2023 In Oxford, Maryland: A Cautionary Tale For Small Town America

This multi-part article is written for everyone living in a small town in our country. It is a “year in review” with supporting documents and information about everything from Police Chiefs to the butchering of a shoreline. Even if you live in Oxford and think you know, you’ll find out what you didn’t know.

Town Commissioners and Administration from Left to Right: Matt Ozman, Maintenance Supervisor, Lindsey Ryan, Town Attorney, Susan Delean Botkin, appointed Town Commissioner, Tom Costigan, Commission President, Katrina Greer, Commissioner, Cheryl Lewis, Town Manager, Eric Kellner, Chief of Police.

For the sake of full disclosure, the writer of this article has been called a “gadfly,” “polarizing”, and a member of “that bunch” of people in Oxford, Maryland who won’t stop asking questions and asking for accountability. If that’s what it takes to get the truth out, so be it. Read at your own risk.

If you live in a small town in the United States, you should pay attention to what is going on in Oxford, Maryland.

Oxford is a beautiful little town of approximately 700 residents on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. It was once touted as the “Colonial Capital of Maryland.” In the beginning, the town was built around shipping and the seafood industry. Its population was working class watermen, people working in seafood processing and shipping etc. The population remained mainly working class until the mid-60’s when the town’s quiet, non-commercial beauty (and a new Bay Bridge) brought people to Oxford from the other side of the Bay. They spent their money on expensive homes and property along the waterfront and the town’s beautiful Strand. Many commuted to their former cities to work.

The town has always been known for a small town feel and was governed by a group of Commissioners, many of whom were natives or long-term citizens of the town. The Town Clerk was also from the town and the police chief was local. The citizens trusted their town government. After all, those in office were one of them.

Sometime in the early 2000’s, things started to change. Lawyers and developers from Baltimore, Philadelphia, Washington D.C. started settling in Oxford in droves. Some loved the town and its people for what it was, who they were. Others wanted to gain control, change it, and make it like the place they left. And they started to do just that. They looked at St. Michaels and other tourist trap towns and wanted Oxford to be the same.

A new town clerk was hired to replace a beloved town clerk who retired. New Commissioners were elected, some local, some transplants. There were some small controversies and these issues began to become more commonplace.

Still, many of the citizens of the town didn’t notice. They thought things would be like they always had been.

Then the pandemic hit in 2020 and town bureaucrats saw their chance. The Governor of Maryland made wholesale closures of small businesses and implemented ridiculous rules regarding distancing, masks, etc. If the bureaucrats could scare the elderly residents of the town and tell them that the only way to protect them from Covid was to give control to one person who would shut the town down and create arbitrary closures of shorelines, dog parks, and other outdoor venues that didn’t need restriction, then that person could solidify power and influence. The padlocks on the outdoor dog park fence were a symbol of the power that one town employee suddenly seized while elected officials nodded their heads in impotent agreement.

Citizens started noticing. But, they were still too busy living their lives to get involved.

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