NORWAY — Town Manager David Holt said work to reopen the first-floor storefronts at the Opera House is moving slower than hoped, but the project is still expected to go out to bid in the spring.

“It seemed at one time an impossible project,” Holt told the Board of Selectmen at its recent meeting.

Al Hodgen from Resurgence Engineering was expected to inspect the front of the clock tower Sunday with the help of the Oxford Fire Department’s ladder truck that will hoist him up to make sure the shingles are secure, to check the weather vane and other items on the historic structure as part of the ongoing effort to keep the building stabilized and secure.

The town is working with the Norway Opera House Corp. to use historic tax credits in partnership with Norway Savings Bank to stretch the a $400,000 Communities for Maine’s Future Grant received for the work. It will pay for refurbishing the basement area, wiring and plumbing, and bringing the basement and ground floor up to code.

The goal is to lease the storefronts.

Norway House Corp. President Dennis Gray said last month that a new round of fundraising to meet additional grant criteria will probably be started this year. Holt said the corporation must raise $180,000.

“Just because it’s taking longer doesn’t mean it won’t happen,” Holt said. “I feel good about it.”

In 2010, voters authorized selectmen to take the 1894 building by eminent domain after it was declared a safety hazard. A section of the roof on the three-story brick edifice on Main Street collapsed in 2007. The building has remained vacant since that time.

The Opera House sits on about a quarter-acre of land between Main Street and Pennesseewassee Stream and is topped with a historic clock and bell. Its upper floors were once used for community events but have been empty for decades.

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