MEXICO — Fire chief Mat Theriault told the Select Board on Nov. 19, “We’ve been working with the building committee and the architect on the new fire station. We’ve gotten it down to what the grant will cover, but we’re still tweaking it, even though it’s a rough draft.”

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently selected the town of Mexico to receive disaster repair funding to replace its fire station.

The town suffered extensive damages in storm-related flooding in December 2023. At that time floodwaters inundated the existing fire station, damaging offices, meeting rooms, sleeping quarters, and equipment. The new fire station will provide more effective and efficient services to area residents following any future natural disasters.

Theriault said, “We’re waiting on the USDA grant because eventually we’re going to have to pay the architect more money or he’s going to stop doing stuff. We don’t have that money yet. He’s still doing stuff right now, but said he’s going to run out pretty soon.”

Town Manager Raquel Welch-Day said the USDA grant will be $4.5 million, but that grant has to be 75 percent of the project cost. That would mean a fire station project would have to be $6 million. At that amount, she said the town would have to borrow between $1 million to $1.5 million.

At the 2021 annual town meeting, Mexico voters approved an article to spend up to $110,000 out of surplus to purchase land for a public safety building. The town paid $100,000 for the site — the former Waleik’s Field parcel — 20 acres located along the Roxbury Road and the Swift River.

The plan is to build the fire station there.