MEXICO — The town’s annual report will be dedicated to Rich Plante, a longtime teacher at Meroby Elementary School and a part-time newspaper freelancer, selectmen decided Tuesday night.

Plante, who died last year, was very active in municipal affairs, including the Planning Board, as a volunteer with the local access channel and on the Oxford County Bicentennial Committee, among other organizations.

Town Manager John Madigan said the annual report, which covers fiscal year July 1, 2009, to June 30, 2010, will be ready for distribution a week or so prior to the annual town meeting in June.

The board also decided to emphasize the number of new businesses that have opened in town during the past few years by using photographs of them in the town report. Among those to be included are the mini-mall, the Verizon building on Main Street and Waugh’s Electric on the Roxbury Road. Madigan said several others may also be pictured.

In other matters on Tuesday, the town learned that a Community Development Block Grant that would provide funding to replace several sewer and water lines may be in jeopardy because of the fiscal difficulties the federal government is experiencing.

The town had hoped to begin work on a road project this spring that calls for replacing water and sewer lines with federal money, followed by construction and paving work of those streets using funds from a bond.

Madigan said he will know later whether the town will receive any portion of the $500,000 he had requested in the CDBG. If the town receives some federal funding, then he said the planned project could be split into two projects.

Madigan said Northern Oxford Regional Solid Waste returned $15,000 to the town because of the higher prices the organization received for recyclable materials.

The more recycling residents do, the less it will cost towns to dispose of their garbage, he said.

The annual spring cleanup will take place April 11-29.

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