RUMFORD – Selectmen voted unanimously this week to move forward with plans to close a portion of Railroad Street and turn the property over to NewPage Corp. in return for 33 acres of mostly recreational property owned by the mill.

The approval sets the stage for attorneys for both parties to complete the legal paperwork for discontinuing about 1,800 feet of the street, and to set the necessary public hearings and special town meeting.

Board Chairman Jim Rinaldo said he expects the special town meeting to be held sometime in April. Residents must approve land acquisitions and road closures.

NewPage wants the lower end of Railroad Street to build a $5 million electrical substation. That section of Railroad Street, which converges with Route 108, is next to the paper mill.

The town would receive lands it has used for many decades, including the Virginia ball field, the snow dump along Rumford Avenue, the ball fields at Lincoln Avenue and Falmouth Street, Veterans Park, the parking lot next to the former Agway building, Morency Park and the river front property that includes the parcel on which a building housing the ladder truck is located.

Mill spokesman Tony Lyons said a turnaround would be built at the end of the open portion of Railroad Street.