Emergency repairs to the crumbling Island Theatre have been completed, although a town-approved window for painting the building’s facade has come and gone.

“There isn’t any danger right now of having it collapse,” town administrator Robert Whritenour said of the building at a selectmen’s meeting on Tuesday. But he added that after returning from a recent vacation he was “extraordinarily disappointed” to find that the painting had not been completed.

Following a lawsuit by the town in May, a lawyer for the Hall family, which owns the historic theatre at the foot of Circuit avenue, submitted a timeline to the Dukes County superior court that included both the emergency repairs and exterior painting.

Mr. Whritenour is now working with town counsel Ronald H. Rappaport to set a drop-dead date for the painting, after which he said the owners of the theatre would end up back in court. As of Wednesday, a date had not been set.

The theatre is owned in a trust by the Hall family. One of the owners, Benjamin Hall Jr., said by phone this week that Total Restoration of Weymouth had provided workers for the repairs, although the contract was handed off to another company. He said the repairs involved four shear walls inside the building and specialty steel to hold up one side of the outer wall so that the roof diaphragm would not shift during hurricane-force winds. The design differed from what the town had proposed, he said, but achieved the same result. He said the repairs were completed in late June.

Mr. Whritenour said an engineer has signed off on the repairs.

The vacant theatre has been a subject of frustration and anxiety in town, with independent reports prior to this summer warning that the building may collapse in high winds. Voters at the annual town meeting in April refused to spend $200,000 to pay for the interior repairs, with many seeking a more comprehensive plan for the property. The town later sued the Hall family to make the building safe.

Selectmen this week were eager to see the painting completed before August.

“I’m thinking July 31, end of story,” selectman Gail Barmakian said.

But Mr. Hall said he didn’t think painting would be possible until the summer crowds disperse. “If the town agreed to block lower Circuit avenue for a couple days, which would be an insane request, we could probably get something over here,” he told the Gazette. “But it’s still a matter of trying to find a painter when this is painting season.”

Neither Mr. Hall nor Mr. Whritenour could say what color the facade would be painted, although Mr. Whritenour said it would be similar to the current beige color. He said painting would take no more than a day and a half.

Mr. Hall argued that the town has overreacted to the safety hazard, since many buildings on the Island would likely collapse in hurricane-force winds. He also accused the town of grandstanding by filing its lawsuit after the family had already filed for a building permit to make the repairs. He said additional requirements by the town had scared off the original painting contractor. “They did not want to come over to the Island when they felt they might be harassed and ordered off the job,” he said.

A new contractor had not been hired as of Wednesday.

Looking ahead, the future of the theatre remains uncertain.

Mr. Whritenour said many people would like Oak Bluffs to take the theatre by eminent domain, but he noted that the town would still need to pay market price. “We are hoping the market forces can prevail and the building will sell, and then a new use can come in there,” he said. “But the town will remain strongly involved with the process.”

Mr. Hall said his family has no immediate plans for the building beyond painting the facade, although discussions about its future uses are ongoing.

“We are addressing the concerns of the town and trying to put a better face on the building while we continue to plan what the next use of that building might be, or whether somebody might come along and say, ‘We need to take it down,’” he said. He added that some people have come forward with proposals, but “nothing terribly concrete.” “People kick the tires on real estate all the time,” he said.