NORWAY – Selectmen voted 4-to-1 Thursday to raise $150,000 in cash and services as a match to a $400,000 grant to pay to refurbish part of the C.B. Cummings mill.

The plan to secure the match was devised by Town Manager David Holt.

To raise the money, the board approved selling a loan on the Fare Share Co-Op Market valued at $130,000 back to the Fare Share board for $65,000.

“We have a generous member willing to buy the loan,” said Fare Share Board President Zizi Vlaun.

The original loan came from community development block grant funds and was to be paid to the town over a 30-year period.

Holt said that, by CBDG regulations, any money received from the Fare Share loan payment had to be used to improve the downtown area.

Another $65,000 in cash will be sought from taxpayers at town meeting in June.

However, Oxford Hills Growth Council Chief Executive Officer Brett Doney said his organization would submit a match letter guaranteeing the $65,000 if the measure fails to pass at town meeting.

The money does not have to be on hand at the time of the submission of the grant. The town and growth council are operating on a tight timetable because the grant application is due Jan. 16.

The final $20,000 of the grant match would come from the donation of gravel taken from the Beal Street improvement project – set to begin this summer – and use it to fill foundations of razed buildings at the Cummings site.

Selectmen George W. Tibbetts Jr. and Russell Newcomb voiced their concerns about the financial involvement of the town in the project.

“People have talked to me and they just don’t want to invest their money in a picture place,” Tibbetts said.

He then asked Doney if the buildings could be leased within a year.

Doney replied that the office building, in the best condition of all the 13 buildings on the property, could be leased within a short period of time and that the cinder block building could be ready in a year.

He and Selectman Leslie Flanders said they have been approached about the properties by two investors.

“There’s interest in three buildings, providing we can do the infrastructure work,” Doney said.

Selectman Robert Walker said the property will cost the town more money in the future and that borrowing the $65,000 is making an investment in the town.

Holt said he “dreaded” the thought of having the mill sit empty in the heart of downtown for years.

“I would argue that sometimes you have to take a chance … provide leadership,” Holt said. “I believe this is the best alternative.”

Newcomb said people have told him that they see the project as a gamble and that they do not like the thought of gambling with taxpayers’ money.

He also thought the project could cost the town more money.

“Nobody has convinced me that we won’t be back here in six months being asked to spend more money,” Newcomb said.

Newcomb cast the lone vote against the project.

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