A few weeks ago, the town announced it would no longer be involved in the effort to preserve the Opus 40 sculpture as a public park. Instead, a non-profit corporation, the Committee for Opus 40 Museum Inc., will seek to raise enough money through state and federal grants and donations by art patrons to purchase and operate Opus 40. The sculpture, house and Quarryman's Museum is for sale by the family of creator Harvey Fite, which has managed it for decades through the non-profit group Opus 40 Inc.

According to town officials, members of the non-profit asked the town, which had planned on purchasing the property and maintaining it while the non-profit took care of operations, to withdraw its involvement due to controversy: for some months now, critics of the effort have complained that the town shouldn't be involved, and asserted that if someone were injured or the plans to expand operations didn't work out that taxpayers would somehow be on the hook. With the town's departure, the effort will lose a $400,000 state grant, but gain independence from political whims.