MEXICO – A South African businessman has purchased the main building of the former Thurston Mill on the west side of Route 120. That’s what Rosie Bradley, president and executive director of the River Valley Growth Council, told directors at Wednesday night’s meeting.

Without naming the man or business, Bradley said he plans to start a distribution facility there involving the wholesaling and retailing of African and upper-end exotic wood. The man and his wife will arrive next month to examine the property, she added.

After the meeting, Bradley declined to talk specifics about the deal, which the council helped facilitate. She did, however, say the man’s Cape Town and Knysna company, Rare Woods, will hire three to five people initially. Future employee additions will depend on how well the business does, Bradley added.

In other business, directors learned the growth council has enough money to operate for eight months if no new income is found. Treasurer Bill Hine said the council had, as of Nov. 30, an operating account balance of $79,650, and is spending about $10,000 a month.

“The challenge from January to June is to develop new sources of income,” Hine said.

Directors continued to brainstorm possible ideas, one of which involved creation of a subcommittee to plan a combination supper and auction event to be held in the spring. The council will continue its other fundraising efforts, like soliciting money from businesses and conducting a fall business exposition, but will remain open to new ideas.

Work is expected to start within the next two weeks to clean up the former Diamond Match mill in Peru using a $122,744 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency cleanup grant, which was awarded to the council in May.

The project, which Bradley said is expected to take four months, will clean up hazardous materials, which include asbestos and lead paint from when the mill went out of business in 1988. Five of the eight buildings on the slightly more than 5-acre property located between routes 2 and 108 have some contamination.

The vacant mill complex was donated to the growth council in December 2003 by Archie’s Inc. of Mexico. Bradley said bid packages for the mill, which is located next to an operating railroad line and has its own rail head, are being finalized.