RUMFORD – Father and son businessmen Clyde and Todd Wardwell of Mexico won the rights to demolish a few tax-acquired vacant buildings in town via their low bids at Thursday night’s selectmen meeting.

Sometime within the next two months, the Wardwells will destroy one of two multistory structures at 49 Oxford Ave., one at 107 York St. and another at 92 Maine Ave., according to Town Manager Len Greaney.

A smaller building at 49 Oxford Ave., which is in better shape than the larger buildings, will be restored.

At Todd Wardwell’s request, selectmen gave him until May to destroy the second multistory building at 49 Oxford Ave. He’s got materials stored there that must be removed first, Greaney said by phone on Friday afternoon at his Rumford home.

With a lone bid of $2,500, the elder Wardwell bought a two-story building and a one-story structure at 49 Oxford Ave., and the land.

“He didn’t offer a lot of money, but he said that if he could buy it, he would destroy another large building beside it,” Greaney said. “Because we wanted to get rid of the two ugly buildings there, we thought it was a good deal.”

Clyde Wardwell intends to level the two buildings and haul away 75 percent of the debris, and bury the rest on the land, which will be made into a parking lot, Greaney said.

Regarding the other properties, Todd Wardwell bid $64,000 to destroy them and remove asbestos siding on both structures. Two other people who placed bids of $67,000 and $73,500 did not bid to remove the asbestos, Greaney said.

In other business, Selectmen Chairman J. Arthur Boivin picked Waldo Street, from a basket containing the names of 28 Rumford streets, as the one on which to begin the towns debut Inspective and Corrective Action program.

Assisted by firefighters, code enforcement officer Rick Kent will inspect rental buildings on the street for code violations, then draft a report to be given to landlords for review, Greaney said.

After that, town officials will meet with and work with landlords to ensure that buildings are brought up to code.

“In two weeks, we’ll randomly pull out all the others from the same basket in the process. But we will start the program with 438 Waldo St., which is a tax-acquired building,” he said.

There are three tax-acquired buildings on the street in a 200-foot area. Once all buildings being checked for code violations have been inspected, Kent and his assistants will start down the next street on the list.

Once the first reports go out to landlords, Greaney said he hopes landlords in other areas will learn what the hot issues are and fix them before inspectors arrive.

“The top two issues are that there must be a second egress from each floor and hardwired smoke detectors properly installed. Like everybody in the world should know that by now. I think we will make progress, but I want to do it in a professional way,” he added.