ROXBURY — Voters at Sunday’s annual town meeting will decide several issues involving the Town Office building, including the generator, an electric sign, the heating system and roof repair.

The meeting will begin at noon at the Town Office at 1095 Roxbury Road.

Tax Collector and Treasurer Renee Hodsdon said the proposed municipal budget for 2022-23 is $588,475, a drop from last year’s $671,809, largely due to the final $110,000 payment for a road bond in November.

It does not include assessments for Oxford County and Regional School Unit 10.

Last year’s meeting was held in the parking lot due to COVID-19 pandemic.

Tim Derouche, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, said he’s hoping Sunday’s meeting will be indoors, but they’re preparing for outdoors again also. “It depends on what the (latest) CDC guidelines are, including what the number can be (inside),” he said.

Advertisement

The warrant includes 82 articles of which several address issues at the Town Office. One asks for $2,900 for maintenance and repair for the town building generator.

“We put in a new generator last year in the Town Office so it could be used as a place for people in case of an emergency,” Derouche said. “No emergency has come up yet, but it does come on when we lose power.”

Another article asks for $10,000 from the town’s allotment of the federal American Rescue Plan Act to purchase an electronic sign for the Town Office.

“We expect that to be around $27,000 to $30,000,” Derouche said. “We raised some monies, so this ($10,000) should be enough to do the job this year.”

A third article calls for $39,000 for the town building repair account, up from the $20,000 appropriation the year before.

“We have a boiler issue with the heat system, and they’re recommending changing that out,” Derouche said. “Because of that boiler, it’s damaged the roof. We’re going to have a full inspection of that and repair whatever is needed on both issues.”

Advertisement

Article 57 would give selectmen authority to apply for state financing to replace the floating dock access on Ellis Pond, with the town raising $25,000 for all or part of the local share.

“We have a donated wooden floating dock for loading and unloading boats now,” Derouche said. “It’s getting beyond repair and we want to put in a good aluminum one that will last forever. Our boat launch gets a lot of use. We’re trying to make it ADA compliant.”

Derouche said the town is also looking to raise additional funding for the tax collector/treasurer position, as well as for an assistant for the town clerk.

“We just can’t run the town efficiently right now, so we’re looking for eight more hours for Renee. She’s only getting 25 hours right now.”

He said that in the future they hope to have Hodsdon as the town administrator, then we have two people in the office.”

As an administrator, Derouche said Hodsdon would be provided with additional training and will also be the grant writer for the town.

Hodsdon works three days a week.

Comments are not available on this story.

filed under: