NORWAY – The water-damaged Opera House on Main Street will be closed until spring, Code Enforcement Officer Jeffrey VanDecker said Tuesday.

The action is being taken by building owner Barry Mazzaglia of Londonderry, N.H, not the town, he said.

“He’s shutting down the building so he can work on it next spring,” VanDecker said after speaking with Mazzaglia late Tuesday afternoon.

Sherwood Jordan of the Colonial Coffee Shoppe, which was flooded out of the first floor on Friday, said Mazzaglia told him Tuesday that the three-story brick landmark is unsafe and at risk of collapsing.

Mazzaglia declined to comment on Jordan’s statement.

Mazzaglia has been working to shore up the 113-year-old building since water poured down through all three floors Friday afternoon. The water reportedly came from a burst water pipe on the third floor.

However, Jordan and coffee shop owner Elise Thurlow of Albany Township said Mazzaglia told them Tuesday afternoon that an “Olympic pool” amount of water that had collected in a rubber membrane on the roof came down into the building Friday.

VanDecker said Mazzaglia has made provisions to remove the rest of the water on the roof. He said he saw sagging plaster and lathes on the third floor Tuesday, but he didn’t go up to the roof to check it out.

Addy Massimino of New York, owner of Beauty Beyond, the other business flooded out on the first floor, as well as Jordan and Thurlow said Tuesday that the ceilings, floors and walls were continuing to buckle under the weight of the water. Parts of the exterior of the building are also bulging in areas, they said.

There appears to be a crack several inches wide and about 10 feet long in the bricks from the roof down to a point over the Main Street side of the coffee shop.

VanDecker said although questions are being asked about the structural integrity of the building and the public’s safety, he believes it’s secure. He has, however, suggested that Mazzaglia put “no trespassing” signs in the windows.

Town Manager David Holt said Tuesday that fire Chief Mike Mann believes the building does not pose a threat to passers-by or other businesses.

Mann said Monday that Mazzaglia is responsible for ensuring the building is safe.

The building, with its distinctive clock tower, is not insured, Mann said. It has had a succession of private owners since the town sold it in the mid-1970s after using it for town meetings, dances, concerts, plays, high school graduations and other events for 50 years.

The upper floors have been vacant since the late 1970s.