CM:
I am not suggesting that the Sisters do anything dishonest nor anything that would imperil their success in court.
What I *am* suggesting is that they fight Warren's narrow, self-serving reading of a statute with their own narrow, self-serving reading of the same statute. Because the Town of Warren is choosing to take a position that the building is no longer a school, I am simply recommending that, rather than spend time and money fighting it out in court, the sisters' simply read the statute carefully and perform the minimum set of tasks needed to be defined as a school by the statute's terms.
If anyone doesn't like that, they can change the statute but, until they do, the sisters will not have done anything dishonest and they will not have done anything illegal or which would be ruled against them in a court of law.
If Warren had tried to charge them, say, $5,000, then none of this would matter. Warren's ridiculous bill for $100K+ is behind my suggestion for the sisters to get creative and fight fire with fire. I would make the same sort of suggestion for any similarly aggrieved party.
Again, Warren's ulterior motive simply has to be to squeeze and organization that it perceives to be over a barrel. And if that's true, it's not too hard to see that the town's long-term goal is to take an attractive and valuable property for the cost of taxes that the sisters can't possibly pay.
I'll say it again: The Town of Warren should be ashamed of its naked tax grab.
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