MEXICO — The Board of Selectmen voted 3-1 Tuesday to sell an apartment complex on Osgood Avenue to a local reverend for $1 so he can restore it.

The building was originally set to be demolished, and the Board of Selectmen were discussing bids for the demolition when the Rev. Carl Cutting of Roxbury Road stood up and told the board that he had a proposal.

“I say you don’t demolish the building, but instead give it to me for a dollar,” Cutting said. “I’ll do the work and put it back on the tax roll for the town. It would save the town $12,000 in demolition fees, and save the town all the heartache of losing a building.”

Cutting said he talked with the residents in the surrounding neighborhood, and besides one person who wished for the building to be demolished, everyone was in agreement that it would be a nice place for people to live if it were fixed up.

Selectman George Byam asked Cutting what his plans were for the building.

“I have the means to fix up the whole building,” Cutting told Byam. “I have a lot of friends who have more carpentry skills than I have. These people have been in construction for a long time. They have backhoes, bulldozers, all kinds of stuff.”

Byam said the town has sold the building “once or twice before” and “nobody ever followed through on what they said they would.”

“I’m a pastor,” Cutting replied, “and when I give my word, it’s a yes. Not a no, not a maybe, but a yes. Ask anybody in town.”

Selectman Reggie Arsenault asked fire Chief Gary Wentzell whether the building was salvageable.

“Nope,” Wentzell said. “I’ve talked to three different people who went through that building, and they all said the same thing. The back is really, really bad, and the front is being eaten away by carpenter ants or termites. It’s been kicking around for 25 years, and nobody’s done anything about it. I think it should be torn down, but that’s just my opinion.”

Cutting told Wentzell, “I checked the whole front of the building, and there’s not even a roof leak. I jumped on the floors and they didn’t move. Normally, if a floor is riddled with carpenter ants or termites, the floor should bounce up and down, the structure should leak — but it doesn’t do that.”

One resident said selectmen should give Cutting a chance to fix the building, since they have nothing to lose.

“Give him a year to do it, at no cost, and just trust him to do it,” the resident said. “If he doesn’t do what he says in a year, you’re right back where you started now, and you made a dollar.”

Selectman Byron Ouellette said, “I think we should consider his offer, but with stipulations and a time limit, because we don’t want to go back over the same road as we did before. As long as he does what he says he does, it sounds like a good deal to me.”

Byam, Ouellette and Selectman Peter Merrill voted in favor of letting Cutting buy the building for a dollar, while Arsenault opposed the idea.

In other business, selectman voted to table discussion on whether to renew the liquor license for Tommy Gun’s Pit Stop.

Discussion on the liquor license came to a standstill after a resident asked whether liquor licenses can be granted to individuals who still owe back taxes to the town. According to the town report, Clarence Tompkins, the owner of Tommy Gun’s, still owes back taxes. The liquor license for the bar expires July 1.

Arsenault made a motion for the board to refrain from granting Tompkins the liquor license until his back taxes were paid and table discussion until the July 23 selectmen’s meeting.

The board approved Arsenault’s motion on a 3-2 vote; Arsenault, Merrill and Chairman Richie Philbrick voted in favor, while Byam and Ouellette voted against it.

After the vote, Wentzell told the board, “I think that if he pays his back taxes before July 1, he should be granted the liquor license. I’d hate to see a business shut down. It’s not like we have an overabundance of them.”

Arsenault amended his motion to include a provision that would allow Tompkins to receive his liquor license if he paid his back taxes instead of waiting until the July 23 selectmen meeting. The board approved the vote 4-1, with Ouellette in opposition.

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