MONT VERNON – On paper, Warrant Article 12, titled simply “Rename Jew Pond,” is among the briefest of the 15 articles to go before voters the night of March 13.

As brief as it may be, it’s garnering nationwide attention. Most appear to be in favor of relegating the moniker to a footnote in town folklore, from as far away as New York, New Jersey, Washington, D.C., and even a publication in Israel.

Both the lengthy history of the tiny, swampy pond and the comparatively brief 20-month controversy over its name are well-documented and oft-discussed around town and, thanks to technology, throughout the state and beyond.

Among the most recent to weigh in is U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., who called the name “inappropriate” and said it “should be changed” in a letter last week to town health officer Rich Masters, who had sought Ayotte’s support on the matter in a Feb. 17 communication.

Masters, who in late summer 2010 submitted the initial proposal to change Jew Pond’s name, said he wrote to Ayotte to explain the issue and ask her to take a public stand as the town gets ready to take it up on March 13.

Writing that he had hoped his proposal would spark dialogue and create a “rare opportunity” that would be “embraced by our community to correct something wrong,” Masters told Ayotte he has received a “surprising amount of pushback” from residents who feel pursuing the issue is a waste of time and others who don’t find the name offensive and want to keep it.

The attention is setting the stage for what might turn out to be one of the most lively debates ever on a warrant article that has no financial element to it.

That the Jew Pond question and the proposed operating budget – which typically draws the lengthiest debate – come up so deep into the warrant could be an indication that a late night is in store for voters, the vast majority of whom will likely stay until the budget and Jew Pond issues are heard.

Meanwhile, a fairly spirited, mostly civil debate among residents continues on a town Facebook forum, where sentiments seem to be split between advocates of a name change, most of whom cite its offensive connotation, and a belief it isn’t that big a deal and too much time is being spent on this at the expense of more important issues.

Some residents say they’re annoyed by what they perceive as “people from the outside trying to change things” in Mont Vernon, perhaps a reference to increasing involvement by a statewide Jewish advocacy group and a series of clergy, including Bishop Peter Libasci, the newly named head of New Hampshire’s Roman Catholic Church.

Some participants chip in with a little humor, such as posters who suggest Jew Pond become “Weston Hill Road Shopping Emporium” or “Catch and Release Pond.”

The infamous name is rooted in a much different Mont Vernon of a century ago, when giant inns and resorts such as The Grand, a vacation destination for moneyed big-city folks owned by George E. Bates, sat atop Grand Hill.

Jew Pond, also called Spring Pond and simply “the pond” over time, may have derived from the fact that Bates effectively banned Jewish patrons from his hotel.

But it could also have come from the fact that three Jewish men – Boston-area brothers Nymen H. and Myer Z. Kolodny and Maine hotelier J.M. Levenson – purchased The Grand in 1927. They ran it for only two years, selling it back to Bates a year before it burned to the ground in 1930.

It was the aftermath of an otherwise simple, routine part of his job as town public health officer that inspired Masters to propose a name change in the first place.

Inspecting Jew Pond in July 2010, Masters recognized an algae bloom – a rapid increase of microscopic bacteria, some of which is potentially toxic in an aquatic system – and notified state officials, who temporarily closed the pond.

When local news outlets reported on the algae bloom, Masters said at the time: “A lot of us kind of cringed that our town would be characterized as having a pond (name) that could be viewed as offensive to people, viewed as anti-Semitic.”

Masters said he and several other residents talked informally and came to the conclusion, “It’s really not a good name,” and, “It might be worth considering changing.”

Masters sent a proposal to state officials to adopt the name “Frog Pond,” then later learned the responsibility for making an official name change rests with the U.S. Geological Survey’s Board on Geographic Names.

That body has indicated it will likely support the wishes of the town, which will be decided at Town Meeting.

Also in the equation are descendants of the late George O. Carleton, a longtime resident. Forty years ago, he donated to the town acreage that includes Jew Pond and Carleton Park. His family, and many others in town, feel if the name is changed, it should become “Carleton Pond” in honor of the family patriarch.

The decision to specify Grand Hill Pond as the alternate name was made by a consensus of the selectmen’s office, board Chairman Jack Esposito said in February.

“I thought it would probably be Carleton Pond, but we ended up choosing Grand Hill,” he said.

Late last year, the controversy caught the eye of a local aspiring filmmaker, who went on to produce “The Story Behind Jew Pond,” a documentary that traces the landmark’s backstory and features interviews with key town officials and historians.

Katelyn Ann Dobbs, a University of New Hampshire at Manchester student who will graduate in May, has received interview requests from several local and regional media members since her project hit YouTube and news websites.

“It’s going to be very interesting,” she said of Town Meeting. “A lot of people are talking about it, that’s for sure. I have no idea what is going to happen.”

What is known is the issue is getting widespread attention: New Hampshire journalist Ted Seifer wrote a story running in the March issue of The Jewish Daily Forward, based in New York, and another local journalist is penning one for a national magazine.

Besides Libasci, who said he “involuntarily bristled” upon hearing the name Jew Pond and called upon Mont Vernon voters to change it, others taking a position include Jewish Federation of New Hampshire leaders K. Jeff Fladen and Dr. David Stahl, and Rabbi Jonathan Spira-Savett, of Nashua’s Temple Beth Abraham.

“To a Jewish person, when a non-Jew uses the word ‘Jew’ as a label, an adjective, it sounds pejorative and a bit menacing,” Spira-Savett wrote in an e-mail. “That’s how the word was often used in the past, like ‘‘Jew boy,’ and so it has that ring for many of us still.”

While he isn’t accusing anyone in Mont Vernon of “having that intent,” Spira-Savett said, “I’m hoping that people want to take that kind of linguistic association from the past out of circulation for the future.”

Dean Shalhoup can be reached at 594-6443 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.