WATERFORD – Citing divisiveness in the town and the subsequent strain on his family, Whizzer Wheeler announced his immediate resignation from the Board of Selectmen Wednesday.
“It wasn’t a pleasant decision,” Wheeler said in a phone interview, adding that he felt this was the best course for himself, his wife, and the town.
Wheeler has been the subject of a recall effort by the citizen group Take Back our Waterford in recent months. He has come to realize, “You don’t always please everybody,” Wheeler said. But more importantly his wife has become “so upset with all of the personal attacks by some very ugly people” that he decided to step down, Wheeler said.
Besides personal attacks, Wheeler claims his wife was approached at the post office and asked to sign the group’s petition calling for a recall of her husband.
“She’s afraid to go to the post office. She’s afraid to open the newspaper,” Wheeler said.
The final straw in Wheeler’s decision to resign came at Monday’s comprehensive plan committee meeting. Wheeler said he asked the committee to be included in drafting an ordinance regarding building permits, which he said would have greatly helped selectmen in their role as tax assessors.
The committee disregarded Wheeler’s opinion on the ordinance, cementing his feeling that the town is “too fraught with bitterness and divisiveness,” Wheeler said.
Wheeler pledged his support to remaining selectmen Norman Rust and David Rowe.
Rust declined to comment on Wheeler’s resignation, but said whether to elect another selectman immediately or wait for the March town meeting would be the topic of Monday’s board meeting. Had he not resigned, Wheeler’s three-year term would have ended in March 2007.
Rickie Hall, a member of Take Back our Waterford, said that the group is looking into who might have approached Wheeler’s wife with a petition.
“We would never want to upset his wife,” she said. “That was never the intention of the group.”
Hall said that the group had collected 140 signatures on its petition, well over the 127 needed to force a recall vote.
The citizens’ group is talking to “somebody who is very popular in town” and who might be convinced to run for selectman, Hall said. But so far nobody has stepped forward to accept the group’s nomination to replace Wheeler.
He has worked at the town office almost every day of his 2 years on the board, Wheeler said. During tax season he spent up to six hours a day working for the town, he said. Beyond that the role of selectman involves receiving phone calls from residents at all hours of the night, Wheeler said.
He too, wasn’t sure who might want to take his place, Wheeler said.
The way he was treated by those opposed to him makes him worry, he said.
“I don’t know how anybody’s going to get anybody to run for office,” Wheeler said.
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