 Francisco Faria, then the mayor, tried to modernize it, by razing the beautiful church square and building a Brasília-style one on its place, asphalt-paving streets and avenues and the modern prefeitura or city hall.Two new state elementary, middle/high schools were also built and the São Paulo Central Electric Co. built the Xavantes dam or "usina" in the Paranapema river, which would send power to states as far as Mato Grosso.In the 1980s and 1990s with the Cruzeiro and Cruzado currencies devaluation, the Chavantes's industrial park almost disappeared and the town may have grown in number of houses only, due to state or city housing programs.