NORWAY – Norway’s Board of Selectmen on Thursday calmly handled an unexpected request for $55,000 in grant money to support the redevelopment of the old C.B. Cummings dowel mill.

The board approved the request with a 5-0 vote. Town Manager David Holt said the money will be withdrawn from an old community development block grant account set aside for such projects. He added that he will have to check to see if the full amount is available.

The selectmen had previously approved a $10,000 award for the project, using money from the same account, Holt said.

“Well, when we got that fund this is what we agreed to use it for,” Selectman Russell Newcomb said.

Marcy Boughter of Western Maine Development made the appeal for the money. She was scheduled to give an update on the mill project, and began by noting several repairs that were needed to make the property appealing for developers.

These included plans for a pedestrian bridge on the site, winterization of the mill, and the repair of a cracked valve in the boiler room.

Office, retail and condominium units will be built on the mill site, Boughter said. She added that after attracting developers, she can begin working on specific site plans. With the plans in place, Boughter hopes to begin applying for $400,000 in federal redevelopment grants.

“I need to do something to get something, and hopefully that’s going to get the ball rolling,” she said of the requested money for improvements.

Board Chairman Leslie Flanders asked when a request for proposals will be sent out for work on the Odd Fellows building on the mill property.

He noted that the requests were expected to be released in April.

In March, Brett Doney of Enterprise Maine, which is affiliated with Western Maine Development, said work on the building would begin in spring.

Boughter said she did not know when the requests would be released.

The public needs to see something happen with the building, Flanders said, “because I suspect that we’re going to take some heat if we approve this expenditure.”