NORWAY – Selectmen agreed Thursday to give Western Maine Development $65,000 for development of the C.B. Cummings & Son wood mill property as it had planned to do several weeks earlier.

The money was earmarked to be part of the matching funds for a $400,000 Community Development Block Grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Selectmen approved the funding, despite the grant falling through.

The town received the money when it accepted a $65,000 buyout of the Fare Share Co-Op’s 30-year loan of $130,000.

The original loan came from Community Development Block Grant funds. By CDBG regulations, any money received from the Fare Share loan payment had to be used to improve the downtown area.

Brett Doney, chief executive officer for WMD, said even though the grant was denied, development plans would continue but at a much slower pace.

Selectmen also heard a report from Doney on the $500,000 CBDG grant from the Municipal Investment Trust Fund program to refurbish the Odd Fellows building at 201 Main St.

Doney went over plans for the Growth Council of Oxford Hills to occupy some of the building. He gave a quick roundup of the renovations that the bulk of the money will go toward: heating, electric, plumbing and a new roof and front and back stairs.

Selectmen agreed to hold a special town meeting, as required by the grant, on March 18 to get voter input on that grant and another block grant of $100,000 for downtown facade improvements.

Neither grant will require a match from the town.

In other business, Selectman Leslie Flanders praised the work of the town employees during the period or reconstruction of their offices.

A burst pipe on Jan. 20 flooded most offices in the town office building.

Some portions of the walls had to be replaced, all the carpet and office equipment were damaged.

Employees had to work by accessing file cabinets in different rooms and sometimes wade through stacks of papers to find documents.

Flanders said he understood how employees made light of the situation the first couple of days and how it grew into a major inconvenience.

Holt told selectmen that the town received about $32,000 for the repairs and probably would not use that much.

He said about $6,000 was saved by not wallpapering.

Det. Rob Federico introduced officer Christian Bathier to selectmen. Bathier had been with the department about two years ago and left to devote his full attention to working as victim liaison officer for juveniles for the District Attorney’s Office in Portland.

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