OXFORD – As part of a joint effort between the Town and Village of Oxford to lead residents into a promising future, local leaders and community members are reaching out to town and village residents for input as they carry on the Oxford vision planning project.

The project has officially been underway for months. In May, a Community Design Advisory meeting introduced a process that called for three vision planning meetings to be held throughout the summer to gather community insight on the future path of Oxford. The goal is to create an updated plan to be utilized by town and village officials in making decisions that affect residents.

The SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry Center for Community Design Research was hired by the two municipalities for $10,000 to head the process. Data will be reviewed, analyzed and used to set goals, and goals will be used to create strategies which may ultimately lead to a new comprehensive plan further down the road. The third and final vision planning meeting will be held at 2 p.m. and again at 7 p.m. on Aug. 7 at the Oxford Primary School.

“The survey has been just one more tool used in the vision planning process. At the end of this process, we don’t want anyone to say they didn’t have an opportunity to participate in the future direction of the community,” said Oxford Mayor Terry Stark. Stark also noted that while surveys have been available for several weeks, few have been completed and returned to the village office, leaving village officials searching for more ideas and concerns from residents. “You can’t expect that the village board and the planning board always know what’s best,” he added.

Stark went on to say that the village was prepared for some of the responses seen in the survey thus far. Village officials have already applied for main street grant funding through New York State in anticipation of a demand for increased vitality of the downtown business district, said Stark. Other residents’ concerns surrounding absentee landlords and the desire for improved sidewalks weren’t as expected but are under examination, he added.