MEXICO – After meeting Thursday afternoon with Town Manager John Madigan and Rep. Randy Hotham, R-Dixfield, Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap said he hoped to quash rumors that the state was out to shut down Mexico’s Bureau of Motor Vehicles office.

“We’re not going to pull the rug out from anybody,” Dunlap said during a phone interview from his Augusta office.

To improve customer satisfaction by expanding access to services through the most cost effective methods, a working group was convened last year to evaluate all 13 BMV branch offices.

Consideration was given to staffing levels, the number of customers served, wait times and other factors, Dunlap said.

At the time, having full-time branches in Mexico and Calais and sending a mobile unit to Waterville and Skowhegan, seemed, to Dunlap, inefficient. A proposal was made then to make the Mexico branch part-time and split it with Farmington.

That’s when rumors began that the state was out to close Mexico’s branch, he believes.

“Once you put the seed out, it’s hard to squash the weed that grows from it,” Dunlap said.

After examining foot traffic patterns at the Mexico branch, the group realized the proposal wouldn’t work and killed it.

Rumors persisted, provoking Madigan’s and Hotham’s visit. That’s when Dunlap said he called the Mexico branch office manager and assured her that the state isn’t going to close it.

“They’re serving the public very well,” he said.