MEXICO — The new town recreation director is making a drive to the basket with his vision for the department.

“We are now currently starting a basketball league for the winter,” said Wayne Sevigny, who was named to the post in August.

The program for children in kindergarten through sixth grade has close to 100 kids registered to play, he said.

Sevigny will be working with volunteers on Saturday to improve the gym, including work on backboards so they can be lowered and raised.

“The backboards are in really good shape,” he said. “We just need to weld them and work on them a little to get them to lower.”

Sevigny also has plans to paint the ceiling and walls of the gym and is trying to see how expensive it would be to resurface the gym floor.

He has also been in contact with Jack Gibson, who instituted the Marshall L. and Ruth-Anne Gibson Municipal Charitable Program, in securing a $10,000 grant for the recreation department.

“It looks like we are going to receive that grant money but not until March,” Sevigny said.

Sue Mills, safety voucher coordinator with the Rumford Paper Co., also informed Sevigny that the department would be receiving grant money through its Safety Voucher Grant Program.

The company retired the grant but still has funds to distribute locally. Mills said the money will go for new dugouts at the recreation park. The company has also built dugouts at Hosmer Field in Rumford and Marble Park in Dixfield.

Mills said safety vouchers are given to employees, and businesses that recognize those vouchers give 10 percent of the sale back to the safety fund.

“We work with those local vendors through the grant program,” Mills said. “We try to give back to the businesses. It’s a big circle and staying local is a big part of the program.”

Mills said they are working with Puiia’s Lumber in Mexico to get the supplies for the dugout.

“I also believe we have Rumford Paper Co. employees that will be volunteering to help build the dugouts” she said.

Sevigny has been working to gain volunteers, support and grant money to build successful programs for the department. He has already organized a soccer program and improvements to the recreation park.

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