Norway will pursue $600K grant

NORWAY — At a recent meeting, Norway's board of selectmen agreed to begin pursuing a $600,000 downtown revitalization grant. 

The grant could be used to help with several different downtown projects.  The most significant of those would be the Opera House, which the town is currently looking to sell.

Board Chairwoman Irene Millet started off by warning the board that pursuing the grant would take a great deal of time and effort.  To use the Opera House as a main component of the proposal would require that the town not sell it in that time.

"Pursuing this grant would mean the town will have to maintain ownership of the opera house," she said. This presents a problem, she says, because "we don't want to own the building any longer than we have to."

Town Manager David Holt underlined the importance of considering all options carefully before beginning to work on the grant.  He would be responsible for writing the grant proposal and warned the board that it is not a task to be undertaken without careful thought.

"If we do this, it will take some time and effort on all of our parts.  We'll have to have meetings and do a lot of listening," he said. "Some of my time that you pay for will go to that, sometimes to the exclusion of other things, so it's not something to enter into lightly."

Selectman Russell Newcomb questioned the wisdom of basing a proposal around a piece of property that the town is looking to sell. Though the grant would benefit all of downtown, the restoration of the Opera House would be the central appeal around which Norway would base its case for the money.

"I'd just hate to see us go along for eight or nine months into this process and somebody steps up and wants to take the Opera House over," he said. "Then you've got to refocus everything you put together and that's not impossible, but it's going to take a whole different approach."

Nonetheless, the board decided to continue pursuing the grant for now.  To that end, they assigned Holt to begin gathering information from other downtown buildings that stand to benefit from the grant. While attempting to get a clearer idea of what could eventually be done with the Opera House, Holt will compile lists of things that need to get done and budgets for other projects. In addition to aiding in the grant process, this could have the added benefit of making downtown property, like the Opera House, more attractive to potential buyers.

"I think it will be appealing to investors, developers or entrepreneurs to see how it's developing, and not just that building, but all of Main Street," said Millett.  "All of Main Street will have to improve."

Hi Devin;

Solid story here. One fact I would add is the fact that the board took a vote, if the board did take a vote.

If they voted, say something like "the board unanimously approved the motion to move forward with the application."

If they didn't vote, ignore this comment.

Thanks!

Matt