RUMFORD — Three-year-old Samuel Demascio of Rumford brimmed with excitement early Thursday afternoon, as did about 20 other people who greeted Babe the Blue Ox's arrival on upper Congress Street.
Daryn Slover/Sun Journal
Babe the Blue Ox is delivered to his grazing spot on the Rite-Aid Pharmacy lot in downtown Rumford on Thursday.
Daryn Slover/Sun Journal
Babe the Blue Ox passes the Paul Bunyan replica as the 6-foot-tall, 10-foot-long fiberglass bovine arrives in downtown Rumford on Thursday afternoon. Bunyan welcomes visitors to the information center on Route 2.
Terry Karkos/Sun Journal
Rumford Selectman Mark Belanger drills a bolt hole through the base of Babe the Blue Ox and a cement pad while anchoring Paul Bunyan's mythical companion on Thursday on upper Congress Street. Watching from right is Rumford Public Works crewman Richie Philbrick, who is also a Mexico selectman.
While Rumford Selectman Mark Belanger and a Public Works crew installed the nearly 400-pound fiberglass bovine on a cement pad on the Rite-Aid Pharmacy lot, Demascio shouted instructions to his dad, David Demascio.
"I want to take a picture of you on the Blue Ox," Samuel twice repeated, while held in dad's arms.
That's what Jim Rinaldo of the Economic Development Committee is hoping tourists will want to do beside — not astride — Babe.
Signs created by local artists will soon be erected at the Rumford Information Center's Paul Bunyan statue steering people into the downtown area to visit Babe, and, hopefully, businesses. An estimated 5,000 to 6,000 people visit the information center annually.
By noon Thursday, the center lot was full of people driving cars with out-of-state plates, who stopped to photograph Bunyan, fall foliage, and the Androscoggin River's Pennacook Falls behind the center.
"I think it will be good for the town," Belanger said while drilling holes into the cement through Babe's four hoof bases to bolt the 6-foot-tall by 10-foot-long bovine into place. "I really believe it's going to bring people in," he said.
In August, selectmen voted 3-1 to take $6,500 from the town's economic development fund to buy Babe from Mike Hurley's Fiberglas Farm of Belfast. Hurley said Thursday that one of his sculptors, Ray Paulin, created Babe in Berlin, N. H., because it was closer to Rumford than Belfast. It took five to six weeks to build Babe.
On Thursday, Hurley was to stop at the Information Center at noon to let Babe "get acquainted" with Bunyan and possibly catch a police escort to the Rite-Aid site. However, because Hurley was late and no one knew how long it would take the town crew to offload and install Babe, Hurley bypassed the center where people were waiting and drove straight to the site.
"We didn't want the town crew to have to work overtime, because their department closes at 2," Rinaldo said.
Using a bucket loader, straps and chains, the crew lifted Babe off the trailer, and set it down facing Rite-Aid on the cement, which was donated by Coleman Concrete of Bethel. Then, after Belanger drilled holes through the bovine's base, five men lifted Babe and turned him around to face down Congress Street.
"This is guaranteed for 10 years?" Belanger asked Hurley, who answered affirmatively.
David Demascio said his son likes the large blue ox and wanted to see it arrive. "This was a good event and it will be good for the town to try to help," David Demascio said. "Anything will be good if it can help."
"He looks great," Hurley said of Babe.
Linda Walbridge, director of the Western Maine Economic Development Council with Community Concepts, agreed. "I think he's beautiful," she said to Hurley.
She then credited Rinaldo and town officials for following through on Rinaldo's creative idea to spur economic activity in Rumford. "I think that anything that can be done in Rumford is a positive thing," Walbridge said. "I've heard people laughing about this, but if this can get people across the (Androscoggin River) bridge, I'm very excited about it. It's a creative first start," she added.
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I am at a loss for words!
I am at a loss for words! HAHAHA! Glad I don't go to Riteaid or anywhere else in that area for anything! I feel bad for all of you people that have to drive by there every day and have to see that monstrosity! And the poor people that work there..........!
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I saw it yesterday when I went to the bank. It's hillarious. There were people taking pictures of it. Ha-Ha!
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Here's an idea, they could have offered 7 zero-interest loans to help small businesses get started in the area and not spent 1 penny by the time the money was payed back.
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I'm not against the idea of spending money to make it nor do I complain about my taxes(I find them rather cheap for what we get) but a Blue Ox? Come on!
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This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. The idea that this thing is going to draw business to the island is such an idiotic thought. More idiotic than the proposed soap opera museum!
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It was nice to see the people of Rumford laughing for a change. Every where I went last night was blue Ox jokes and dismay. It's so funny looking and out of place you have to laugh. What next the Mt. Valley Blue Oxes????
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To Former.......have you been back to the area lately? Not sure what they think the blue ox is going to draw business to on the island since most places have shut down. Spending almost $7000 on this statue was crazy. Yes, it does cost money to make money...but let's be realistic....this was a stupid way to spend money. Since you no longer live in Maine nor live in the town and pay the outrageous Rumford taxes...you have no right to sit there and call them a bunch of whiners.
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To Former.......have you been back to the area lately? Not sure what they think the blue ox is going to draw business to on the island since most places have shut down. Spending almost $7000 on this statue was crazy. Yes, it does cost money to make money...but let's be realistic....this was a stupid way to spend money. Since you no longer live in Maine nor live in the town and pay the outrageous Rumford taxes...you have no right to sit there and call them a bunch of whiners.
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My old mind forgot, Former, which insirance agency did you think the tourists would be looking to shop at on the island, or was it on of the little banks? There isn't much for shopping there just empty storefronts, government offices, insurace agencies and three banks. A takeout Pizza place a Chinese resteraunt, a breakfast resteraunt and very expesive Bistro with weird hours.
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DEAR former, you show absolutely no respect for your elders. I have never used any form of tobaco in my 80 plus years on God's green earth not have I touched ond drop of alcohol or any illegal drugs. I had no training in keyboarding as my grandkids call it, typing or computers so you will have to forgive the errors. Frequently I find that what is on the screne before I hit send is not what shows up shen I look to see what others wrote later and I have no idea how to fix it. I do not think it is going to matter after the tax bill comes. We had the TV disconnected because we could not afford it any longer. The grandkids got us the computer to email us from home and college but I expect we will be disconnecting that next month when the tax bill comes so no more newspaper and no more email with the kids. As for walking to RiteAid, you will forgive me if I consider 8 miles one way just too far to walk to the drug store as an octagenaron, that is some one in their 80s if you didn't know.
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What a frivolous expense. It's ugly and I can't imagine that it will bring any kind of revenue to the area. Makes me glad that I don't live in Rumford..
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEbz6kvnQDA
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What a bunch of Whiney A$$ babies you guys are! The board is trying to find ways to bring people to the island to make money! You have to spend money to make money! As for you Chippy, by putting it in front of the school, how would that bring money to the island businesses? D Wilson, do you smoke or drink? Ever thought of giving those up? You would save money there and maybe get healthy and not need the medications. Maybe try WALKING to Rite Aid to get your prescriptions? You might even look into taking some classes so your spelling and grammar can improve?
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I am beyond words for this. For me it will always be a monument to the huge property tax bill I am about to rceive and have no way of payinf without skipping meals and/or necessary medicine very frequently. I will be transfering my business off the island, my insurance will have to go out of town because I can not stand the thought of having to look at that thing and be reminded that such waste is the reason I and so many of my friends and peers are hungry, without our necessary medication, loosing our homes and can not even manage a card on birthdays, christmas and insympathy when some one dies.
RiteAid may have welcomed this monstrosity thinking they would get all the tourists to come in and buy their bug spray, sunscrene, and snacks for the road, but it is the locals who come on day in and day out who keep a business going. My doctor is calling in fresh prescriptions for me to Walmart. Walmart has assured me they will mail my refills since I will no longer be able to afford the gas to pick them up due to the increased taxes for things like the Blue Ox in front of RiteAid. My whole way of life has to change and this because of the frivolous spending of the Selectmen and this Blue Ox at the Gateway to the business district is an unavoidable reminder at the gateway to the business district I am avoiding by avoiding the business district. What are you going to do? I would like to know because we have to work together to put a stop to the waste.
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Jim Rinaldo, congratulations! Your 7000.00 dollar asinine idea will now keep you from doing any other damage to our community. After this major humiliation to the tax payers of this town your credibility is now ox dung. You have made our historic down town look cheap and carnival like. Where was your police escort and public official speeches?
Obviously they where smart enough or to embarrassed not to attend. This colossal waste of money is sure to haunt us for the life span (and after) of this poorly made eye sore!
Since when did we start stealing other states and towns fables? Do we not have an identity of our own?
I encourage all citizens to go and drive by this monstrosity waste of our tax payer dollars and remember the names: Jim Rinaldo, Frank Diconzo, Mark Belanger, and Rob Cameron. It way be cute and funny to some, but that 22.5 tax hike will bring reality, and this blue ox will always be a constant reminder of the uneducated ignorance that governs us.
Economic development my ox’s ass
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Well Belanger sure is in the right spot!
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They should have put in in front of MVHS on the lawn.
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Kind of a ridiculous looking creature. A lot will depend on the color, the pictures have it in several different hues of blue.
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