Second Selectman Jim Saxe resigned from the Board of Selectmen at its meeting on Sept. 8.
Saxe said his work was preventing him from putting in the time he felt a good selectman should put in on the board. He is an executive with AT&T.
“Tonight will be my last meeting on the Board of Selectmen,” he began. “I’ve served for 13 years for the town on Board of Selectmen, the Board of Ed, and the library board. My work commitments are keeping me from attending the meetings regularly. I’m splitting my time between Washington D.C. and Connecticut, so I thought it would be best to resign now and have the Republicans bring a new selectman in. It’s been a pleasure to serve the town; it’s been a pleasure to work with all of you.”
Saxe then gave a brief account of the highlights of his time on the Board of Selectmen, which began with his election in 2011.
“I’ve worked with all of you, with the exception of Deborah, on different boards throughout the years,” he continued. “It started out with the budget battle fights quite some time ago, when the budgets were at 6 to 7%. We brought them all down under 2%, which has really helped the town’s fiscal position. I served on some major building projects over the years, starting out with the library; that was almost a $12 million project; we doubled the size of that; I was on the executive committee. On the Board of Ed, we rebuilt the HVAC system, the science rooms and the little theater. That was a huge project. It originally came in as a $2- million budget; we got that down to 17. And I’m currently sitting on the Comstock Community project, and it’s good to hear that it’s halfway done.
So I really appreciate the time and the honor to serve the town and appreciate working with all of my colleagues in this room as well as my colleagues throughout the town.”
Speaking for all of Wilton, First Selectman Bill Brennan thanked Saxe for his service on the various boards.
“Thank you very much, Jim,” Brennan said, “and on behalf on the entire town of Wilton, I’d like to thank you for all your years of service, particularly on the Board of Ed where you served four years and your six years on the library board, which is an important time commitment, as well as the Board of Selectmen, and thank you for all your contributions and help with the town. I wish you success with your new responsibilities, and we will have to contact the RTC and ask them to serve up a candidate as a replacement appointee, hopefully by the next meeting on the 21st.”
Selectman Dick Dubow voiced that even though he and Saxe sometimes disagreed, he holds a high opinion of the man.
“Jim and I served on the Board of Education together, and we didn’t always agree on the issues, but I think you have made the town a better place, and I thank you,” he said.
Deborah McFadden echoed the thanks of the other selectmen.
“I’ll ditto: thank you for your service, because you have served the town well and we’re grateful for it,” she said.
Selectman Michael Kaelin expressed his thanks not only for Saxe’s service, but for the counsel he received from Saxe over the years.
“Jim and I started together in this volunteer business a long time ago,” Kaelin said, “in the RTC, and we were on the library board together and other things together, and, in fact, Jim was more or less my mentor when I started on the library board, and I even got some mentoring on being on the Board of Selectmen, so I appreciate all that, Jim, but most of all, I just appreciate everything you’ve done for the town, in a wide variety of capacities, for a very long period of time. Thank you.”
“Thank you for those kind words, Michael,” said Saxe.