NORWAY – Town Manager David Holt has told selectmen that in order to preserve any of the historic downtown buildings, it will take a partnership between the town and other individuals or organizations.

“The town can’t solve the problems with any one of these buildings,” Holt told selectmen at their meeting last Thursday. “Each plan on each building will be different.”

While selectmen agreed that the three Main Street buildings they hope to preserve are the Opera House, the Gingerbread House and the Odd Fellows Hall, they also agreed with Holt that they can not be the “savior” of any one building by themselves. The buildings are in the downtown National Historic District.

Although local officials and historians have expressed some interest in preserving the Gingerbread House, part of the problem appears to be the lack of a formal offer from the owner, Sun Media Group, to both the town and Historical Society, Holt said.

It is set to be demolished if someone does not offer to move and restore it.

Holt said Sun Media Group treasurer Ed Snook “has made a statement at a public meeting, but other than that I don’t think there’s been anything else. If Ed doesn’t come forth with a letter, the board can do nothing.”

The town manager was referring to a statement made by Snook at a Downtown Norway meeting earlier this year that the town could have the building if they moved it.

Holt has said that without a formal offer to the board, selectmen really have nothing to act on.

The Historical Society has also asked for a written offer. In a letter dated Feb. 5 to Snook, Historical Society member Larry Glatz said the society was interested in preserving the house, historically known as the Evans/Cummings House. In addition to a written offer, Glatz asked Snook if he might consider donating a portion of the demolition costs, if no other group offers to save it, to an organization that might undertake renovations. There has been no response.

Snook said this week that there is “nothing new” to report regarding giving the building to the town or the Norway Historical Society.

“It’s pretty difficult for us to take action without anyone making plans,” Selectman Chairman Russ Newcomb said.

While concerned about the Gingerbread House, selectmen say they are also worried about the final disposition of the Odd Fellows Hall and the Opera House, which is considered the centerpiece of the downtown Historical District.

Selectmen were told that the potential sale of the Odd Fellows Hall to a local, unnamed developer has apparently fallen through.

A study of that building by Resurgence Engineering and Preservation Inc. of Portland indicates it would take more than $800,000 to fully renovate the building, which is currently vacant.

The town has agreed to redo the roof as a temporary measure but weather conditions have prevented that work so far.

The bank holds the mortgage on the building, but the town is the “keeper” of the Municipal Investment Trust Fund money. The building would be sold for the cost of the mortgage, which Selectman Bruce Cook said is about $70,000.

The Opera House is owned privately by a New Hampshire man who has told the board he hopes to reopen it in the spring for business.

Local officials, who simply hope the building will make it through the winter, question whether it will be safe at that time.

Its structural integrity was severely compromised on Sept. 21, 2007, when a midafternoon partial roof collapse caused an undetermined amount of water to cascade down through the ceilings and walls of the 1894 brick masonry building, setting off a sprinkler alarm and putting the two first-floor businesses out on the street.