NORWAY — The Board of Selectmen agreed Thursday night to accept the assets from the Higgins Crooker Trust Fund, including the Longley hardware store building, as a condition to the dissolution of the decades-old trust fund in probate court.

The assets will be given to the town in the form of a charity for the benefit of the “worthy, aged people of Norway, Maine, if needy,” according to the trust.

“The assets need to be assigned somewhere to dissolve the trust,” Town Manager David Holt told the board. “I don’t know what the alternative is.”

Holt and fellow trustee Tom Denison will be relieved of their obligation to the trust.

On a motion by Selectman Warren Sessions, seconded by Bill Damon, the board unanimously agreed to the move. Chairman Bruce Cook was unable to attend the meeting.

The Higgins Crooker Trust was established in 1923 as a fund to benefit the “worthy, aged people of Norway, Maine if needy.” It consists of the L.M. Longley & Son building at 419 Main St.; the 100 Aker Wood building at 413 Main St., a home at 20 Deering St. and about $20,000 in several bank Certificate of Deposits.

“The trust loses money every year,” Holt said. With the closing of the L.M. Longley & Son business at the end of the year, the building is in jeopardy of being left vacant and deteriorating. The business is on the market.

Holt said there is some positive news in that the vacant house on Deering Street may soon go under contract and the owners of 100 Akers Wood may be thinking about purchasing the building they occupy.

The town would have to sell Longley’s and the other two buildings if the buildings are still not sold by the time the trust is dissolved.

Holt said Maine Preservation has agreed to help the town sell the buildings to those willing to maintain at least the historic front of them. The two commercial buildings are in the Norway National Historic District and historic tax credits may be available to new owners who wish to make repairs.

Holt said traditionally town “charity funds” have been used to buy items such as eyeglasses and help purchase heating oil for the elderly.

Holt said Attorney General Janet Mills has reviewed the petition and agreed to submit the request to the Probate Court. There is no estimate on how much time it will take to have the action go through, he said.

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