ROXBURY — A resident who lives near Roxbury Pond asked the Board of Selectmen Tuesday evening to consider installing speed bumps near Roxbury Pond.
Resident Stan Kaubris asked the Board of Selectmen how much money they spend on police coverage from the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office.
Chairman John Sutton told Kaubris that the town has not spent any additional funds on police coverage from the Sheriff’s Office, and that any coverage that they do receive is part of Sheriff Wayne Gallant’s annual budget for the county.
“The board had an article placed on the annual town meeting warrant asking residents if they wished to spend additional money to get more police coverage, and the residents overwhelmingly rejected that article,” Sutton pointed out to Kaubris.
Kaubris said that throughout the summer, he has noticed “a large number of cars and four-wheelers driving crazy and way over the speed limit,” and that he wanted to find out if the Sheriff’s Office could increase their presence to stop the speeding.
“I’m guessing that a large number of these people are out-of-staters who are staying at Roxbury Pond,” Kaubris said. “A lot of these people from out-of-state come up here and think, ‘We’re here on vacation, so we can drive however we want to drive.’”
While he lauded the town for the signage near Roxbury Pond warning drivers to drive slow, Kaubris said that something else needed to be done about the large number of people driving at excessive speeds.
“If any one of you want to come and sit on my porch to watch the cars driving through Roxbury Pond, you’ll see what I’m talking about,” Kaubris said. “At least 60 percent of the cars are driving over the speed limit. Someone is going to get killed one of these days, whether it’s a kid riding a bike or someone walking their dog.”
Sutton asked Kaubris if he ever called Gallant to tell him about the issue.
“I’m not trying to pass the buck or anything, but the sheriff is in control of allocating his officers, and he said that when there is a problem area in the county, he looks at how many complaints have been made,” Sutton said.
Kaubris admitted that he hadn’t called Gallant about the issue, but that he would do it in the near future.
“The problem is, I’m not sure anybody else would make the call to complain,” Kaubris said.
Later in the meeting, Kaubris told the selectmen that he would pay for the first speed bump to be installed.
“That’s how serious I am about this issue,” Kaubris said.
Selectman Tim DeRouche told Kaubris that a speed bump would likely cost “somewhere between $3,000 and $4,000, including signage.”
“I’ll pay it, just to get them in there,” Kaubris said. “If you could see how fast some of those cars are going, you would see how scary it is.”
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