NORWAY – Fixing up the Opera House. Moving the arts center downtown. Making a walking path from the dam to the Odd Fellows building. Creating a manufacturing museum.
These were some of the ideas tossed around at a meeting Monday night to gather public opinion on how to spend about $300,000 of grant money.
About two dozen people showed up for the forum at the town office. Their ideas will help shape how selectmen eventually vote on spending the money, which fell into the town’s lap after the C.B. Cummings Mill was bought by a private developer.
Originally the community development block grant was meant to improve infrastructure at the mill, then owned by the nonprofit Growth Council of Oxford Hills. But after the mill was bought by Norway Properties Inc., with a major investor being the Libra Foundation, the federal money could no longer be spent at the site.
Instead, it was rerouted to the town. And now the town can put $300,000 toward downtown improvements in keeping with state guidelines and in a designated area. Another $200,000 of the grant is already earmarked for building facades, parking on Water Street and streetscaping, according to Brett Doney, president of the growth council.
Ideas on spending the money ranged from the tiny (fixing a hole at the park) to enormous (burying power lines).
Other ideas were novel, yet met with a good deal of interest.
Bob Moorehead spoke on behalf of the Western Maine Art Group, which runs the Matolcsy Art Center on Upper Main Street. He said the center would benefit from a more centralized location and suggested the town buy the old Aubuchon’s building, then do a property swap with the art center.
The arts group could raze the Aubuchon building and put the schoolhouse, which is the current center, in its place. In this plan, the group would also convert the barn behind the Aubuchon building into studio space for classes, Moorehead said.
Others spoke about the need to work on the Opera House, which is privately owned. Someone suggested buying it; another threw out the idea of getting the theater up and running.
Roy Gedat of Norway Downtown Revitalization said, “We could have nice street lights.”
Selectman Bill Damon said the town should try to get hold of an antique snowshoe sign that’s hidden away in storage.
Selectman Les Flanders said he’d like to see extraordinary signs for Norway on Route 26, luring drivers in.
After those and other ideas were contributed, the ideas were voted on. The two most popular were to focus on the Opera House and to make a trail along the stream from the Odd Fellows building to the park.
A citizens advisory board will make cost estimates and present selectmen with its findings, according to town officials. Selectmen will then revise or amend these suggestions and present the Department of Economic and Community Development with the town’s proposal. This department issues the block grants and must approve any change.
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