MEXICO – Town Manager Joseph Derouche wants his town to become a designated Downtown Main Street Center.

The announcement made at Thursday’s selectmen’s meeting is part of his plan to continue the improvement and rejuvenation of the village area.

“Mexico is ahead of most communities in a lot of ways. We have a Downtown Committee, we’ve done the facade program, we recognize employees and citizens at our annual Night of Appreciation,” he said.

If Mexico should achieve this status, it would join only five others in the state – Eastport, Saco, Gardiner, Waterville and Norway, he said.

“This would help us deal with the changes in the downtown area,” he said.

Such a designation would provide technical expertise that could help revitalize the town.

He plans to ask for selectmen’s approval to pursue the designation in February. Such a designation would help the town deal with the Route 17 corridor, and make the town more likely to successfully receive grants.

“This program is going in the same direction we are going in,” he said.

He is also planning to pursue designation as an Urban Compact Area, or small service center, as recommended in the town’s Strategic Plan for Revitalization.

Although Rumford is the major service center in the region, he said the village and outlying areas as well as the number of jobs are growing in Mexico. An Urban Compact Area designation would allow the town to look at tax incentives, lower administrative costs, and a reorganization of the delivery of public services, said Derouche.

“It’s a great program,” he said.

The town has received millions of dollars in state and federal money during the past few years for upgrading its roads, sewer and water lines, and store fronts, oftentimes because the town has qualified for such grants under a slum and blight category.

Once a section in the downtown area known as the “flats” is rehabilitated and transformed into a business area, he said Mexico would be on its own, and ready for the next step.

In other matters on Thursday, the board approved taking nearly $12,000 from the building renovation fund for repair of the furnace at the Mexico Recreation Center. Because the boiler needs work immediately, funding that project will likely put off the planned replacement of some of the windows in the former high school, built in 1935.