NORWAY— The Opera House eminent domain court proceeding is expected to begin in mid-January to determine which appraisal of Main Street landmark is more accurate.

“It’s a battle of the appraisals,” said Durward W. Parkinson, attorney for Bitim Enterprises in Londonderry, N.H. and its owner, Barry Mazzaglia, when asked what to expect as the proceeding gets under way.

It will be held in Oxford County Superior Court in Paris between Jan. 18 and Feb. 3, Parkinson said.

On Monday, a telephone conference between attorneys for Mazzaglia, the town of Norway and a Superior Court justice will work out the details, he said. “We’ve been told to be ready at all times.”

The town and Mazzaglia have been locked in a disagreement for the past year over how much the 1894 edifice in the heart of the downtown is worth. More than $100,000 separates the two appraisals. The court will decide what the town must pay Mazzaglia for taking the building by eminent domain due to public safety concerns. That number is generally based on an appraisal, but could be much higher or lower.

In September, Mazzaglia had the building appraised at $328,000 by J. Chet Rogers, a Hollis, N.H., appraiser.

The town’s $185,000 appraisal by Patricia Amidon of Patricia Amidon of Amidon Appraisal Company in Portland has been rejected by Mazzaglia on several occasions.

Parkinson said the higher appraisal was based on the assumption that structural repairs to the first floor can be completed for about $22,000 and that those repairs would allow a certificate of occupancy to rent the available commercial spaces. It does not include any repairs to the second or third floor, he said.

In October the two sides failed to reach an agreement during a two-hour judicial conference in Cumberland County Superior Court in Portland. That forced the matter back to Oxford County Superior Court.

“My client feels strongly in his appraisal and he doesn’t feel the town should have taken it by eminent domain,” Parkinson said.

Last year, voters authorized selectmen to initiate steps necessary to take the Opera House property in an eminent domain proceeding using $200,000 donated by Bill and Beatrice Damon of Norway.

The building was declared by engineers to be unsafe after part of the sagging roof collapsed under the weight of pooled water on Sept. 21, 2007. The collapse severed a sprinkler pipe and flooded first-floor occupied spaces.

The three-story brick bulding topped by a large clock tower sits on about a quarter-acre of land between Main Street and Pennesseewassee Stream.

This year, the town awarded a contract to Chabot Construction of Greene to begin stabilizing it.

Bitim Enterprise is expected to call at least three witnesses to testify at the proceeding: Mazzaglia, who is expected to testify as to the limited amount of repair needed to make the first floor of the Opera House rentable; Douglas Beal, owner of R & D Services, a contractor who was hired to evaluate the repairs; and Mazzaglia’s appraiser.

The town is expected to call: Appraiser Al Hodson III of Resurgence Engineering and Preservation Inc. in Portland; town Building Inspector Jeffery Van Decker; and Mark Coleman of Environmental Safety & Hygiene Associates in Westbrook, according to court papers filed by the town’s attorneys.

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NORWAY — The Norway Opera House was constructed by the Norway Building Association in 1894, and from 1920 to the mid-1970s it was owned by the town.

It used its upper floors for cultural and civic events. 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.

Since the town owned it, it has had a succession of private owners, but the second and third floors have remained vacant.

Barry Mazzaglia, a developer, 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. The designation is designed to raise awareness and focus the need for an organized rescue of significant historic properties that are threatened by deterioration, disuse and even demolition. It can also pave the way to major state and federal restoration grant funding.

It has been vacant since a part of the roof collapsed in September 2007, causing water and structural damage through all three floors.