Selectmen also accepted a $10,000 planning grant to create a new downtown plan.
By Jim Smedley
Staff Writer

NORWAY – Selectmen approved building a kiosk on Main Street and forming partnerships to make business and home improvement loans Thursday at a special town meeting.

The town called on a continuing partnership with the Growth Council of Oxford Hills in accepting $200,000 in a Regional Assistance Fund Grant and then created a new one with Community Concepts, in a $100,000 program to help low-income families make home repairs.

The town also approved building a kiosk and installing benches on the corner of Cottage and Main streets.

In other business, selectmen accepted a $10,000 planning grant from the state Department of Economic and Community Development to create a new downtown plan.

Town Manager David Holt said the last plan was created in 1995 and that everything in the old plan had been accomplished or things have happened so they could not be completed.

The board also passed a new road open permit that would charge residents $50 a square foot for any roadwork the town had to do in connection with repairing a damaged water line or sewer line.

The fee had been a flat $50, which selectmen agreed did not come close to paying town expenses in roadwork.

Selectman Robert Walker also told the board he would be willing to sell fire engine No. 2 on the Internet service eBay.

Selectmen agreed, although none of the town’s property had ever been sold on that service.