RUMFORD — The town is receiving a $3 million federal grant to support a child care and community center in the former Rumford Elementary School.

Town Manager George O’Keefe announced that the town received the deed Thursday to take over the school at 121 Lincoln Ave. that closed after the new Mountain Valley Community School opened in Mexico last month.

The money is part of $8.4 million in Congressionally Directed Spending for Maine after-school, child care and educational programs. The bills, which passed the Senate last week and were approved by the House of Representatives earlier this week, have been signed into law.

“The town is extremely grateful to Senator Collins for her tremendous efforts on behalf of our community to secure $3 million in federal funding,” O’Keefe said Thursday, “for the conversion of Rumford Elementary School into a child care facility and the nucleus of a community center, which will, in the future, see further expansion with community center facilities that ultimately will be designed to replace our community center.”

O’Keefe said the Greater Rumford Community Center provided a letter of support to this request that was made by the town to U.S. Sen. Susan Collins for the federal money.

“Our ability to continue to collaborate and work with Gary (Dolloff, director) and Mindy (Gorham, chairperson) at the GRCC has been a source of tremendous pride and very important as the town continues to move forward to provide a new community center for our town,” O’Keefe said.

He said the initial conversion project will help the town “rebuild from the past 50 years of population loss which we experienced. And the reality of our situation is that if we don’t increase the ability of child care services in our community, we will not be able to grow.”

O’Keefe has said the town is working on getting more people to move to Rumford in hopes that a larger population will entice businesses to come back, and the community to grow as a whole. Part of that work has been building new housing.

“And this project will be the single most important step forward to ensure that young families can continue to move into our community, to develop in our community, to grow, thrive and prosper,” he said.