OXFORD — Selectmen recommitted to holding annual, in-person town meetings to make budget and ordinance decisions after exploring the alternative to switching to private ballot during Thursday’s meeting.

The board has revisited the topic of how to improve voter participation several times over the last year or so but split on methods to achieve it. However, during their meeting selectmen unanimously voted to continue the tradition of in-person meetings.

During state elections in June, the town held a straw vote for input from voters on their preference. Of 274 participants, 154 indicated they want a closed ballot vote while 120 said to continue annual town meeting. But event participation in the poll was small; 750 voters participated in the state and primary election overall, meaning that close to two-thirds of people voting that day opted to not take part.

During Oxford’s annual town meeting this year, about 80 residents were in attendance.

By contrast, in 2023 only 40 came to the town meeting and during state elections a couple weeks later about 170 voters cast ballots.

In other business, selectmen voted unanimously to allow owners of foreclosed properties 90 days from notice to pay their back taxes, which is the waiting period before a foreclosed property can be listed for sale by the town. Two property owners were on hand to contest their foreclosure notices. One was a resident who said they were in a position to pay it in full the next business day. The second was one of four heirs to property the town had no deliverable mailing address for and said they were willing to pay the back taxes and update records for the parcel.

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In addition, selectmen agreed that property owners showing good faith to resolve their back taxes might be allowed more time, on a case-by-case basis.

The board directed Town Manager Adam Garland and Transfer Station Manager Ed Knightly to hire a large equipment mechanic to assess the conditions of two back loaders previously used by the Highway Department before determining which to keep for the Transfer Station’s use.

One is a 2002 Volvo L70 that has been in service at the Transfer Station for years. In the past, Knightly has been offered $30,000 trade-in value with bids to replace it. Its transmission is in poor condition. After listing the machine on a municipal equipment auction site, Garland said the highest bid stands at $24,800.

The second is a 2010 John Deere 544K that was recently replaced at the Highway Department. When bids came in for a new department loader, no dealers offered any trade-in value for the John Deere. After being used for salt and sand operations, that loader has significant rust corrosion.

Selectmen will determine which one to hold onto and which to part with following the third-party mechanic’s findings and projected lifespan.

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