NORWAY – Seven downtown Main Street buildings are participating in a program offering grants to help with paint jobs.

A $5,000 grant from the Maine Development Foundation is funding the program, being coordinated through Norway Downtown Revitalization.

The grant will pay for up to $500 toward the costs of paint and labor for each building. The seven buildings participating are L.F. Pike & Son; 100 Aker Wood; Charlie’s Entertainment; the building housing Ed Damon’s Barber Shop, Days Gone By – Antiques and Collectibles and Mooseland Tours; the Tucker building housing Grassroots Graphics and Western Maine Mortgage; the Career Center; and the former bookstore at the corner of Pike’s Hill Road that is being renovated by its new owners as a cafe.

Joe Wyman, a member of the revitalization group, said the building owners will hire their own contractor or do the work themselves. Five hundred dollars might not seem like much, he said, but, “It can make the difference for some people.”