“The property is being broken into, and there are not good things happening there,” Truman told the Select Board.
Truman said people have been breaking into the buildings to use drugs and have removed boards and barriers meant to keep them out. He said they have also activated electrical systems not intended to be on, creating a fire hazard. Police have been called to the property multiple times, according to Truman.
Interim Town Manager and Police Chief Jeffery Campbell said the Norway Police Department is aware of the situation at the buildings.
“We’ve been in communication with them a number of times,” Campbell said, “and we had people jump out the windows when we went there.”
Truman said he considered shutting off power to the buildings plagued by break‑ins but worries squatters might set fires inside, which could be catastrophic.
The brick portion of the historic property was recently rehabilitated and brought up to code, Truman said.
The other half of the building has been dilapidated for some time. Truman said it sits on stones rather than a foundation, and water from the abutting Pennesseewassee Stream regularly flows inside. The structure has dropped at least 3½ feet in the middle, and the roof lines are visibly bowed from the road.
“We’ve been wanting to do it for a while,” Truman said. “It is just going to be an expensive process to tear it down.”
Truman said they likely would build another structure on the site after demolition is complete.
“We haven’t really fully decided what we’re going to do,” Truman said. “Some sort of a retail space on the first floor and then maybe a residential or something like that. We want it to be a benefit to the town rather than a potential hazard.”
Newcomb said the next step is to send the proposal to the Planning Board to form a committee for the demolition project.
“I delivered for the Advertiser. I remember roaming through the building in the 1960s, and it was a maze and in pretty rough shape back then,” Select Board Chair Russell Newcomb said. “If you build another building there, it would definitely be an improvement.”
In other business, the board voted to accept a memorandum of understanding for electric-vehicle charging stations in downtown Norway.
Prior to the meeting, the agreement with the Center for an Ecology‑Based Economy, or CEBE, in Norway was largely informal. The town owned and insured the chargers, while CEBE covered maintenance and day‑to‑day operations.
“It would be nice for the general public to know this,” Select Board member Anita Hakala said. “People have asked me who’s paying for that electricity. It should be shared with the townspeople.”