NORWAY – The Board of Selectmen this week is expected to set the date for a special town meeting to vote on a $400,000 state grant to restore six storefronts in the Opera House.
The board will meet Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Municipal Building on Danforth Street.
The vote by residents is required by grant rules. The money, which comes through the Communities for Maine’s Future Bond Program, is to make the first-floor storefronts usable again. The work will include refurbishing the basement area, updating wiring and plumbing, and bringing the basement and ground floor of the three-story brick building on Main Street up to code.
The town is working with the Norway Opera House Corporation to use historic tax credits in partnership with Norway Savings Bank to further stretch the grant money. The corporation will also be asked to take over ownership of the building, Town Manager David Holt said.
“The plan for the matching money is that the property will be transferred to the Norway Opera House House Corporation,” Holt said Monday. “The NOHC will then take out a loan from Norway Savings Bank collateralize by the value of the property and the tax credits that the historic building is eligible for.”
Holt said the town is investigating the best way to leverage state and federal tax credits and will proceed with the transfer of ownership based on how the most money can be leveraged.
The 1894 Norway Opera House was taken by eminent domain last year because it was considered a public hazard. It has been vacant since a portion of the roof collapsed in September 2007.
ldixon@sunjournal.com
Send questions/comments to the editors.
