Roy focused on infrastructure, safety, taxes
When growing up in Southington, although Patrick Roy was involved with the student council at the high school and was an active community volunteer, there were never any aspirations of running for public office.
Moving to Roxbury nine years ago, that changed as he became more involved in community government. The last two years he served on the Roxbury’s Board of Finance, Board of Directors, and has also been chairman of the Farms Committee for the Roxbury Land Trust.
When First Selectman Barbara Henry decided not to run last election cycle and retired after 24 years, Roy thought the time was right to make the political move and run for first selectman.
“Roxbury is a great community,” Roy, a Democrat, said. “I am doing this for the love of community. There has always been a time in my life when I’ve been involved with the community as a volunteer. I believed that experience, and especially the financial experience of being on Roxbury’s Board of Finance, would be something valuable when it came to becoming First Selectman.
“My desire to run for public office grew as I had more appreciation of this community. I wanted to bring that same energy and enthusiasm I’ve had as a community volunteer, member of the Board of Finance and as chairman of the Farms Committee to the office of First Selectman to help the community around me.”
Roy, 50, is retired and single and lives alone with his cat. Another area of experience he believes will help as first selectman is he was a manager at Lowes Home Improvement in Southington the past 16 years. At Lowes he was in charge of $40 million in yearly revenues and managed 180 employees.
“At Lowes, working with people and managing to get projects done, that experience molded me and trained me to be an organizational, inclusive, and enthusiastic leader,” Roy said.
Roy was sworn in on Nov. 16 and has been on the job about three weeks. Since being elected, the goals and priorities have remained the same as they were when he was campaigning. Headlining those priorities are infrastructure (maintaining roads and bridges), the safety of residents, fiscal responsibility and keeping the mill rate and taxes low, and transparency by continually connecting with town employees and residents.
“Most of the bridges in town were constructed in the 1940s and 1950s and need repair,” Roy said. “We are looking into doing more of those repairs inhouse to save taxpayers money. I’ve only been on the job a few weeks but we were able to do repairs on the culvert on Painter Hill Road that was damaged during Hurricane Ida.
“Our public works did a great job with the repairs and it saved money by doing it inhouse. We have great talent in this town and we want to use that talent. We are also reviewing solar options.”
Roxbury has $636,000 from the American Relief Plan Act (ARPA) and discussions are ongoing on how to best use the funds. Among the areas the funding could help is infrastructure repair, aid for the local public health industry, firefighters and EMTs.
When Henry, a Republican, decided not to run again for First Selectman, Roy was not surprised.
“Barbara has her grandchildren in Florida and she wanted to spend more time with them,” Roy, a Democrat, said. “She dedicated herself and did so much for this town and I wish her the best. She set up so many systems to help the town and brought the town into the computer generation. We have a solid foundation to build on for the future.
“She was outstanding when it came to my transition period. She worked side by side with me to make the transition as smooth as it could be.”
Roy said he has been embraced by town employees and residents and on Thursday morning had public safety on his mind.
“The first thing I did this morning (Thursday) was go over the roads in town to make sure they were safe and in good condition after the snowfall overnight,” Roy said. “Then I went over to public works to see how they were doing and worked my way up to my office. That’s been my daily routine so far.
“I can’t say enough about how great everyone has been since I was elected. Town employees have been so helpful and our Board of Selectmen Russell Dirienzo and Kim Tester have been great. It has made the job and transition go so much smoother for me. I am looking forward to do whatever I can to continue to make this a great community.”