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John Fairhall - Guest Writer
NOTE: Since no one from the Easton Gazette was able to attend Tuesday's Oxford Town Meeting, we asked Mr. Fairhall if we could publish his summary of events that night. As he says at the end, this isn't all that went on that evening but most of it.
Here is the link to the video of the meeting:
Stream Video - Town Hall Streams
Last evening's Oxford Town Commission meeting generated plenty of news, some of it shocking.
Good news: The commission, which has been under mounting pressure to find a search firm to identify candidates for the vacant town manager's job, finalized by vote its commitment to doing so. Commissioner Katrina Greer noted that the town already has proposals from six firms and advocated having half-hour Zoom calls with interested firms.
Commission President Norm Bell advocated having search firms speak to staff to get their thoughts; Greer agreed, underscoring the need to receive fresh thinking from the firms. Unfortunately, no deadline for completing the selection process was offered.
"Time to have someone else look at this town," observed longtime resident Jane McCarthy.
The most shocking moments of the evening came when three residents identified 3 different members of official town panels (the town has many committees, each with its own mission) who they felt should be fired from their unpaid posts because of unacceptable actions or verbal assaults against residents. I won't name the accused individuals here because I haven't spoken to them. They were, however, identified during the meeting. Look for online postings of recordings of the meeting if you're interested. One addendum: a resident urged the commission to establish standards of conduct for appointees. Does the town already have such standards?
Last but not least for me and other residents W. Pier St., Robes Harbor Court and S. Morris Street, the town seems ready to ask the owner of Doc's to meet with neighbors to discuss the parking problem in particular. Indeed, the owner, in a recent casual conversation at the restaurant with me and a few others, acknowledged the problem and suggested looking again at the use of town property on E. Pier Street to park cars and provide golf cart shuttle rides to and from the restaurant. (This was done for a while years ago and seemed to be effective. Wouldn't you like a shuttle ride, particularly at the end of the evening?)
Here's hoping our energetic Town Planner Marilyn Williams can move this forward, if indeed it's feasible. Meanwhile, my own Public Information Act requesting details of the physical expansion of the restaurant -- submitted by Doc's but not made part of any public record -- is pending. Greer indicated the town should require that public notice be given when there are projects in the works so residents can weigh in. Amen. It's standard practice in so many other communities.
That's all for now. No, this is not a complete wrap-up of the meeting and others should weigh in to add information or correct any mistakes I made. Eventually, minutes of the meeting will be posted, but here's hoping a complete video will appear soon.
P.S. Time to formally appoint a new Public Information Officer; Cheryl Lewis is listed as Oxford's PIO on the official state of Maryland Public Information Act site
John Fairhall is a resident of Oxford, Maryland and an accomplished news reporter.
