MEXICO — Selectmen unanimously agreed Wednesday night to join with neighboring Rumford in a project that may help boost both towns’ economic climates.

The decision to hold a joint meeting with the Rumford selectmen came after presentations by Linda Walbridge, who is the economic developer for Community Concepts under the Western Maine Economic Development Council, and Mike McClellan, Maine director for the Fast Forward Main Street project.

The Fast Forward program was established after Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana. The Rumford-Mexico project is one of four pilots being spearheaded by the nonprofit Fast Forward program. The others are in Michigan, Georgia and Louisiana. The Maine project is the smallest of the four.

Rumford selectmen agreed to join in the project last month.

Walbridge said the Rumford-Mexico area has an 18 percent unemployment rate, which is the highest in Oxford County.

“Our small businesses in this area are desperate,” she said.

Under the program, McClellan and other experts would work with 30 Rumford-Mexico businesses and the hospital to improve the business climate over a period of two years.

The Fast Forward project will apply for state and federal grants of $200,000 per year to go toward improving economic and community development.

The high unemployment rate “has been a downward spiral, not a big wave. It’s almost as insidious,” Walbridge said. The plan calls for creating a leadership team of businesses, economic development and civic organizations, and others, to set goals for boosting the economy.

McClellan, who will coordinate the Rumford-Mexico project, said greater details will be worked out at the joint meeting of the boards of the two towns, likely in early January.

“This is a great opportunity for us,” board Chairwoman Barbara Laramee said.

In other matters, a survey to measure the percentage of low and moderate income people living in the town is virtually complete. It shows that Mexico more than met the requirement that would eliminate the need to pay back a Community Development Block Grant it sponsored to help with the establishment of the River Valley Technology Center in Rumford.

When the town received $400,000 to help with the technology center work a few years ago, it was with the requirement that 40 jobs be created at the center. Although that many have been created, not all have remained, and therefore were not counted.

With the survey showing that 61 percent of Mexico residents were low or middle income, the job creation requirement of that grant was changed so that it does not have to be repaid.

Receiving the new grant designation also means that Mexico can now apply for other Community Development Block Grants.

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