.

Peggy Meyette never objected to any expenditure of the money between when the committee was formed and her death, according to Cousineau, who added there is a lot of “hearsay” about what has transpired and she only wanted to rely on facts when communicating with the trust.

At the end of the meeting, Meyette said he had simply wanted to have the trustees return what is left of the donation. But if that doesn’t happen, he is prepared to take legal action.

“I can assure you, if I have to get a lawyer, and I haven’t gotten one yet, but if I have to get one, we are going for all of it,” Meyette said. “The whole $30,000.”

Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.