OXFORD – How many women are serving on committees for the town of Oxford? The question was posed by a woman to the all-male Board of Selectmen at their meeting Thursday.
Board Vice Chairman Scott Owens answered, “All we need, I guess. I don’t know.”
Other selectmen and Town Clerk Ellen Morrison were then able to name a few women on the town’s committees before the board went on to appoint retired engineer Roscoe Perham to the Municipal Facilities Committee. Retiree Adrien Giroux and Wanda Staples Bucks, who works in real estate development, had also applied for the seat.
The Municipal Facilities Committee addresses problems with the infrastructure of the town’s municipal buildings. Tom Cushman is its chairman.
After the meeting, Town Manager Michael Chammings said the ratio of men to women on the town’s committees “has never been an issue.”
He pointed out that the Cemetery Committee is composed almost entirely of women, and that there are still open seats on town committees, should other women want to serve.
Town records show that four of the town’s major committees – the Planning Board, the Community Development Block Grant Committee, the Appeals Board and the Economic Development Committee – have no women members.
The four committees represent a total of 24 appointed positions.
Three of the four seats on the Cemetery Committee are filled by women, as Chammings noted.
One woman serves on the four-member Americans with Disabilities Act Committee, and three of the 15 members of the Budget Committee are women. One Budget Committee seat is open.
The seven committees total 47 appointed positions. Women fill eight of those seats, slightly more than one out of every six seats. Information on the Recreation and Municipal Facilities committees was not immediately available.
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