NORWAY — Selectmen will ask voters to take the Opera House by eminent domain and use donated funds and a potential $150,000 grant to pay for its stabilization and acquisition costs.

Selectmen signed the special town meeting warrant late Wednesday to set the stage for the approval of the four-article warrant on Dec. 8. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. in the Forum at the Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School in Paris.

If voters approve taking the building by eminent domain, the process will also involve a court hearing where a judge will set a “fair and equitable” price for the building. If voters say no, selectmen say they will most likely declare the building a “dangerous building” and it will be razed.

Selectman Russ Newcomb said he wants the vote to be taken by secret ballot.

“I just think more people will come and vote,” he said after Wednesday’s meeting.

In addition to getting permission to take the Main Street property by eminent domain, voters will be asked to accept the $200,000 donation from Bill and Beatrice Damon for building acquisition and stabilization costs and to let the board apply for a $150,000 historic preservation grant through the Public Facilities Grant program to stabilize the building.

Selectmen voted last week to begin the steps toward acquisition of the 1894 downtown historic property after attempts to negotiate a purchase with owner Barry Mazzaglia of Bitim Enterprises in Londonderry, N.H., failed. Mazzaglia can appeal an eminent domain taking.

The board voted Oct. 22 to begin negotiations with Mazzaglia with the stipulation that the negotiated price be within the “framework” of Bill and Beatrice Damon’s offer of $200,000 to try to acquire the building.

The three-story brick building, which sits on about a quarter acre, has been appraised at $185,000 by Patricia Amidon of Amidon Appraisal Co. in Portland. The property includes a one-story, log-sided building that housed Woodman’s Sporting Goods, and the Opera House with its full basement and clock tower in the heart of the downtown historic district.

If the town takes the Opera House, the plan is to turn it over to the Norway Maine Opera House Corp., according to corporation member and selectmen’s Chairman Bruce Cook. The move is being made to ensure the historic building is secured.

A portion of the Opera House roof collapsed on Sept. 21, 2007, due to the weight of water pooled there. The collapse severed a sprinkler pipe, adding to the flood of water that cascaded to the two first-floor businesses and compromising the stability of the building. The E. Howard clock in the imposing tower was undamaged.

Since that time, officials have grown increasingly concerned about the building’s structural integrity and lack of response from Mazzaglia, who has turned down offers from the town to purchase the building.

Two engineering studies have deemed the structure to be “unsafe to the public and neighboring property” and officials have become convinced that the structure continues to deteriorate causing not only an imminent unsafe situation downtown but an unfavorable economic one.

Mazzaglia purchased the building in 2003 for $225,000. Last year, according to information on his business Web site, the property was being marketed for purchase for $600,000 or for lease at $1,000 to $1,200 per month for up to 2,000 square feet.   

The Opera House and its clock tower were built by the Norway Building Association and bought by the town in 1920. Concerts, minstrel shows, ballroom dances, plays, movies, high school graduations and town meetings were held on the second and third floors, which include a U-shaped balcony and stage. Businesses operated on the first floor.

The 17,000-plus square foot edifice has had a succession of private owners since the town sold it in the mid-1970s. The upper floors have been unused for about 30 years.

The Opera House is on the list of Maine’s Most Endangered Historic Properties. Its image is on the town seal.

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