RUMFORD – This town became the first of five in the Northern Oxford region Thursday night to approve becoming part of a state program aimed at boosting economic development.

The approval of Rumford’s inclusion in the Androscoggin Valley Pine Tree Zone, voted on by the three selectmen present at the meeting, came with some reservations, at least from one board member.

Board Chairman Jim Thibodeau said he believed the program is another step toward the state taking control of local towns.

“They are striving toward regionalism and this is part of it,” he said.

He voted for it, however, because he said he wanted to give it a chance.

Selectman Jolene Lovejoy said she favored being a part of the Pine Tree Zone.

“Sometimes you can do more collectively than individually. This gives all the towns an equal footing,” she said.

Rumford’s share of the Androscoggin Valley Pine Tree Zone takes in 281 acres. The sites are the current industrial park, the under-construction business park, both located off Route 108, and the former Thurston’s mill located several miles west of town on Route 2.

Rumford’s sites will join with sites in neighboring Mexico, Peru, Dixfield and Canton. Peru and Canton are expected to act on their inclusion as having sites in the Pine Tree Zone at their March town meetings. Mexico and Dixfield may act at a selectmen’s meeting or at their June town meetings.

Inclusion in a Pine Tree Zone provides tax exemptions and incentives for manufacturing, financial and technology-oriented businesses and industries that choose to move to one of the sites.

The Androscoggin Valley Pine Tree Zone is preapproved and is expected to be one of eight such economic zones established around the state.

In other matters on Thursday, selectmen agreed to modify their ban on the use of exhaust brakes along a stretch of Route 108 that travels through town.

The board had prohibited such use by tractor-trailer trucks at an earlier meeting, and have had signs designating the ban installed at the two ends of the section of Route 108 from just east of Congress Street to the west end of Morse Bridge.

Several people living in the Muskie Building, located at the end of Congress Street, had complained about the noise.

Thibodeau and Selectman Bob Bradley agreed to ban the so-called jake brakes from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Lovejoy argued that heavy trucks could use other brakes at all times when they drove along that stretch of road. Selectmen Eugene Boivin and Jim Peterson were absent.

Public Works Director Andy Russell said new signs will likely be erected within two weeks.

eadams@sunjournal.com

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