OXFORD – An old one-bay fire barn and two former schools are among buildings the Board of Selectmen may seek to sell as it reviews the town’s property rolls.
“We’ve got too many pieces of property around town we don’t have any use for, and we’ve got to get rid of some of it,” Chairman Floyd Thayer said at a meeting Thursday. The board perused a list of 32 lots and buildings identified as town property by Town Manager Michael Chammings.
While the list included a few properties mistakenly assumed to be town-owned, former Selectman Lois Pike said she had a list that includes more land and will present it to Chammings for a future meeting.
The story-and-a-half fire barn is across King Street from the closed Robinson Manufacturing Co. woolen mill.
One schoolhouse, which is farther up King Street, was used as the town office. It has been the home of the Thompson Lake Environmental Association for a number of years and named for Vera T. Stanton, who once taught school there.
The second schoolhouse on the list is the Emugene Staples hall in Welchville village. Formerly the Welchville school, it had been the Fire Department’s bingo hall for years. It could be sold or even partially demolished, with voter approval. It has been discussed by the selectmen recently as the town has continued looking at ways to bring more buildings into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
According to a U.S. Department of Justice Web site, this federal act has since 1992 required state and local governments to “ensure that individuals with disabilities are not excluded from services, programs and activities because existing buildings are inaccessible.”
A study completed in January found accessibility issues with all the town’s structures, including the new Oxford Public Safety Building on Route 26 that houses the police, fire and rescue departments.
In other business, the board directed Chammings to consult with a representative of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection to find out whether there may be alternatives to expensive repairs proposed for the Welchville Dam on the Little Androscoggin River.
According to estimates submitted by Kleinschmidt Energy & Water Resource Consultants of Pittsfield, the town may have to spend between $75,000 and $400,000 to fix leaks in the dam.
Chammings said the dam is not in need of emergency repairs at this time, but he encouraged selectmen to act soon rather than waiting and spending more money on repairs over time.
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