The Rumford-Mexico Active Community Environment Team is looking at a section of land near the picnic area of the Hosmer Field walking trail as a possible location for a bridge connecting Rumford and Mexico over the Swift River. The ACE team is meeting from 2:30 to 4 p.m. Thursday, May 12, at the Parks Department building at 602 Hosmer Lane to continue discussion on the issue.  

RUMFORD — A local group is looking at land near the picnic area of the Hosmer Field walking trail as a possible location for a recreational bridge over the Swift River.

The Rumford-Mexico Active Community Environment Team will discuss the site at its meeting from 2:30 to 4 p.m. Thursday, May 12, in the Parks Department’s Skate House at Hosmer Field, 602 Hosmer Lane.

The effort to build a bridge began four years ago when Carl Constanzi, program coordinator for the “Let’s Go! 5-2-1-0” program in Oxford County, received a Community Transformation Grant that created environment teams for Rumford-Mexico, South Paris, Bethel and Sacopee Valley.

One of the projects the Rumford-Mexico team chose was building a recreational bridge a short distance north of the Hosmer Field complex, the site where a wooden covered bridge, built in 1870, was destroyed 30 years later by a windstorm. The bridge connected Rumford and Mexico. The bridge would be used for hiking, biking and snowmobiling.

Since the beginning of the year, the ACE team has narrowed possible sites to two plots Rumford owns on each side of the river.

Team member Barbara Rajaniemi said the group has looked at the site of the 1870 bridge abutments, but is now considering the site near the Hosmer Field picnic area.

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