Roger White, left, owner of White’s Yardworks in Rumford, and employees Dale Korhonen and Chris DeSalle work Saturday on assembling bricks in the pattern of an American flag in Veterans Memorial Green in Mexico. The 48- by 25-foot creation is expected to be completed this week. Bruce Farrin/Rumford Falls Times
MEXICO — Residents and visitors to town will soon be greeted by Old Glory, a creation made of red, white and blue bricks on the banking of the Veterans Memorial Green on Main Street.
The 48-by 25-foot American flag is expected to be completed this week by White Yardworks of Rumford, replacing the Town of Mexico sign that has been in place for decades.
Owner Roger White said Mexico Historical Society member Dave Gawtry asked if he could repair the town sign.
“I looked at it and it was beyond repair,” White said. “I told him there was really nothing I could do with that, but I would come up with something over the winter.”
He said he’d been wanting to do a flag for a couple of years. “And I thought about it and said this would be a good place, so I came up with a couple of ideas and showed (employee) Chris (DeSalle) and this was the one we came up with to do.”
When he met with Gawtry and Mexico Town Manager Raquel Welch he told Gawtry, “I’ll do it under one condition. It’s not going to say the Town of Mexico because every town has one of those. They’re all over the state. You see them everywhere.”
White said he showed him the sketch of the American flag he wanted to do and Gawtry loved the idea, but said, “We’ve got no money, no budget.”
“I’ll donate it,” White said, including materials and labor, with held employees DeSalle and Dale Korhonen.
Welch approved the project after getting support of selectmen, but White asked her not to mention it during a board meeting because he wanted to keep the project a secret for as long as he could.
“This is definitely the biggest donation I’ve ever done, and hands down, the most expensive one,” White said Saturday while working on the project. “The main reason I chose this spot is because this is my 25th year in business. So I wanted to do something nice in my hometown because I’m from Mexico. I’m a Pinto, a member of the Mexico High School Class of 1986.
“I didn’t want to do a basic flag,” White said. “I want it to look like an old American flag. We try to think outside the box. I come up with these ideas and always run it through Chris. We brainstorm, come up with a game plan, and change it as we go.”
The Town of Mexico sign at Veterans Memorial Green, which greeted visitors for decades, is being replaced by an American flag formed in colored bricks. Rumford Falls Times file photo
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