MEXICO – The Board of Selectmen unanimously voted Tuesday evening to appoint Josh Elwood as a full-time officer for the Police Department.

In addition, the board also voted to appoint Derek McDonald as a reserve police officer.  According to police Chief James Theriault, McDonald is a criminal justice major at Husson University and has completed the first two steps of his major.

“The third and final step is for him to be hired somewhere and complete 80 hours of on-the-job training,” Theriault said. “I think he’ll do a fine job.”

In other business, selectmen unanimously voted to approve a taxicab license for Gilbert Scott, who also owns the buy, sell or trade shop on Congress Street in Rumford. Scott said he and his wife used to run a taxicab business in Berlin, N.H.

Selectman George Byam asked Scott what his goal was in bringing his business, called EZ Taxi, to Mexico.

“We want to provide people here with affordable rates, good service and good conversation,” he said.

“We ran the business in Berlin for eight years,” Scott continued, “and after awhile, we moved to Rumford and bought the buy, sell and trade shop on Congress Street. We invested the money we made into opening EZ Taxi.”

As of Tuesday evening, Scott said he only had one taxi, and that if he plans to expand the business, he’ll let them know beforehand.

“We’re not out to hurt anybody,” Scott said.

Upon voting to approve the taxicab license, Chairman Richie Philbrick said, “Hey, we’re like you. We want people to have good service.  Good luck to you.”

The board also scheduled a workshop for 6 p.m. March 5 to discuss the state of the town’s budget before developing one for the coming year.

“We need a chance to meet up and look at everything before we begin the budget process in mid-March,” Philbrick said. “We’ll need to have a big discussion, since there’s a lot to go over.”

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