Residents will decide Tuesday on the town budget, the school budget and whether to replace the roof at the Great Oak Middle School.

Voting will take place from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Quaker Farms School at 30 Great Oak Road.

The budgets, if approved, would increase the tax rate by .61 mill.

A person with a property assessed at $250,000 would see an increased tax bill of $153 next year.

The $38.6 million spending plan for 2010-2011 includes $25.4 million for education and about $13.2 million for town operations.

The roof replacement project asks voters whether the town should spend $1.8 million to install a metal roof and solar panels on the school.

Town officials said the town will get reimbursed for a portion of the project.

Oxford is eligible for a $324,000 grant from the state’s Clean Energy Fund to purchase the solar panels for the roof. The town is also eligible for $180,000 in reimbursement from the Department of Education. The town also secured $61,000 from the American Recovery Reinvestment Act.

Here is a sample ballot:

Oxford Ballot

6 replies on “Oxford Voters To Decide Budget Today”

  1. What a loaded and unfair Question for the roof
    It should have read:
    Shall the town of Oxford in accordance with section 4-3 (G) of the Oxford charter borrow $1,798,150.00 to pay for the great Oak roof and solar panel project as discussed and/or amened by the town meeting?
    That is all, the other questions did not read (as approved by the board of finance and BOE)
    Was this approved by our town attorney before being set to print?
    Is this just another underhanded tactic by Madr to get her way?

  2. eyes…Once again, you have no clue what you are talking about!

    The question being voted on is from the petition that was accepted by the Town Clerk and it was the circulators of the petition that created the language. That is also why the question was not allowed to be amended at the Town Meeting because the question, once certified, moved the question directly to a Referendum.

    In the case of DeBisschop versus Oxford relating to the Split Budget question, the Judge ruled that once a question was moved to a Referendum, it could not be modified, therefore the Roof Panel question could not be modified either.

    That is where the language came from, from the circulators of the petition, not Mary Ann.

    I suggest next time you do some research before making comments!

  3. then you answered my questions. Both Rogers and McKain took part in circulating that petition and did not attempt to block it as they did with the second one.

  4. eyes…ALL 3 Selectmen (Drayton-Rogers, McKane, and Yish) all voted for this project. Yish has even come on this forum and explicitly said he has ALWAYS been for the Metal Roof and Solar Panels, so why would he or any of the Selectmen not want this project to move forward.

    The others petitions failed because the circulators were not intelligent enough to either write correctly worded questions or know the timeframes underwhich they needed to work, so they were their own demise.

    We’ll see what happens today at the polls. It will either pass and you’ll have to go hide your head under the sand and admit most people do not agree with your and the RTC’s tactics or it will fait and we’ll know that it failed because people wanted a choice.

  5. I will not hide my head but walk tall regardless of the out come. I will not run to the lawyers to block the vote of the taxpayers of this town, I will simply accept it.
    You and your type will fester and stew if you lose because you think you know how people should do things and there is no choice in your ideas.
    Choice is what makes USA great.

Comments are closed.