NORWAY – A four-hour mediation session failed to resolve a dispute between Opera House owner Barry Mazzaglia and the town over what Norway should pay him for the property.
“No agreement was reached,” Town Manager David Holt reported Thursday. The session was held Wednesday in the Auburn office of attorney Norman Rattey, who is working with the town in the eminent domain case.
Holt said he could not divulge what offer the town made or what Mazzaglia was asking for in return, but said it appears the case will now continue through the court system.
At some point, the town will present a judge in Oxford County Superior Court with its appraisal of the 1894 edifice on Main Street. Mazzaglia, of Bitim Enterprises in Londonderry, N.H., will also present his appraisal, if he has one. “Then a judge will make a decision,” Holt said.
Mazzaglia had refused a previous offer of $185,000 from the town. He could not be reached for comment Thursday.
The crumbling three-story brick building is considered the heart of the downtown, which put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.
Mazzaglia bought it in 2003 for $225,000 after it was placed on the state’s Most Endangered Historic Properties list by Maine Preservation of Portland.
A portion of the sagging roof collapsed on Sept. 21, 2007, severing a sprinkler pipe and flooding all three floors. The collapse, due in part to the weight of water pooled on the roof and decaying roof trusses, compromised the stability of the building.
Two engineering studies have deemed the structure to be “unsafe to the public and neighboring property” and officials say the structure has continued to deteriorate, causing not only an imminent unsafe situation downtown but an unfavorable economic one.
Earlier this year, voters authorized the Board of Selectmen to initiate steps to take the property by eminent domain, using $200,000 donated by Bill and Beatrice Damon of Norway. A $150,000 Public Facilities Community Development Block grant will be used to help shore up the back wall of the building.
Once the stabilization project is complete, officials say they intend to turn the building over to someone who has the resources to continue renovations and hopefully revitalize the building.
The Damons’ money will be used to pay the owner whatever a judge deems a reasonable price for the building.
Mazzaglia has appealed the action in Oxford Superior Court.
Earlier in the week, Holt said Mazzaglia had initially worked hard to save the building with very few resources. It will take “considerable” resources to save the building, Holt said.
“I was in the Opera House this week with the engineer,” Holt said. “I continue to be struck by the huge challenge the building presents.”
The bottom floor has been empty since the partial roof collapse; the second floor Grand Ballroom and third floor balcony have been vacant for decades; the bell tower that tops the building houses a working E. Howard clock.
The Opera House was built 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 ballroom and balcony 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.
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