New owner pledges to proceed with renovations

Yellow tape seals the dots of the Greenwoods Theater building following the flood from frozen pipes.

By Bob Bumcrot
Although flooding from frozen pipes caused the Greenwoods Theater building to be closed as unsafe, the winning bidder of the recent foreclosure sale is determined to go through with the purchase.
On the morning of March 8, owner Maura Cavanagh, who manages Greenwoods, arrived to find two state troopers, two Aquarion Water Company workers, the fire marshal and numerous fire fighters in and around the building. Earlier in the morning a local resident had reported leaking water and ice forming near the back of the structure.
Preliminary investigation revealed two unlocked doors, flooding of up to five inches in the basement, a growing, inch-deep pool of water on the first floor fed by a leak in the bar area, and water dripping from an overhead enclosure in one of the empty stores. Several lights were on and, most alarmingly, the first floor pool was approaching an operating electric heater. There was no apparent damage to the theater itself on the upper floor.
Emergency workers turned off the electricity and shut the main interior water valve. Later, two Aquarion employees, using a detector, pick, shovel and blow torch, located the outside valves for the high-pressure fire line and the domestic water line and turned both off.
A fireman reported that both oil tanks in the building were registering empty.
Cavanagh stated that all doors had been locked when she left the day before.
Dan Hincks, the Burlington, Connecticut businessman who won the foreclosure auction soon arrived with Sue Tomkus, manager of Infinity Arts and Entertainment, the company with which Hincks plans to present a variety of musical and other performances.
Early in the afternoon, Michael LaRosa, Norfolk’s building inspector, examined the structure and ordered the building closed as unsafe. A notice to that effect was posted and several doors were decorated with “Do Not Cross” tape.
Firefighters managed to pump much of the standing water out of the basement. The pool on the first floor was gone by the afternoon. Further damage appeared to be unlikely, provided that heat is restored. Two store tenants, complaining of little or no heat, quit the building earlier this winter.
Attorney Steven Levy, who conducted the court-ordered auction, and Peter Reynolds, Hincks’ attorney, have set the closing of the sale for March 26.
Barring a last-minute legal challenge by Cavanagh, the building will have new owners by the time this issue goes to press.
“I am really looking forward to seeing the inside and going through it with my engineer,” said Hincks. Added Tomkus, “We intend to have an open house before we begin renovations. We’ll have another one when we’re done.”

Photo by Colleen Gundlach.