OXFORD – At least two challengers and one incumbent are running for the two open selectmen seats to be decided at the March 13 town meeting.

Head Selectman David Ivey, former Selectwoman Lois Pike and challenger Dennis Heino are in the contest. Scott Owens has also expressed an interest in running for selectman. Owens could not be reached Friday. Long-time Selectman Roger Smedberg isn’t seeking reelection.

Get people involved

Ivey, 45, of Whittemore Road, says that if elected, he’ll continue the style of open-discussion meetings that he’s presided over during his past three years on the board. “I love it,” he said. “I’ve always been a strong proponent of getting people involved in the town government.

Ivey said Oxford is “one of the fastest-growing towns in the area, with tons of new housing starts going on.”

He says he’s glad that the newly-formed Economic Growth Committee has been created to focus on business development projects in town, including the proposed Oxford Hills Business Park on Route 26.

Ivey and his wife Anne are proud of their daughter, Amanda, who recently became the state champion in classic and freestyle Nordic skiing. Ivey, who has an active interest in athletics, is president of the Oxford Hills Athletic Boosters.

Ivey said he’s grateful for the sound direction and advice he was given by Smedberg, former selectman Caldwell Jackson, and current selectman Dennis Sanborn.

“Those guys have been great to work with. You couldn’t ask for better guys.”

Talk things out

Dennis Heino, 50, of 51 Jenny Lane, is making his first bid for a selectman’s seat.

“I’m normally sitting there (at selectmen meetings) in the back row, so I might as well run,” he said. More often than not, his wife, Beth, the dispatcher for the Oxford Police Department, is at his side.

Heino said he has had a lot of people ask him to run, especially so he could represent the north end of Oxford, where he runs a garage.

“I hear a lot of people talk and voice their opinions” in the course of his workday, he said.

Heino said he knows how to listen and how not to get upset, but to become a team player. “You do a lot better by talking things out,” he said.

Heino sees Oxford as facing a big challenge in rising tax rates.

“This seems to be the place where a lot of people want to be,” he said of the town.

‘Say it the way it is’

Lois Pike wants to return to the board, despite having developed the reputation of being the “1” in many 4-1 votes.

“I enjoy the town government part. And I really do think that we do need a woman’s perspective,” Pike said. She recently was reappointed to the Budget Committee, which pleased her, she said.

“I really like bookkeeping. I like looking for those mistakes.”

Pike, 59, served on the original Solid Waste Committee and is still active in transfer station affairs – and not just because her husband Randy is the transfer station manager.

She has also served on the Fire and Rescue Committee for over 17 years.

It’s not often that Pike misses a selectman’s meeting. “I think it comes from my father being in town government” when she was growing up in Falmouth.

She is known for asking for answers on some hard questions. “If I’m elected people will know I’m going to say it the way it is. As long as you have your facts, you’re fine. I’d like to think there won’t be as many 4-1 votes this time around, though.”

In another contest, the SAD 17 Board has two three-year terms and one one-year term available. Incumbents Ron Kugell and Kerry Halterman are running again for the three-year seats. The one-year term is due to the resignation of Dorothy Millett.

Olive Sanborn, a former SAD 17 bus driver and the wife of Selectman Dennis Sanborn, is running for a school board seat. The town has checked with legal counsel about a possible conflict of interest and was told that there would be no conflict of interest because the school district is not a department of the town.