RUMFORD – At Tuesday afternoon’s board meeting, River Valley Technology Center directors OK’d a nearly break-even budget of $101,270 for the fiscal year that ends in June ’08.

Treasurer Rich Allen said the budget reflects current and anticipated rental revenues and historical-based expenses. Of the budget, $101,270 is projected for income and $158,709 for expenses, leaving a net income of minus $57,439. The $57,276 difference, Allen said, accounts for depreciation, a noncash item that the board must record in its budgets.

Like he did in August when the board lacked a quorum to OK the budget, Allen also said he had only budgeted $300 a month, or $3,600 for the year, for contracted services to maintain and operate the center, the mission of which is to create jobs.

While Allen projected $52,200 in rental revenue, center Executive Director Diane Ray said it could be $10,000 to $13,000 higher with business tenants moving in and a commercial rental rate increase on lease renewals.

The center’s first floor houses eight or nine tenants, and two of them, including therapist Catherine Journey, a licensed clinical social worker formerly housed in the Richardson Hollow office complex in Dixfield, moved in after the budget was created, Ray said after the meeting.

“Between last spring and now, we’ve doubled our cash flow,” she said. “From March to November, we’ve gone from $32,000 to $65,000 in rental income.”

And, as of Sept. 30, Allen said the technology center had received $27,973.50 of a $37,250 state Department of Economic and Community Development grant.

With the first floor full, Ray speculated that it would take $3 million to renovate the top two floors before they, too, could be rented out. Ideally, directors have said at past meetings that they’d like to attract a call center to one of the top floors and a shared-use kitchen on the other floor to grow start-up companies.

To get the money, Ray said she is researching the U.S. Department of Treasury’s New Markets Tax Credit Program through Coastal Enterprises Inc. of Wiscasset.

That program, according to the Coastal Enterprises Web site, was authorized by Congress to stimulate economic opportunities and create jobs by expand the availability of credit, investment capital and financial services to low-income urban and rural communities.

“Even though we qualify, we would have to have a tenant lined up to get the (low interest) loan. Our area qualifies as a low-income area. … The New Market Tax Credit Program is the best way to get the top floor done,” Ray said.

In other business, Ray said that a modular parking garage would be less expensive than one built with concrete. Due to the lack of parking in Rumford’s downtown and an anticipated need when the top two floors of the technology center are renovated, directors have discussed building a parking garage.

Directors also named Dick Lovejoy as board president, Mexico Town Manager John Madigan as vice president, Diane Dostie as secretary, and Allen as treasurer.