America's Best Small Town Mayor Opposed in Re-Election


 
Leonardtown Mayor J. Harry Norris, left, with Senator Roy Dyson, viewing the proposed Town waterfront park from Breton Bay.  Below, the park nearing completion.
ST. MARY'S TODAY photos

LEONARDTOWN --- After leading the Town of Leonardtown through an unprecedented period of growth and renewal, the guiding light of that transformation, Mayor J. Harry "Chipper" Norris has an opponent for reelection.  Norris, who has operated an appraisal firm for the past 30 years in addition to his duties as the town's mayor is being opposed by Harry S. "Lanny" Lancaster.  Lancaster has a background as the local office manager for the Catholic Cemeteries and for the past 10 years as manager of the homeless shelter in Lexington Park. 
Lancaster's affiliations with various developers may play a role in his decision to seek the job and to proclaim that he isn't interested in any salary.  
An attempt to move the Three Oaks Homeless Shelter into the midst of the town, with some residents whom have severe psychological problems, mixing with patrons of businesses and near the town's two elementary schools, would be a challenge the small town doesn't need as it always has maintained its own share of crazy people without having to import any. 
The Three Oaks homeless shelter in Lexington Park, where Lancaster works, is known to be looking for a new home.  Police calls for disturbed patrons of the Three Oaks Center making threats and causing fights at the Lexington Park Library have been a routine problem since the shelter was established.  The shelter has rules against the use of alcohol which doesn't go over too good with some of the shelter residents and they have set up tent camps, like the hobo camps of old, in the woods near the Lexington Park library. 
Moving the shelter to Leonardtown could bring fascinating problems to the town but with Lancaster as mayor, it would be old home week for him as he works with his old shelter residents.  Drunks panhandling in the town square once again, even erecting the cardboard tents which existed there in 1994, would be really popular with the trendy new restaurants which have blossomed in the town. 
Lancaster is not a stranger to the Town of Leonardtown as he and the Densford brothers, of legal fame, jointly owned and operated the Countian newspaper for two years before it went out of business and they sold the building it was in to the art gallery.
Lancaster was a county commissioner candidate in 1990 and lost to Republican Barbara Thompson.  Lancaster has also been a long time board member of the Walden Center.  His salary as manager of the homeless shelter is paid by county taxpayers.
Norris has served without salary for his entire time as mayor and only this year has a salary of $18,000 been approved.
Norris has worked hard over the years to renew the town's waterfront, deal with the sewage plant overflowing into Breton Bay and renewing the dead town's retail center after the new bypass opened and killed off the town's businesses.
Norris played a key role with Senator Roy Dyson (D. St. Mary's, Calvert, Charles) and with Commissioner Larry Jarboe, in saving the St. Mary's Circuit Courthouse from a planned relocation and the construction of a new Judicial Palace, which was favored by former Commissioner Barbara Thompson.
After the courthouse was saved, the Town of Leonardtown has experienced a boom in new retail and residential construction, fixed its sewage plant and is ready to open a new waterfront park on Breton Bay.
Lancaster owns the Camalier House in Leonardtown, a commercial property and last November held a fundraiser in the property for the Three Oaks Center.  The office building could be used to house a new homeless shelter.   A brochure for the fundraiser, an art show, lists Lancaster as  the Executive Director and  CEO. 

     
Maryland State Troopers and St. Mary's Sheriff's deputies responded to the Lexington Park library for one of many calls involving the Three Oaks Homeless Shelter residents who have been a constant source of problems.  The old library was abandoned after the drunks from the shelter invaded the library to use the public restrooms. The county dealt with the problem by moving the library two blocks, across the street from the town's biggest open-air drug market.  In the photo above, the officers were dealing with a report of tent city refugee from the homeless shelter who threatened to come inside the library with a gun.   The nearby Lexington Park Elementary School was locked down and the area searched for the homeless shelter resident.  ST. MARY'S TODAY photos

      
Colonial Beach uses a trolley like this to move people around between the parking lots and beach areas.  Leonardtown may be able to arrange a  bus like this to operate between the new park, the town square, Cedar Lane, Single Tree the hospital, Leonard Hall and the shopping centers.  Mayor Norris is seeking more information on such a bus-trolley operation.  The antique bus shown at right was one of dozens of entries for the Car Show held each spring in Leonardtown, one of several major activities which draws visitors to town and boosted by Mayor Norris.    ST. MARY'S TODAY photos

     
With activities such as the car show, above, the Veterans Day Parade and the Beach Party, the town has been bringing back thousands of people to visit, where formerly the town had drifted into endless rows of empty buildings and for lease signs in the windows.  
 ST. MARY'S TODAY photos