NORWAY — As workers from Chabot’s Construction of Greene tore down the porch of the Gingerbread House on Friday, colleagues began to take the top bricks off the back wall of the Opera House farther down on Main Street.

Company owner Paul Chabot said every effort was made to keep all the intricate Gingerbread House porch trim that was not rotted. The roof of the two-story porch was removed by hand when it was discovered that the porch and house roof line were one.

“We did it by hand because the roof rafters were tied into the roof on the house. I wasn’t aware of that. We didn’t want to gamble,” he said of losing any of the house roof in the removal process.

While work to remove the porch was being done, work to remove about 21 feet of the center section of the Opera House’s back wall began after it was discovered the wall was more extensively damaged than originally known

Selectmen on Thursday agreed to temporarily take $60,000 from the town’s surplus fund to pay for the unforeseen work. The Norway Maine Opera House Corp., a nonprofit volunteer group, has committed to pay the town back by the end of January through private donations.

Town Manager David Holt said Friday that selectmen have not determined the future ownership of the Opera House.

“Once the stabilization is complete, the board will evaluate the alternatives,” he said in a statement e-mailed to the Sun Journal. “One of the alternatives may be to turn the building over to the opera house corporation, should that group decide it wants to be considered.

“I will recommend that we develop criteria for a new owner, including such things as the plan for continued repair and use, financial ability to carry out the plan and track record with similar projects . . . local involvement may also be an important consideration.”

Selectman Russ Newcomb said that after the current stabilization project is completed and the town has a clear idea of how much it will pay former owner Barry Mazzaglia of Bitim Enterprises in Londonderry, N.H., for taking the building by eminent domain, the board will probably discuss a number of possibilities for the building’s future.

“I expect that at some point the board will put out requests for proposals for the acquisition of the building from both for-profit ventures as well as nonprofits such as the Opera House Corp. I think the board must decide if it wants to recover some of the expenses or not when it decides who might end up with the building,” Newcomb said.

The two buildings are in the downtown historic district and have been vacant for years.