OXFORD — With Oxford’s regularly scheduled selectmen’s meeting canceled because it fell on the Independence Day holiday, the board scheduled a special meeting to review and vote on 31 property tax abatement requests.
Oxford conducted a town-wide real estate revaluation that was completed one year ago. The deadline for property owners to challenge new values expired in March, six months later. The assessing department has presented several challenges during selectmen’s meetings. With a long list of applications, the board opted to hear as many outstanding requests as possible during a special meeting that would also give the public a chance to address it. The last meeting was held in mid-June.
Twenty-three applications were approved for a cumulative decrease to tax rolls of $32,078.64.
Another eight applications were denied.
The only other business item discussed during Thursday’s meeting was an update from Town Manager Adam Garland on potential solutions to repair the HVAC system at the Public Safety Building at 701 Main Street, which was tabled.
A unit of the system that provides heat and air conditioning to the section occupied by the fire department failed earlier this summer. In the interim staff have relied on window air conditioners. The cost to repair the system was quoted at $22,782 by Nason Mechanical.
Selectmen had asked Garland in June to research other options, including heat pumps, before approving the repairs. As of last week, no proposals or bids had been submitted and the board tabled discussion.
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