OXFORD – Detective Lt. Jon Tibbetts of the Oxford Police Department was appointed interim chief by the Board of Selectmen on Thursday after Ron Kugell’s retirement, which was effective March 15.
Kugell served as chief for more than 40 years.
Selectmen appointed Tibbetts, a 12-year veteran of the Oxford police force, at their regular meeting. Tibbetts was not at the meeting due to a death in his family.
Town Manager Michael Chammings said the police chief position will be posted within one month.
In other business, selectmen voted to put three town buildings up for sale, despite a proposal by the Thompson Lake Environmental Association to donate one of those buildings to the group.
The Emugene Staples Community Hall at 136 Schoolhouse Road and the Vera P. Stanton building at 345 King St. will be listed with a Realtor, and the old one-bay fire station at 284 King St. will be put out for bid.
The Stanton building currently is used for 10 meetings per year by the lake association, which has paid the town $1 per year since 1994 to use it. Members have said at past meetings they are concerned about being turned out of the building by a new owner.
Christopher Pottle, treasurer of the association, asked the selectmen to consider donating the building to the group in exchange for a “reasonable sum” that would be paid to the town in lieu of property taxes.
“We believe we have been good stewards of the Vera Stanton schoolhouse and are grateful to the town for allowing us to use it,” he said.
“If this proposal is going to go nowhere, we would appreciate hearing about it as soon as possible so we have time to consider an alternative proposal,” he said.
However, Chammings and the selectmen said a sale of all three properties would benefit the town because it would raise revenue that would help prevent future property tax hikes.
The association will be given first refusal rights, a provision that requires a property owner to give a party the first opportunity to purchase or lease a property before it is offered for sale or lease to others.
Chammings, the selectmen and the Cemetery Committee also asked residents to attend a Cemetery Committee meeting at 6 p.m. March 22 at the town office to discuss and try and clear up long-standing confusion in town that residents who live in the vicinity of Webber Brook Cemetery are entitled to free burial plots.
Olive Sanborn, committee chairwoman, said some residents were promised years ago that they would be given free burial plots when they die, although the circumstances about who told them and why are murky. Sanborn said burial plots in all other town cemeteries carry a fee of $175 for “perpetual care” of the plot, and the same fee will apply to plots at Webber Brook going forward.
“What we are trying to do is make it fair,” she said. No fee will be charged to any family member who already has a relative buried at Webber Brook.
Selectman Dave Ivey said the town has a list of 22 residents who were promised free plots .
Sanborn said each situation will be handled on a “case-by-case” basis.
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