Oakham Select Board Approves Dozens of Annual Appointments, Hears Rhineland Energy Dispute

OAKHAM — June 23, 2025 — Oakham Select Board reappoints more than two dozen town officers and hears escalating Rhineland Energy dispute. The board, meeting Monday June 23, unanimously approved a sweeping annual appointments slate covering positions from Town Counsel Keefe Law and Wiring Inspector Dennis Bergen to Animal Control Officer Tina Lindsay and Assistant Animal Control Officer Tracy Eves Friarly, all for terms expiring June 30, 2026, along with a five-year Conservation Committee appointment for Lucy Tessnow. A June 18 letter from Rhineland Energy vice president of development Brian Benito Jr. to Police Chief Gehring, read into the record twice at residents' request, denied wetlands-disturbance allegations made to the Oakham Conservation Commission and demanded police action against "repeated trespassing and drone activity" at the Marega storage property. Resident Philip Warbass of East Hill Road countered that the Planning Board's special permit SP-054 explicitly authorizes board-designated agents, including Ecotech wetlands scientist Arthur Allen, to enter the site. A board member defended the board's approach: "We are doing everything that we can possibly do to stop this. We're working with our legal counsel and we've got to follow their directions."