ROXBURY – Sitting in the old municipal building off Route 17 Friday morning, Town Clerk Christine “Tina” Howard said she wished more attention was devoted to the town’s more pressing problems rather than fire department issues.

Concerns like finding money to develop more land for a needed cemetery, getting the new municipal building/fire station built, fixing the town’s 13 miles of roads, and resolving time issues, all weighed heavily on her mind just two days after a special town meeting that dealt mainly with the fire department.

“I know this sounds cruel, but this town can survive without a volunteer fire department, but we cannot survive without a town office,” Howard said.

Howard said the town office roof “started leaking here a few years ago, but in the past year, it got worse. It’s all rotten and moldy up there. Then, the mold spread and the tiles fell. I read that brown mold is one of the worst things, and it’s worst when it’s dry, and it’s throughout this entire building.”

At Wednesday night’s two-hour special town meeting in the fire station, a majority passed three warrant articles and defeated a fourth.

“It was a mob scene. It drew a crowd of over 100 people to try to decide an issue on a 32-year-old firetruck, when we have a brand new one that no one’s taken any interest in,” Howard said.

Article 2, which sought to authorize selectmen to transfer funds from a savings account to the summer roads account to cover costs of town road repairs, was approved after a majority amended it, capping the transfer amount at $3,000.

Howard said the rainy-day savings account, which hasn’t had money put into it or taken from it since 1997, had a balance of $10,217.

The third article asked voters to authorize selectmen to transfer funds from the same savings account to the fire department’s operating account, which, as of Friday, had a balance of $334 with three months remaining in the town’s fiscal year.

It passed after much discussion, most of which pertained to Article 4’s issue, which asked residents to place the 1974 International Bean firetruck out to bid. It failed by a vote of 33 yes, 43 no.

Residents then OK’d Article 5, authorizing selectmen to accept donations or gifts on behalf of the fire department.

“It was an awesome turnout,” Roxbury fire Chief Jim Theriault said Friday afternoon. Both Howard and Theriault said they were surprised that people allowed both sides of issues to be presented.

Still, Howard cited Theriault for causing most of the problems that required a special town meeting, and Theriault, in turn, bristled about Howard’s comments, saying he only reports to selectmen, not the clerk.

Howard blamed him for overspending the operation and equipment accounts; Theriault partially blamed himself, saying he thought he had permission to do so.

“I was buying stuff that the department needed,” he said of equipment and training.

“Training is one of the biggest expenses. It’s mandated. We have to do it, and the town has to pay that. It ain’t my fault,” the chief said.

He told voters he’s applied for an $80,000 grant, which, if he gets it, will pay for everything the department needs, so he can get rid of equipment that’s nearly 40 years old, and return borrowed stuff.