Oxford First Selectman George Temple was surprised Tuesday night.
Not that the town’s proposed 2012 – 2013 budgets passed at referendum, mind you.
“You know what surprised me? People could get here,” he quipped after voters overwhelmingly approved $734,000 to improve what he called the “very poor condition” of town roads, one of three questions asked on Tuesday’s ballot.
Light applause broke out from the officials gathered at the Quaker Farms School gymnasium after election moderator Augie Palmer, a former first selectman, announced that all three questions on Tuesday’s referendum passed.
Residents approved the roads spending by a margin of more than 400 votes, 921 – 518.
The margin for the $13,407,217 town operations budget was far slimmer, 725 – 717.
Voters were kinder to the proposed school budget of $26,548,247, which succeeded 800 – 646.
Turnout was 1,449 of the town’s 8,365 voters, or about 17.3 percent.
Board of Education Chairman Paula Guillet was relieved after hearing the budget passed.
“We’ve been making reductions every year and we can’t keep doing that without hurting the schools and the kids,” she said.
Guillet said the school board already has plenty on its plate already after the Board of Finance trimmed its budget request for next year by $250,000 before sending the budget to voters.
She said the school board will likely discuss how to address that reduction in its budget during its first meeting in June. An anticipated surplus in the school budget may ease the pain, Guillet said.
Board of Finance Chairman Lila Ferrillo said that Tuesday’s results prove the finance board was right to make the $250,000 cut.
“If we hadn’t made that cut to the Board of Ed, which was minimal, then we would’ve been looking at a second referendum,” she said. “What this did was force the school community to come out.”
“Most of the people that came out were only interested in the Board of Ed,” Ferrillo added.
Ferrillo and finance board members Jack Kiley and Richard C. Burke held a special meeting in the gymnasium’s bleachers to set a new mill rate of 24.10, an increase of .89 mills, or 3.82 percent
On a house assessed at $250,000, that means property taxes will go from $5,802.50 this year to $6,025 next year.
Temple, informal after the referendum success — he jokingly attributed Tuesday’s results “to my stellar leadership” — attributed the close margin of success for the town budget to $20,000 he proposed for the cleaning of catch basins and maintenance of fire hydrants at over-55 communities in town.
He said while he respects the views of those who disagree with him, he thought the expense is a small price to pay for the millions in property taxes the town gets in return.
“I think that a majority of the town is on the same wavelength as I am, and that’s nice to know,” Temple said of Tuesday’s results.
He said he would work “24/7” to bring a tax reduction to town residents next year by attracting new businesses to town and finding savings in the budget.
