Oxford 2019 First Selectman Race: Temple Vs. Hellman

OXFORD, CT — Republican First Selectman George Temple is seeking a fifth term at the helm while Democratic candidate and business owner Betsi Hellman seeks the city’s top spot.

Temple said he is proud of the town’s accomplishments in recent years.

“I am proud of the direction that Oxford has taken in the past seven plus years,” he said in an op-ed when he first decided to seek another term. “Our town has been featured in the Sunday edition of all three major Connecticut newspapers regarding our economic development. Our mill rate is one point lower than when I took office in 2011.”

The town has a new library, new recreational facilities and will have a new middle school. There have also been upgrades at the public works department and a new space for police and board of education headquarters.

Temple said his experience overseeing large construction projects in recent years is important going forward as the town renovates or builds municipal sites.

Hellman is running as a Democrat. She won the Democratic nomination over Democratic Town Committee nominee Scott Flaherty by three votes in the primary.

Hellman is a U.S. Army veteran who was trained a signals intercept analyst, commonly known as a codebreaker. She co-owns Oxford manufacturing company Aeroturn LLC with her husband Bob Hellman Jr. The company manufactures building security equipment and the federal government is one of its biggest clients.

She pledged to roll back a raise given to the first selectman and to bring more transparency to town government. She plans to make meeting minutes easily accessible on the town website and reduce board of selectman special meetings in order to give residents time to know what is going on.

Hellman plans to apply her business ethics and attention to detail as a first selectman.

“I have spent years running a manufacturing company,” Hellman said. “My focus is in getting things done the right way. Making sure all the I's are dotted and the T's are crossed. I won't put my company's name on our product unless it is the best product we can make.”

“The current First Selectman had no problem granting himself a significant raise a few years ago,” she said. “He also had no problem allowing a Town Meeting to be conducted outside of the constraints of the Town Charter. When you combine that with the Capital projects that have been completed with design and construction flaws - he is simply not being a good steward of the town's finances which will inevitably lead to higher taxes.”

Oxford needs more senior housing for those living on fixed incomes, she said. Hellman also wants to promote and expand the town farmer’s market and work with schools to include land and animal husbandry into curriculum.

“Heather [selectman candidate] and I are pretty uncomplicated people,” Hellman said. “We love our families, we love our pets and we love Oxford. We believe in hard work, discipline and doing the right thing. We want to do the right thing for Oxford.”