NORWAY – With a lot of money and no firm plans yet how to spend it, the town is inviting the public to pitch ideas about how they might like to throw $300,000 into renovating the downtown.
Next Monday, residents, abutters and two major developers planning projects in the downtown are invited to a public forum at the town office starting at 6:30 p.m.
Originally, the $300,000 was part of a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant to fix up the C.B. Cummings & Son mill. But because the mill has been bought by a private developer, much of that grant, which comes from Maine’s Department of Economic and Community Development, has been rerouted to the town.
The other $200,000 will be split to subsidize facade face-lifts and to pay for projects near the old dowel mill, such as improving sidewalks, according to Debbie Wyman, Norway’s community development director.
Although the public might have some fancy notions for what they’d like to see done, there are parameters based on state guidelines and Norway’s downtown plan, said Ken Morse, who is active in downtown redevelopment. The money must also be spent within a specific part of the downtown called the slum and blight area.
After the public forum, a citizens advisory board will draft recommendations for selectmen, based in part on cost estimates. The board will consider the recommendations, revise or affirm them, and send them on to the state for final approval.
At the same time as Norway faces the prospect of renovating part of its downtown, two major developments are slated to occur in the area.
Norway Properties Inc, a for-profit company, plans to build residential and commercial units at the 4.6-acre C.B Cummings site.
And the Costello family, which owns the Sun Journal and which recently bought the Advertiser-Democrat, could redevelop much of the block extending along Main Street from the Advertiser-Democrat building to Water Street.
Townspeople have expressed interest in hearing about the plans, but both developers say they are in the early stages of planning and have nothing concrete yet to show.
Morris Fisher, a principal in Norway Properties and president and chief financial officer of CB Richard Ellis/The Boulos Company, said the mill owners are conducting a market survey and will likely present a preliminary plan before Norway’s Planning Board in December.
Ed Snook, publisher of the Advertiser-Democrat, said Tuesday, “We need to sit down and figure out what buildings we’d like to keep, what to demolish. It would be nice to redevelop that whole area.”
The elaborate Victorian building called the Gingerbread House will be razed.
“Had someone done something 20 years ago, it might have been saved,” Snook said. “It’s been left so long to the elements, it is just ruined.” Salvaging it would be too costly, he added.
He said he will make it to the public forum to speak with citizens. “I want to be sensitive to the nature of the properties and where they are located in town and what the town is trying to do,” he said.
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