The Board of Selectmen denied a petition Wednesday requesting an alternative to the Great Oak Middle School roof replacement project.
The town is planning to spend $1.8 million to replace the asphalt roof with a metal roof. In addition, the town wants to install energy-saving solar panels.
Voters will have the last word on the project when it heads to referendum May 18.
Town Republicans circulated a petition asking for a less costly project. They wanted voters to have the chance to opt for another asphalt roof which, according to people who circulated the petition, would cost $400,000.
Members of a committee that studied the issue said metal roof/solar panel project is the way to go because it will save money in the long run.
First Selectwoman Mary Ann Drayton-Rogers and Dave McKane rejected the petition at Wednesday’s Selectmen meeting. Both elected officials are Democrats. Republican Selectman David Yish was not at the meeting.
The petition, with 285 signatures, was organized by town Republicans.
Republican Tom Kelly, vice-chairman of the town’s finance board, said he wasn’t surprised Drayton-Rogers and McKane weren’t interested in the petition.
“They did not want this to go forward,” he said. “This was based on hollow reasoning.”
Kelly’s finance board previously rejected the project, but it is still in its way to voters.
Drayton-Rogers has said the finance board overstepped its boundaries in rejecting the project, which has been in the planning stages for some time.
While Kelly said the asphalt roof would cost the town just $400,000, Drayton-Rogers said Kelly’s estimated was “speculative.”
Drayton-Rogers said she respects the sincerity of the residents who signed the petition, but said she found flaws with the petition’s wording, timing and accuracy.
Drayton-Rogers cited rules in the town’s charter as grounds for rejecting the petition, which had requested the asphalt roof alternative be placed on the ballot May 18.
“Due to a 30-day grace period in between a required town meeting and a referendum, the timing is impossible,” she said.
Tom is one to point fingers. A few years ago, his BOF (Kelly, Burke, and Ferrillo) and the BOS at the time (Palmer and Haversat) both rejected a certified petition for $3.5 million for the High School fields and additional classrooms (alomost 300 signatures). What is even worse, that BOS & BOF denied Oxford residents the chance to vote on the $3.5 million eventhough the $3.5 million was based on REAL numbers directly from the bid specs and quotes from the Contractors.
In public, they said they denied it for one reason, but in private they said they could not allow it to go forward because they were afraid that if they did move this forward, they would lose the next years elections in Oxford (which they ultimately did anyways and was a result of their past actions).
This is the problem with this whole group of Republicans, instead of making the best choices for Oxford and working with others to move forward productively, they do things for personal reasons that are politically motiviated. I believe that if you get rid of this whole group of old-time Republicans that have all of these person agendas and bring in new Republicans that want what is best for Oxford and are willing to work with all parties/sides, Oxford can positively reinvent itself and move forward together, as a community!
Drayton-Rogers playing politics again.