NORWAY — Voters will face a daunting task Tuesday when they decide what to do with the damaged three-story brick Opera House, which an engineer has said is in danger of collapsing.
Decisions on the four-article warrant will set the direction for the Board of Selectmen in trying to address the future of the 1894 building. It stands on Main Street in the heart of the downtown historic and business district.
The special town meeting will get under way at 7 p.m. Dec. 8 in the
Forum at the Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School on Route 26 in
Paris.
Voters will be asked to authorize the board to initiate steps to take the property in an eminent domain proceeding, using $200,000 donated by Selectman Bill Damon and his wife, Beatrice. The money, which voters must also approve to accept, would be used to pay owner Barry Mazzaglia of Londonderry, N.H., whatever a judge deems is a reasonable price for the building. It has been appraised at $185,000.
Voters will also be asked to approve a Community Development Block Grant application for the public facilities grant program for up to $150,000 to further stabilize the building.
A portion of the Opera House roof collapsed on Sept. 21, 2007, under the weight of water pooled there. It severed a sprinkler pipe and flooded two first-floor businesses. Since then, officials have grown increasingly concerned about the instability of the building 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.”
Once the building is stabilized, selectmen say the plan, which they have not formally voted on yet, will most likely be to turn the building over to a nonprofit entity such as the Norway Maine Opera House Corp.
But between the vote and then, there are many unanswered questions, Selectman Russ Newcomb said.
“I mean there is the risk that even if the voters agree to go forward with this (eminent domain) process, that a judge may deem a fair price to be twice as much as our appraiser and the town would not have a choice but to pay it,” he explained. “There is also the chance that the town does not get the grant and would have to raise the money to stabilize the building from taxes; a real burden on many local pocketbooks, or if not maybe have to still tear the unsafe building down after spending the Damons’ money on the purchase.”
“There are many risks involved with the decisions that will be made at the special town meeting and the possibility that having to tear down the building is in fact one of them, but there are many others,” Newcomb said.
Selectman Bill Damon, who along with his wife offered the $200,000 to help save the Opera House, said he would like to see the building in part revert back to a performance center. Damon said this week that he felt obligated to try to save the building using family money because of its historic value to the community.
“His donation does save the building,” Town Manager David Holt said, because without it, there would probably not be much chance.
Norway Maine Opera House Corp. President Dennis Gray said Wednesday that the group has not taken a formal vote, but it is willing to consider taking over the Opera House if certain issues, such as insurance and liability, can be resolved.
“We need to get our ducks in the row,” he said of various issues that include funding if the eminent domain proceedings are successful and the corporation eventually takes over the building. Gray said he may ask the corporation board to meet Monday to discuss the issue further.
The corporation, which was set up as a nonprofit leader for Norway Downtown and the Oxford Hills Performing Arts Association, attempted to purchase the Opera House in 2003 with a bid of $150,000.
It lost out to Mazzaglia, who bid $225,00 after it was placed on the state’s Most Endangered Historic Properties list by Maine Preservation of Portland.
If successful, the corporation wanted to sell the first floor spaces for business and perhaps use the second floor for performance space. Gray said the corporation would have held a facade easement to ensure that the exterior of the building remained untouched. Whether that type of plan would still be feasible in the future is uncertain, Gray said. “These are things that have to be decided,” he said.
Selectmen must still approve an “order of condemnation” to proceed with the eminent domain process. That action is expected to take place at the board’s meeting Thursday, beginning at 7 p.m. in the town office on Danforth Street.
The town’s attorney in the eminent domain case, Norman Rattey, said the term “condemnation” is confusing because it can be used when a town exercises the right of eminent domain, but when a building is unsafe, a town can also condemn the building.
“In this case, we have two things going on at once,” he said.
The 17,618-square-foot edifice sits on about a quarter-acre parcel that includes a one-story wood-frame building that formerly housed Woodman’s Sporting Goods. The three-story brick Opera House next to it has a full basement and it is topped by a tower containing an historic clock and bell. The second floor contains a ballroom and stage, and the third floor a U-shaped balcony.
It was constructed by the Norway Building Association, 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 ballroom and balcony on the upper 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.
Areas where bricks are missing can be seen on the back wall of the Opera House on Main Street. A loose brick can be seen at the top right corner in this picture shot Tuesday.
NORWAY — Residents have time to register to vote at Tuesday’s special town meeting.
Town Clerk Shirley Boyce said residents who wish to vote on Dec. 8 may come to the town office on Danforth Street through Tuesday to register, if they have not done so.
The following procedures will be carried out at the meeting, according to town officials:
• Nonvoters and nonresidents will be directed to sit in a designated area. They may speak to voters from the floor only with the permission of the majority of voters. The request to speak will go through the moderator.
• If secret ballots are requested, Boyce expects to distribute slips of different colored paper for each question.
• There will be no provision for absentee voting. “People have to be there to vote,” Boyce said.
• If the majority of voters approve an article, only a voter who voted along with the majority may ask for reconsideration of the vote.
The four articles are:
• To elect a moderator.
• To accept a $200,000 donation from Bill and Beatrice Damon to acquire and stabilize the Opera House.
• To authorize selectmen to take the steps necessary to take the Opera House.
• To approve a Community Development Block Grant application for up to $150,000 for use in stabilizing it.
All four questions need only a simple majority vote to pass.
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