By Betsy Brewer Brantner
Contributing Writer

Oxford Borough Manager Pauline Garcia-Allen told council that she had reached out to Southern Chester County Regional Police Chief Joseph Greenwalt to resume discussions on the feasibility of a merger. 

“We sent him our new budget and updated staff and call volume information to enable him to ‘rerun the numbers’ and get us a proposed budget with municipal commitments,” Garcia-Allen explained. “We will need to meet again once he completes his analysis. We are also working to identify potential consultants who can run a feasibility study for the two different avenues to regionalization.”

State Representative John Lawrence is actively working on setting up a meeting with township officials to discuss forming the borough’s own regionalized department. Lawrence is including Lincoln University, Oxford Area School District and Penn Township, in addition to the Oxford Regional Planning Commission member municipalities, in these discussions.

Oxford Police Detective Adam Weaver also told council that the Oxford Police Association Bargaining Unit created a Facebook page explaining what the Association does for police officers and to also correct misconceptions that people may have.

Weaver, a fourth-generation Oxfordian, invited everyone to check out the Oxford Police Association Facebook page.

In other police news, Police Chief Sam Iacono did say that extra officers would be scheduled to work on the night of the Super Bowl.

“People will be out watching the game at the bars and we just would like to make sure our community is safe during and after that time,” he said.

The Oxford Area Recreation Authority is also seeking a volunteer from Oxford Borough to serve on their board. Anyone interested should contact OARA through their website or contact the Borough for more information.

Council approved the Butts Ticket System (BTS) proposal. This is the Borough’s first significant change to parking this year. There is more than one vendor involved with parking enforcement. The Kiosks are Flowbird, provided through two different systems. Borough parking personnel carry around a handheld device provided by a company that has been problematic. The borough is limited in what they can do for permitting and in enforcing two-hour parking limits for on street parking and they have struggled with several tech issues that result in the parking staff issuing “bad tickets.” Council is recommending they move away from the current company to a firm called Park Loyalty. This is just the first of several parking changes this year to improve customer service and enforcement, and ensure the borough is fully managing parking in town.

Oxford Borough Council also approved the following:

• The HARB Certificate of Appropriateness for 248 Penn Avenue.
• The HARB Certificate of Appropriateness for 338 Market Street and 4 South 4th Street.
• SSM Group, Inc.’s proposal in the amount of $39,500 to complete an ASHRAE Level 2 energy audit of borough facilities, to be reimbursed by a $50,000 grant through the PA-DEP MORE Grant Program. The borough’s income demographics made it a focus municipality for this funding. The borough received the $50,000 award and have an executed grant agreement. SSM is the EPA’s local vendor to complete this audit. This contract will not exhaust the grant. The remaining $11,500 can be applied to implement an energy efficiency project that may result from the audit. SSM staff will visit and assess borough hall the parking garage, the police station, the public works shop and the water plant.  

Oxford Borough also received the watershed restoration and protection grant for the West Mt. Vernon Street rain garden bump-outs. The bump-outs will help the borough meet their MS4 requirements and also slow traffic on Mt. Vernon Street.