MEXICO – The River Valley Technology Center may not have to create 40 jobs by July as required in a multi-thousand-dollar grant that Mexico received last summer.
Town Manager John Madigan read a Dec. 1 letter from the center’s executive director, Rosie Bradley, at Wednesday night’s selectmen meeting.
“The good news is that we have created six new jobs and retained five jobs for a total of 11 jobs,” she stated.
Last summer, Mexico got a $400,000 Community Development Block Grant to help fund a $2.8 million renovation of a former bag mill on Lowell Street in Rumford, which became the technology center.
A stipulation for receiving that money was the creation of 40 jobs within two years, or Mexico would have to pay back the money.
However, Bradley said the center has options to consider once it reaches the July 1 deadline. She said they could request an amendment to the original proposal, because the center was only able to complete one floor instead of two.
“This has a major impact on the number of jobs for the allowable space,” Bradley stated.
Additionally, the 56 students who completed the center’s training program, will not count as direct jobs, “but will strengthen our proposal immensely, she added.
She said she wrote to Madigan to share the “good news, and hopefully, ease some of the anxieties that some of your citizens have around this issue.”
Madigan and selectmen agreed with Bradley’s assessment. Among those present were members of the local taxpayers association, who have repeatedly raised the issue with selectmen and Madigan.
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