Cedar Lane Resident Leery of


Homeless Shelter Next to Old Folks Home


Lancaster has lawyer in tow as he breaks

rules against soliciting

Ground breaking of Leonardtown Wharf Park, above, Mayor Chip Norris.

ST. MARY’S TODAY photos

By Kenneth C. Rossignol

ST. MARY’S TODAY

LEONARDTOWN — The quiet sleepy elections in Leonardtown may be a thing of the past.

This year’s contest for mayor has the incumbent, J. Harry "Chip" Norris, a local real estate appraiser who has served as the unpaid mayor for 13 years and is admittedly not exactly an experienced politician being opposed by Harry S. "Lanny" Lancaster, the manager of the homeless shelter in Lexington Park.

Why the sudden interest in the job? For the first time the town decided to pay the mayor a salary in that the incumbent has worked full time in the post, in fact has spent so much time in the job that his daughter fortunately was able to take over the appraisal business.

But Lancaster has claimed he isn’t interested in the salary but a review of the brochures for the Three Oaks Homeless Shelter reveals that the board of directors for the shelter wants to move the shelter out of Lexington Park and wants to create a campus that will serve as many as 1,000 homeless men, women and children.

When the homeless shelter was first opened in Lexington Park in 1996, there were so few actual homeless people that the organizers closed the doors and went home in the week after the dedication at which politicians were invited and on Christmas Eve when police found a homeless man in an alley in Lexington Park and took him to the shelter, they found the place locked up tight.
Inquires at the time revealed that the homeless advocates didn’t live anywhere near where they put the shelter and didn’t have businesses near the shelter. They were signing Christmas carols, warm and snug on Christmas Eve after taking credit for their good deed but there was no room at the inn, it was locked up.

After that the shelter organizers took the bull by the horns and imported homeless from Baltimore, many of whom had been put on the street after court rulings emptied out mental hospitals.

For the past ten years police and rescue squad volunteers respond to calls to care for the angry and confused homeless who roam the streets of Lexington Park. Sometimes gunplay has been involved, other times, robberies have taken place with the "no fixed address" designation given those involved.

In fact, homeless tent camps have been erected in woods in several locations around Lexington Park.

Now that the shelter manager, Lanny Lancaster, wants to be mayor of Leonardtown, it may be he is not even a resident of the town.

Lancaster has an apartment at the Camalier House, an office building he owns in Leonardtown near the courthouse and he and his wife have a home in Virginia where she works.

As Lancaster is paid a good salary for his Lexington Park job, it could be he simply wants to stop commuting from Leonardtown and his sudden interest in being mayor is just the nose of the camel under the tent.

If the homeless shelter is put near the as the local highbrows who may want to get sewer and water to a large parcel of land near the Cedar Lane Apartments for the Elderly and close by the Academy Hills community for establishment of a ‘campus’ for nearly 1,000 homeless men, women and children.

On Friday, Lancaster, accompanied by Leonardtown attorney John Weiner, who is also not a Leonardtown resident but instead lives in a waterfront home located on the Patuxent River, bullied their way into the Cedar Lane Apartments.

According to one resident who talked to the facility manager, the politician and his mouthpiece were told that the apartment house did not allow soliciting but if both candidates wanted to come to the community room and talk and answer questions, they would be accommodated.

"We have certain rules here to require you to put down who you are," said Walter Abell. "Mr. Lancaster and John Weiner, said it was first amendments rights, free speech, and they came on in anyway."

"Someone came along to my apartment and slid a political card under my door, it had a nice picture of Mr. Lancaster and his two dogs."

"We don’t allow solicitation here and the manager advised that if both candidates came down at the same time to talk to people, it was okay," said Abell. "They are supposed to list on the book when you sign in you have to list who you are coming to see, I have known Mr. Norris and seen the great job he has done, its kind of underhanded to do things like this, I am going to vote for Chipper and he has been here for a long time doing a lot of work."

"Just as soon as they come up with a salary, now Lancaster comes here from St. Inigoes and wants to take over the town, its fine if both want to come and explain why they want to be elected, but why would you have to bring a lawyer with you, I never heard of a candidate out campaigning with his lawyer with him, he’s covering his bets before he’s elected," said Abell. "Something’s not right. We have signs up for signing up for absentee ballots and to get help and to make sure its mailed, I have nothing against Mr. Lancaster, I knew his daddy, Harry, they are a respectable family, but why is he out campaigning with his lawyer, maybe he will bring his bail bondsman too. We have rules here and I guess that is why he brought the lawyer, we had a bad experience down here with a county commissioner candidate here one time."

For Abell, not having solicitation is a matter of security and no one keeps anyone from talking about politics or to keep politicians from coming to a meeting.

"The security is important to us because of safety, I had someone knock on the door at about ten o’clock trying to borrow money, anyone can sneak in here, that’s why we have security. There is a proper way to do it and come in and have a meeting and answer questions," said Abell.

"I don’t think Leonardtown needs a homeless shelter, they have one in Lexington Park," said Abell, "and I certainly wouldn’t want it right across the street from an old folks home, you get some bad apples, and I do feel sorry for folks who are homeless and to have them right here, you give a place to stay at night and they wander around Lexington Park during the day, they used to bring them down on a bus and drop them off and they would walk around panhandling, not even from here. The police had to go deal with them, Leonardtown has always been a nice peaceful place."

One man rushed into the town office this past week and tried to pick up 40 absentee ballots but was denied more than one.

While the issue of where to cite a new campus of homeless shelters isn’t on the ballot and won’t be readily available for town residents to review, the very public announcements by the Three Oaks Center that it intends to move is plenty real.

And in the past few months before filing for Mayor at the last minute, Lancaster sought appointment to the town’s planning board, which would have to approve a new homeless shelter in the town. As Lancaster gets his paycheck at the shelter, its not hard to figure out how he’ll vote. He calls himself the Executive Director and CEO of the shelter, which is a far cry from the days when a shelter manager handed out blankets and towels along with some Christian advise to not drink and to work to find a job.

St. Mary’s County has extensive section 8 housing and self-help housing projects in which people use sweat equity to earn home ownership. Those projects, for the most part, have worked.

Norris has worked hard to rejuvenate the town, blending the desires of developers with the needs of town residents to keep taxes low by expanding the tax base, bring the old downtown back to life and hosts many activities.

Leonardtown has built up solid activities such as Maryland’s largest Veterans Day Parade, the annual car show and a beach party. A new waterfront park is ready to open and the community college has given residents a place to learn and to work. The central victory for the town was to keep the circuit courthouse in place and Norris worked with Sen. Roy Dyson (D. St. Mary’s, Calvert, and Charles) along with former St. Mary’s Commissioners Francy Eagan, Chris Brugman and present Commissioner Larry Jarboe (R. Golden Beach) to retain, remodel and expand the historic courthouse instead of moving it to a new Judicial Palace on the grounds of the Leonard Hall Governmental Center.

It appears now that the issue in this election is to continue to build in a positive fashion or take a chance on secret deals being concocted behind closed doors.

The one thing that is consistent about do-gooders is to watch out. When they are doing good, you are usually paying for it and if there is any downside to it, you can bet the do-gooders don’t live next door to it. If things go good, they will grab the credit, if things go wrong, they won’t be around for the blame.

Leonardtown’s Election Promises Excitement


Leonardtown Mayor J. Harry "Chip" Norris with Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot, as he lobbies the Comptroller for supporting town projects.  The Comptroller is one of three people who sit on the state's Board of Public Works and are responsible for acting in legislative and fiscal matters when the General Assembly is out of session.  
ST. MARY'S TODAY photo

LEONARDTOWN --- According to election judge for the Town of Leonardtown, former Delegate J. Ernest Bell, the town’s rules for the May 6^th election allow voters who are town residents and who are registered to vote in the county elections to vote in the town election.

“If someone wants to vote in the town election only,” said Bell, “they can sign up to vote with the town and not be a county voter, as some residents wanted to make sure they wouldn’t be called for jury duty.”

Bell’s role at the election judge is pretty cut and dry.  He said that he uses the list provided by the county election office of registered voters and when voters come into the town hall on election day, he checks to make sure they are on the list, and then checks them off as they are handed a paper ballot, make their choices, which includes the ability to write-in names and then fold the ballots and put them into an antique ballot box.

“I think the ballot box is over a hundred years old,” Bell told ST. MARY’S TODAY.

“We have three people who assist me with the talleys as the ballots are counted and then we announce the totals for the positions and any write-ins,” said Bell.

Bell noted that anyone may write in anyone’s name for an office.

“We used to have some town characters get their names written in over the years,” said Bell, “it was kind of a tradition. But anyone can write in names and one year we had a slate of council members win the election totally as write-in candidates.”

The election is held from noon to 7 pm and absentee ballots are available up to 7 days before the election, according to Bell.

“The purpose of the absentee ballot is for those who are taken sick, called out of town with their employment at the last minute and otherwise prevented from participating in the election,” said Bell. 

The cutoff for registration is 30 days before the election. 

On the ballot this year is incumbent Walter Wise unopposed for council; Dan Burris unopposed for council and local Homeless Shelter Manager Lanny Lancaster is opposing incumbent Mayor J. Harry “Chip” Norris, who operates an appraisal business.