Moreland looks at future of Lewis Grizzard Trust

Tuesday, February 21, 2012
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alt — Carol Chancey of Reel Southern Adventure, left, shows the growing Lewis Grizzard exhibit at the Moreland Hometown Heritage Museum in the Moreland Mill to Pamela Prange, center, and Dan Dietz of the Newnan-Coweta Historical Society.

By W. WINSTON SKINNER winston@newnan.com The Moreland Town Council created the Lewis Grizzard Memorial Trust, and now town officials are looking at the future of the trust and its holdings. The town created the self-perpetuating trust after Grizzard, a writer and humorist who grew up in the south Coweta town, died in 1994. In the early years, the trust sponsored some events in Grizzard's memory and raised money for a scholarship.

For years, the trust also operated a museum in an old store building on U.S. 29 that was given to them by the Webb family. The collection at that museum has been transferred to the Moreland Hometown Heritage Museum in the Moreland Mill. City officials have raised questions about the trust in recent months. At the monthly town council meeting last week, Town Attorney Mark Mitchell said reports that the store building would revert to the Webb heirs if the museum closed are not true. Mitchell has examined the deed -- a quit claim deed giving the property to the trust. "It has no reversionary language in it," he said. Mitchell said the town council created the trust, and only the town council can dissolve the trust. If the trust is eliminated, its property could go to the town or be assigned to a non-profit continuing the work of the trust. "The town established the trust, and only the town can dissolve the trust," Mitchell said. He suggested the town contact trust members, "find out what assets they have" and "go from there." An annual report to the town is mentioned in the documents establishing the trust. Councilman Dick Ford noted no report has been received in years. Carol Chancey, who works with the Moreland Cultural Arts Alliance to promote tourism in Moreland, has been overseeing the growing Grizzard exhibit at the Hometown Heritage Museum. "The collection is being maintained by the MCAA," she said. Chancey also said all but one of the trust members have said they are in favor of the new Grizzard project. "That's as far as any of us can go. The town has to take the action," she said. Mitchell said the town needs to "get some sense of what they've got." The town is well within its rights "to ask for a report" from the trust, he stated. "If we don't hear from them, then we go from there," Ford said. Chancey noted Dudley Stamps, Grizzard's longtime friend and head of the trust for years, helped move the collection from the prior location to the local history museum at the Moreland Mill. She said he visited for quite awhile that day and expressed interest in what is being done to preserve his friend's memory. Chancey said she believes Stamps will be glad to talk with "anybody who contacts him civilly."

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