MEXICO – Four residents, including two incumbents, are seeking the two open seats on the Board of Selectmen.

Incumbents Monique Aniel, 54, of Backkingdom Road and Reginald W. Arsenault, 51, of Meadow Street, are challenged by first-time office seekers Donald Hodsdon, 37, of Mexico Avenue and Marjorie Richard, 65, of Highland Terrace.

Aniel, a retired physician, is running for her first, full, three-year term. She has served as a selectman for one year, having completed the term begun by former Selectman Robert Lyons. She also sat on the SAD 43 Board of Directors for two years, and was an originator of the Mexico Taxpayers Association in the early 1990s and a past member of the Northern Oxford County Coalition on air and water quality. She also led a successful fight against siting a nuclear waste dump in western Maine in the mid-1990s.

She and her husband, Dr. Albert Aniel, have lived in Mexico for 20 years.

In her year in office, she said the issues of regionalization and growth are more complex than she had realized.

“We must be slow and cautious with growth,” she said. “The town must balance regionalization and growth with a decrease in state revenue sharing.”

To regionalize anything with neighboring towns, she said each town must have the same amount of willingness to succeed.

She said her greatest moment during the past year was when the towns of Rumford and Mexico used an idea she brought before the board that had worked in her native Europe. It was to divert large trucks from traveling through both towns without hurting downtown Mexico businesses.

“The truck bypass issue was settled amicably,” she said.

Arsenault, a retired custodian/bus driver, is seeking a second, three-year term.

“Mexico is moving, economic development is coming, and I want to be a part if it,” he said. “We’ve got to get good paying jobs so our young people won’t move away.”

He wants to look into more ways area towns can work together. He said some cooperative efforts are already in place, such as mutual aid agreements with the fire departments of several towns. He also believes one police department could serve the three major River Valley towns.

“I’ve always had the citizens in mind as a selectman, and tried to best represent the people,” he said.

Arsenault is also a member of the Planning Board where the group is updating the town’s comprehensive plan, and sits on the Med-Care Board and the Northern Oxford Regional Solid Waste Board.

He’s an advocate of the River Valley Technology Center and the River Valley Growth Council.

“For the River Valley to survive, we’ve got to work together. There’s only a bridge and a body of water that separates us. It just takes time and patience,” he said.

He and his wife, Louise, are the parents of two adult children.

Hodsdon, an oil delivery driver, was born in the area, left when a child, then returned 20 years ago. He is a volunteer firefighter and is making his first bid for political office.

“This is something I thought I’d try to get into to make a difference. I have two children growing up and I want to make the town better for them,” he said.

He wants taxes to decline and the number of businesses to go up.

“I want to know where tax dollars are going and why Mexico and Rumford pay so much for schools. I just want to voice my opinion and have a say,” he said.

He said he has attended municipal finance meetings to learn how they were run and he believes being elected would provide the voice of a younger generation.

Hodsdon graduated from a Nebraska high school and took additional courses in truck driving. His parents are graduates of Stephens High School and Mexico High School.

He and his wife Karen are parents of two small children.

Richard established Wee Care Daycare more than 25 years ago. She is now retired from the child care job, but sometimes fills in.

She is also a member of the Citizens Advisory Board, a municipal group that looks for ways to market the town, and volunteers at the Free Store and for the Greater Rumford Area Minister’s Pantry Service.

Richard opposes construction of a planned gazebo and anything else that the town doesn’t need, such as a large festival on the banks of the river.

“There are other things that money could be used for, like tax breaks for people on fixed incomes,” she said.

She also questions whether all municipal employees are working as many hours as they are paid for.

“I believe in a day’s work for a day’s pay,” she said.

Richard wants a policy adopted that bans smokers from lighting up within 50 feet of the entrance to any municipal building, and she wants at least two more stop lights installed at what she said are busy intersections in the downtown area.

Richard graduated from Mexico High School then served two years in the Air Force before returning to her hometown.

She and her husband, Joseph, are the parents of seven adult children.

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