NORWAY – Selectmen plan to meet next month with the owner of the Opera House to agree on a plan to stabilize the three-story brick landmark on Main Street, Town Manager David Holt told the board Thursday night.

“It think it’s time for absolute candor,” Holt said.

A date has not been set because owner Barry Mazzaglia of Londonderry, N.H., is dealing with the effects of last week’s ice storm on his other properties.

Holt said there will be three items for discussion at the meeting:

• The board will try to reach agreement with Mazzaglia about stabilizing the building.

• If that is not successful, the board will discuss enacting the state’s dangerous and dilapidated building law and have the town proceed with stabilizing it. A lien would be placed on the property to cover the expense.

• The board could discuss the purchase of the building using $250,000 Selectman Bill Damon has offered. If that amount is not accepted, the board would discuss taking the building by eminent domain.

“My sincere hope is that the board will get a good group of answers,” Holt said.

Engineer Alfred Hodson of Resurgence Engineering & Preservation of Portland and town attorney Geoff Hole will also be at the meeting.

Selectman Bruce Cook said he would prefer the meeting in January be held in executive session.

Holt said that although he felt the conversation would be more open in executive session, the decision will be left to Hole.

Holt said he envisions at least portions of the meeting, such as the discussion of a purchase price, being in executive session.

The town recently hired Hodson and an appraisal service to evaluate the building’s condition and value. The engineer’s report is nearly done.

Phase one of the appraisal sets a “ballpark figure” for the building, while the second phase, if needed, will set the value the town would use should the board decide to take the building by eminent domain.

Mazzaglia will be provided both documents to review.

“I suspect this is not going to get any easier,” Holt said of the situation.

The 1894 Opera House sustained serious structural damage in September 2007 after rotted roof trusses partially collapsed under the weight of water pooled on the roof, an engineer reported. The damage included a sagging roof and a 6-inch bow in the back wall of the building, the report said.

The roof water, and more from a broken sprinkler, poured through all three floors, forcing two ground-floor businesses out. The upper floors have been vacant for decades.

The building is on the National Register of Historic Places and anchors the town’s National Historic District.

Mazzaglia bought it for $225,000 in 2003 after it was placed on the state’s Most Endangered Historic Properties list by Maine Preservation of Portland. It was listed for sale for $600,000 earlier this year.

The building was constructed by the Norway Building Association, then 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 balcony and ballroom on the second and third 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.