NORWAY – Selectmen unanimously agreed Tuesday afternoon to seek a court order forcing the owner of the Opera House to stabilize and maintain the heavily damaged three-story brick landmark on Main Street.

Town attorney Geoffrey Hole said he expected to file the injunction in Oxford County Superior Court in Paris this week. Once Barry Mazzaglia of Londonderry, N.H., is served with the order, a date will be set for him to appear before a judge, he said.

“It’s a very dangerous situation,” Hole said after an hourlong executive session with the Board of Selectmen, Town Manager David Holt, consulting engineer Alfred H. Hodson III of Resurgence Engineering and Preservation in Portland and Code Enforcement Officer Jeffrey VanDecker. Mazzaglia was a no-show.

Although at least one town official saw Mazzaglia in Norway shortly before the meeting, Holt said Mazzaglia informed Town Clerk Shirley Boyce that a worker with him had an emergency and they had to return to New Hampshire immediately. It was the second time within a week that Mazzaglia failed to appear for a meeting with the board.

“The fact that he was here would lead me to believe he intended to make it,” Holt said.

The centerpiece of the town’s National Historic District sustained serious structural damage Sept. 21, 2007, when water pooled on the sagging roof caused it to partially collapse. Rotting roof trusses let go and a sprinkler pipe broke, adding to the amount of water cascading through all three floors. Two businesses on the first floor, the only occupants of the building, were forced to move.

Town officials have attempted to work with Mazzaglia for the past 15 months in the repair and stabilization of the building, but have had seemingly limited response from the owner.

Selectmen have several options to deal with the situation, including taking the building by eminent domain. In anticipation of any action, they asked last month that Hodson do a second assessment of the Opera House and that a professional appraisal be done.

On Tuesday, Hodson’s report on his latest inspection of the building Dec. 4 stated he and Mazzaglia reached a “stalemate” over the extent of repairs that needed to be performed, how to perform them and how to straighten the back masonry wall.

According to the engineer, Mazzaglia had suggested that the back wall be pulled in using a series of come-alongs tied to the opposite wall. Hodson said he did not believe the method was safe or feasible and could further jeopardize the back wall stability to the point of potential collapse.

Hodson said photos taken last year compared with damage observed this year indicates that the wall in the upper southwest corner of the building is still moving or deflecting and that additional brick on the west wall may have pulled away from the surrounding masonry. Several trusses appear to have dropped or shifted but not significantly, he added.

Hodson said the “overall risk to the building remains at least as critical as was stated last year.” There is also evidence of vandalism, including what appeared to be a small fire set in the building, he said.

As for the appraisal, the results have been withheld from the public pending any future negotiations with Mazzaglia. However, the town has assessed the building in fiscal 2009 at $179,300. The assessment includes $47,000 for the land and $132,000 for the building. The town has a lien on the building for unpaid taxes in the amount of $4,832, according to tax records. The lien will be called on April 9 if taxes are not paid by that time, Boyce said.

Mazzaglia bought the Opera House for $225,000 in 2003 after it was placed on the state’s Most Endangered Historic Properties list by Maine Preservation of Portland. It was listed for sale for $600,000 earlier this year.

It was built in 1894 the Norway Building Association, then owned by the town from 1920 to the mid-1970s, and then by a succession of private owners for the past 30 years or so.

The balcony and ballroom on the second and third floors played host to the community life of Norway, including concerts, balls, traveling minstrel shows, theater performances, National Guard musters, town meetings and high school graduation ceremonies. The top stories have been unused since a movie theater closed in the 1970s, and the five ground-floor storefronts have had occupants off and on over the years. Its distinctive bell tower houses an E. Howard clock, which the town maintains.