The Girl Scouts of Fayette County have been stationed in the little green hut on the corner of Milam and Vail for the last 80 years, but now the local scouts have less than 30 days to gather their things and vacate the property so it can be put up for sale.<\/p>\n
The Fayette County troops fall under the umbrella of the Girl Scouts of Central Texas Council, which is headquartered in Austin. There has been communication between the lawyers and representatives of each party since early June, attempting to determine who owns the property and the legality of a proposed sale.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe deed we have is old and written in a very lawyeresque style, but the way that it reads is that the La Grange Girl Scouts own it outright,\u201d said Michelle Messer, former service unit director.<\/p>\n
When the land was given to the Girl Scouts in January 1947 by William Hermes, the property deed named three trustees in charge of the property. Hermes also noted conditions for the use of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo hold said property for the use and benefit of the La Grange Girl Scouts, and such local Girl Scouts group only, as a meeting place to accomplish the purposes and objects and aims of that organization,\u201d according to the deed signed by Hermes in 1947. \u201cIf there is no such discontinuance or abandonment within [10 years from the date of signing], this grant shall be, and is being made as, a perpetual one.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an email exchange between Girl Scouts of Fayette County and Girl Scouts of Central Texas, the latter claimed ownership and disclosed the plan to sell.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe engaged a property attorney to help us understand our options, and we now know that Girl Scouts of Central Texas has been determined to be the property owner and has a clear title,\u201d said a representative of GSCTX in an email to the troop leaders in Fayette County. \u201cWith this information in hand, we will proceed with a sale of the Girl Scout House.\u201d<\/p>\n
Messer has requested access to the documents that GSCTX\u2019s attorney used to base their claim of ownership. A title company or attorney figures out who has the legal ownership of the property using various legal documentssuch as deeds, probate records, easements, court orders and other recorded instruments.<\/p>\n
GSCTX was formed from the merger of four legacy councils in 2007, one of which the La Grange Girl Scouts belonged to at the time. Without further legal searches, it\u2019s currently unclear to Girl Scouts of Fayette County whether or not the merger into the council included the property rights.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe currently don\u2019t know whether or not the council ever acquired ownership of the hut,\u201d Messer said. \u201cA troop joining or belonging to a council is not the same thing as transferring ownership of local real estate. That\u2019s exactly why we\u2019re asking GSCTX for the basis of their conclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Girl Scouts of Fayette County has been advised by a connection at a title company to do a 100-year title search to confirm the chain of title, but unlike GSCTX who has the funds for a legal battle, the Girl Scouts of Fayette County simply doesn\u2019t have the budget necessary for the search.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we wanted to do that, it would cost about $375 for the first two hours and $200 every hour thereafter,\u201d Messer said. \u201cThat\u2019s not money our service unit has.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the time of this publication, the representative of GSCTX has not yet responded with the documents used to determine the ownership of the Girl Scout Hut.<\/p>\n
Girl Scouts of Central Texas have offered to help research alternate storage methods and meeting places for the Girl Scouts of Fayette County, but the future of the program remains ambiguous.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re up against a wall,\u201d Messer said. \u201cThe Council has given us no time at all and they know we don\u2019t have the money to fight a legal battle. They were just hoping we would go away.\u201d Messer is asking that if anyone has any information or legal connection that can help, to please reach out to her at michellelynnmesser@gmail. com<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there\u2019s any former Girl Scouts or Troop Leaders that can help, please reach out,\u201d Messer said. \u201cI\u2019m afraid that if the hut gets taken away, then that will be the demise of Girl Scouts in Fayette County.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Girl Scouts of Fayette County have been stationed in the little green hut on the corner of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-393268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}