NORWAY – The town has until the end of September to find a buyer for the empty Odd Fellows hall or it will have to give back a state grant meant to rehabilitate the building.

“We’re trying to save the grant, but we’re not sure we can,” Selectman Leslie Flanders said. “The state said we need to have a plan in place by Sept. 30. If we can’t come up with a plan by then, they will turn it over to someone else.”

Roughly $400,000 is left of the original $500,000 Municipal Investment Trust Fund grant, which must be matched dollar for dollar.

The Growth Council of Oxford Hills spent some of the grant and invested more than $130,000 on the initial phases of rehabilitating the Main Street building before abandoning the project this summer. Directors said the council is redirecting its focus to regional projects rather than local ones.

Flanders said he spoke this week with two parties interested in buying the hall. If a private investor snaps up the building, the grant money is salvageable.

As long as the new owner works with the Growth Council and town officials, the money can be used for fixing up the structure, Flanders said.

Marcy Boughter, who oversees grants for the town, said she’s shown the building to several people this past week.

“We are feverishly trying to use that money,” she said.

Flanders said other than finding a new owner, there is no alternative plan for the three-story building.

“If we cannot come up with a plan, I’m afraid the place is dead in the water, and I don’t know what will happen to the building. We need to make something happen,” he said.