OXFORD — Robinson Mill could be shored up and sold if the town can get a Community Development Block Grant, Town Manager Michael Chammings said Thursday.

The matching grant could award the town $250,000 for a $50,000 contribution. Chammings said that would be used for “meat and potato work” meant to stabilize the former woolen mill and make it attractive to potential buyers.

“We’re not trying to rebuild the whole building,” Chammings told residents at a public hearing before Thursday’s meeting of the Board of Selectmen.

Chammings said a nonprofit group must apply for block grants, so selectmen appointed a committee Thursday to serve as a nonprofit group to apply for the grant. The town will sign a contract in which the newly formed committee, called the Oxford Economic Community Action Agency, will own the mill for purposes of getting the grant and rehabilitating the mill on the shore of Thompson Lake.

Once the mill has been fixed up and sold, the proceeds would go back to the town and the nonprofit group would likely be dissolved.

Chammings said another option would have been to ask an existing nonprofit organization such as Community Concepts or the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments to apply for the grant for the town, but an outside group might not have the town’s best interests in mind.

Selectmen voted to appoint Oxford residents Dennis Fournier, Peter Laverdiere and Ron Kugell to the committee and approved a motion to commit $50,000 to the program, $30,000 of which is already in a reserve fund meant to clean up sludge from a leach field at the site.

Chammings said if the Oxford Economic Community Action Agency is awarded the grant, $30,000 of the grant money would still be spent on sludge cleanup.

The group can have up to 10 members. Oxford residents can pick up applications to join the committee at the Oxford Town Hall. Next Wednesday, the Board of Selectmen will hold a special meeting at 6:30 p.m. to approve a contract giving control of the mill to the agency.

If the group isn’t awarded the grant, it will dissolve and the mill’s ownership will go back to the town.

Oxford foreclosed on the mill property in 2009 due to nonpayment of $244,920 in taxes over three years. Selectmen voted 3-2 to take possession of the 7.5-acre property after its owner, John C. Robinson, failed to make an $80,000 payment on an installment plan to pay off a $162,970.88 lien.

Chammings said the nonpayment of taxes is a loss for the town, and selling the mill is a chance to make that money back and get the mill back on the tax rolls.

The town will retain control of the dam next to the mill.

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