NORWAY — Voters unanimously approved appropriating $444,455 from the undesignated fund balance, or surplus, to replace culverts on Emerson and Crockett Ridge roads during a special town meeting Sept. 19.

There was no discussion.

The total for both projects is estimated at $969,455 — $310,000 is coming from the road improvement budget and $215,000 from the bridges and culverts account, leaving $444,455 to be transferred.

The Emerson Road project has started, and the town will get the word out when Crockett Ridge Road will need to be closed for the replacement, Highway Department foreman Steve Powers said during the regular Select Board meeting that followed the special town meeting.

The culverts are being installed by Everett Excavation of West Paris. The town has received a $200,000 grant from the Maine Department of Transportation’s municipal stream crossing program, Powers said.

They culverts were washed out by storms.

Previously, Emerson Road had two 6-foot culverts and is now being upgraded to an approximately 20-foot concrete box culvert. The town installed similar box culverts on Morse and Sodom Road within the past four years and there have been no issues with them so far, Powers said.

“We’ll be dropping the lake level some,” Powers said of the Crockett Ridge project. “We’re not going to drain the lake.”

There is no date set for the work on Crockett Ridge Road.

Powers noted that the installation of the culvert is a “150-year project.”

“Hopefully we won’t be doing this for another 150 years and I won’t have to worry about it,” Powers said to laughs at the meeting.

A box culvert was installed by the Norway Highway Department on Morse Road about two years ago, foreman Steve Powers said. Similar culverts are being installed on Emerson and Crockett Ridge roads this fall. Evan W. Houk/Advertiser Democrat

In other news, the board signed an agreement to act as the “responsible entity” for a federal environmental review of the Norway Opera House and its renovation plans, which is required to obtain grant funding.

Norway Downtown has been awarded a $1.79 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that will be funneled to the Norway Opera House Corp. to fulfill its mission of transforming the 1894 building into a fully functioning opera house.

Built in 1894 after the Great Fire on Main Street, the opera house hasn’t been used for entertainment or performances since the 1980s, when it housed a movie theater. Since then, it has sat mostly vacant, its interior wearing down because of neglect.

Norway Town Manager Dennis Lajoie has been hired as project manager for the Norway Opera House renovations, Norway Downtown President Scott Berk said at the meeting.

“We can’t touch the building until the environmental review is completed,” Lajoie said.

The board also accepted a $335 donation to the Norway Fire Department from the Brand Company in sponsorship of the Western Maine Firefighters Association dinner and training.

The Select Board will next meet at 7 p.m. Oct. 3.