OXFORD — Longtime Selectman Scott Owens is resigning as of Sept. 21, it was announced at Thursday night’s board meeting.
The chairman has two years left in his term.
Asked after the meeting what prompted his decision, Owens said, “I don’t have time.”
The announcement came at the end of the meeting. It was unclear how the vacancy will be handled.
Selectmen unanimously appointed Butch Asselin as town manager and he was sworn into office. He will begin his duties Monday.
Becky Lippincott, who was interim town manager, will resume her duties as finance clerk. She was lauded for her work with the board.
“Becky did an awesome job,” Owens said.
In another development, Lippincott announced that Planning Board Chairman Stuart Davis and member Dennis Fournier have submitted their resignations, but their reasons were unclear.
They come after a 3-2 vote last week — Davis and Fournier were the dissenters — that gave the third and final marijuana grow permit to Stevenson Enterprises Inc. of 517 Main St. The buildings are being leased by Actnow GC Inc. and subleased to tenants who wish to cultivate medical marijuana.
The Planning Board met Aug. 10 to determine whether they had given the permit to Stevenson Enterprises Inc. at a previous meeting, as the 517 Main St. occupants believed, or not. Following 90 minutes of debate, three of five members agreed they had voted to award the permit with one contingency. The contingency has since been met, according to Code Enforcement Officer Joelle Corey-Whitman.
Davis and Fournier said they did not believe a vote to award the third and final marijuana grow permit had been previously given to Stevenson Enterprises. The grow site is a nonconforming building, but attorneys for its owners and tenants have argued that a precedent was set when the Planning Board gave a medical marijuana grow permit to the owner of another building, then believed to be in noncompliance with setback requirements.
Davis and Fournier said they did not believe a vote to award the third and final marijuana grow permit had been previously given to Actnow GC Inc.
Former Planning Board Chairman Walt Mosher resigned in June, which leaves just three members. There are two alternates who can give the board a quorum.
In other business, selectmen signed the 2017 Oxford County Hazard Mitigation resolution that creates a multi-jurisdictional plan in Oxford County and is being adopted by selectmen in each town. Although the plan details work on eight Oxford roads, including Robinson Hill, East Oxford, Number Six, Paine, Noble, Coldwater Brook, Hebron and Webber Brook, the work is pending $500,000.
A group of residents asked about the progress on the Welchville Dam, which an engineer said is in imminent danger of collapsing.
Owens told them the board is reviewing the engineering report and its options. Any work would probably not begin until fall of 2018.
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