RUMFORD – Voters will have a chance Monday night to decide whether to close a section of Railroad Street in exchange for the donation of a 33-acre parcel of paper-company owned land, most of which currently is being used by the town.

The special town meeting begins at 6 p.m., in Muskie Auditorium of Mountain Valley High School.

The land’s owner, NewPage Corp., has offered the 33 acres, broken into seven parcels, in return for closure of about 1,750 feet of Railroad Street.

The mill plans to use the proposed closed section of Railroad Street and some of its own land to build a $5 million electrical substation.

Most of the land offered in the swap has been used by the town for many years. If approved by voters, the town would receive: Morency Park, the so-called municipal parking lot and other riverfront land along River Street, Veterans Memorial Park at the foot of Congress Street, a ball field and adjacent land in the Virginia section of town, the so-called snow dump located along the Androscoggin River off Rumford Avenue, the ball fields at the corner of Lincoln Avenue and Falmouth Street, and the overflow parking lot along Railroad Street adjacent to the former Agway building.

The mill has also agreed to build a turn-around where Railroad Street would end.

Board Chairman Jim Rinaldo has said that the proposed land swap would be a good thing for the town, partly because the cost to repair Railroad Street would be well over $300,000.

The town will not lose any tax money because of the swap, and will likely gain a substantial amount when the new electrical substation is built, it was noted.