MECHANIC FALLS — The Town Council voted Monday night to accept a federal loan to buy the former medical building in Depot Square for town offices and the library.

The purchase of the former Central Maine Medical Center building at 22 Pleasant St. was approved by voters in November. The medical practice closed in September 2017.

The loan is from USDA Rural Development, a program to improve the economy and quality of life in rural America. 

The town will close on the purchase in two weeks. 

Town Manager Koriene Low said the building needs interior work and town officials hope to be in it by early fall. 

“It depends on contractor bids,” Low said. 

No plans have been made for the municipal building, which was the former Mechanic Falls High School, on Lewiston Street. 

The council also approved scheduling a tri-county softball tournament to benefit Sexual Assault Response Services and waived the fee to use to use the town fields. 

The council approved Fire and Rescue Chief Fred Sturtevant’s request to accept the donation of a 6-by-6 Army truck from Brian Hogan. The only cost to the town would be upkeep and insurance, Sturtevant said. It will replace a department vehicle. 

“I think we’ll have to put a little money into it down the road,” Sturtevant said.

He said the forestry truck would come in handy because “more things are happening in the woods than there used to be.”

Low also announced that an advertisement and posting for the position of town manager has been created and will be put up April 17 with an application deadline of May 4. 

Low will step down from the position Aug. 30. 

Nomination papers are available for two Town Council positions and two Regional School Unit 16 positions. They will be voted on June 12.