RUMFORD – A few years ago, Dixfield commissioned a chain saw artist to carve a life-size moose from logs to lure tourists into its downtown area. Wilton had a similar idea, using several giant loon sculptures painted by a variety of artists.

Now, Rumford could be next, depending on the reaction by selectmen and townspeople to businessman Jim Rinaldo’s idea to give the information center’s giant Paul Bunyan statue a pet – namely, Babe, the giant blue ox from a Minnesota folktale.

A member of Rumford’s Economic Development Committee, Rinaldo proffered the idea at the Oct. 29 meeting, although it’s been in his head for the past year.

“We’ve been trying to figure out how to get people from the Information Booth across the bridge and into the downtown,” he said Thursday afternoon.

He suggested putting a 6-foot tall by 10-foot long blue ox in Veterans Park at the end of Congress Street and opposite the Androscoggin River bridge across from the Information Booth. Then, like Dixfield did using moose tracks, paint blue ox tracks from Bunyan down the sidewalk to Babe’s location.

Every year, several people stop at the Information Booth to pose for photographs with Bunyan. Rinaldo said a sign could be placed there telling people to follow the tracks to the blue ox for another themed photographic opportunity.

“Hopefully, once we get them into the park, they’d wander around. We just need to get people into the downtown. Of course, we also need to get some more stores downtown,” Rinaldo said.

After searching the Internet for a business that makes, uhm, giant blue oxen, the Rumford resident said he was surprised to find one in Maine: Fiberglass Farm at 93 Main St. in Belfast (www.fiberglassfarm.com/).

A quick call told him the company, which specializes in large fiberglass animals, could indeed give Bunyan and Rumford a giant blue ox, but it would cost $5,000 and another $600 for delivery by truck.

“If selectmen shoot it down, that’s fine, but I hope they have another idea to replace it. I’m sure people would get a chuckle out of it, though,” Rinaldo said.

On Wednesday afternoon, Town Manager Len Greaney said he didn’t consider the idea at all far-fetched. However, he suggested another possibility: getting smaller blue oxen made and placed around the downtown area and, perhaps, painted by area schoolchildren.

Rinaldo said the town could even sell mementos of Babe to tourists like it does with Bunyan.

“We already have Paul Bunyan, because Rumford’s been known for its timber and lumber business, which kind of sets a theme for the area,” Rinaldo said.

On Thursday, he met with Greaney to get the idea on the agenda for next Thursday’s Board of Selectmen meeting.

“The Economic Development Committee has been doing some good things. They’re also trying to get a movie theater in and we’re starting to make headway with it,” Greaney added.