By Betsy Brewer Brantner
Contributing Writer

The 2025 Municipal Election will take place on Tuesday, November 4. Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. This report is intended to give voters more information about the candidates running for seats on Oxford Borough Council.

Oxford Borough Council has four seats opening up in this election cycle. Two current council members, Luke Neidigh and Peggy Ann Russell, are not seeking re-election. Two other incumbents, Amanda Birdwell (D) and Bob Ketcham (D), are seeking another term. New faces running council seats for the first time are Matthew Harper (R), Michael Brandt (D) and Melody Boston Griffin (D).

Here’s a look at the candidates:

Melody Boston Griffin

Melody Boston might be a new face in the borough council arena, but she has lived in Oxford since 1988. She attended Oxford Schools. As the mother of four children, she feels that it is time for her to make a difference in the town that she calls home. She feels being a council person is a great way to give back to the community where she is raising her children.

She loves Oxford and the giving community. She and her mother both volunteer for SILO (Serving Inspring and Loving Others). Her mother can be found cooking for the monthly meals. 

She loves Oxford and hopes that she can bring a different vision and perspective to borough council. Being a mother and working at her job at Stoltzfus Statistics gives her skills she would like to use serving on borough council. 

“I’ve attended council meetings and have seen first-hand the decisions I could play a part in,” she said. “I hope to address the issue of sidewalks. Many have been improved, but I’d like to see the improvements continue.”

Her interest in borough council was definitely piqued when the traumatic fire that displaced 20 families happened two years ago.

“I have a friend that lived very near to that,” she explained. “I see the effects of that fire every day, what it did to the apartments and businesses. I’d like to be a part of helping with that in any way I can. I frequently walk through the business district, and I am excited about the re-building.” 

Griffin works with numbers at her current job, and she would like to bring those skills to working on the budget.

“I do the accounts payable and receivables and other accounting issues and I love that,” she said. “I will bring my experience handling financial issues to the borough if elected.”

Boston is also happy she lives in a town where there is 24/7 police protection.

“I love the community policing that is done by our officers. I watch them every year as they hand out toys to children. I feel safe and cared for here,” she said.

Amanda Birdwell Amanda Birdwell has served on Oxford Borough Council since 2018. During that time, she has served on a number of committees.

“I was on the local traffic committee advisory and on the finance committee.  Both were very important to me,” she said. “I am concerned that we are devoting too much money to new projects that align with the goals of consultants, and too little focused on the things that impact day-to-day life in our community, such as affordable housing, relief from codes that are outdated or that interfere with residents’ property rights, and supporting public institutions.” 

Birdwell feels she can help the borough residents in a number of ways.

“I would like to set a precedent that we solicit more public feedback about decisions we make,” she said. “It’s difficult because decisions are sometimes difficult to connect to day-to-day life, but I think we could do more to help everyday residents understand what we are voting on so we get their input as well as that of our solicitor and borough staff.”  

“I’m pretty vocal,” Birdwell said. “I guess I’m pretty literal-minded and I’m not really wired to go along with things I think are wrong or don’t make sense. I’m not afraid to be the one vote out of seven against something, and I think there is value in that. I also really want taxes in the borough to stop going up. Honestly, in a perfect world, there would be a council person who works less and has fewer family commitments to take on this role, but I think it’s telling that even though it is a challenge to make time and keep showing up, I’ve done that consistently through the past 7 years.”

Birdwell lists a number of accomplishments since she has been on council.  “I got the fence around the Oxford Memorial Park. I remember that some borough council members at that time didn’t want it. They thought that parents should just watch their kids more closely and, if not, they should, I don’t know, get hit by cars? That was in my first year.”

She continued, “I worked with council members to prohibit setting up outdoor smoking areas on the sidewalks so people can go downtown without walking through smoke. And I worked with Bob Ketchum and other council members to increase the Oxford Library and Oxford Area Recreation Authority funding so these institutions can remain solvent.”

She also highlighted the work of Council President Kathryn Cloyd.

“With the help of the rest of council, particularly Kathryn Cloyd, we’ve started to work toward meeting our MS4 requirements to keep the waterways around our borough clean,” she said.

Birdwell has many more plans for the future if elected.

“I want to facilitate more public input into some of the more esoteric decisions about spending and infrastructure,” Birdwell said. “We spend a lot of money on projects that could be put off, in an effort to make up for decades of under-investment in our infrastructure. But I feel like we are going too far in the other direction and would benefit from more direction from the borough about what residents’ priorities are. I’d like to move more slowly with things like making residents repair their sidewalks, stop investing resources in telling residents what kind of signs or windows they can have in the HARB, and direct our attention to ensuring that critical services and resources—educational, recreational, and infrastructure- are met.”

She added, “I’d like to re-establish LTAC, ideally with more input from residents and board members who are passionate about the subject. And I’d like to find a way to bring down policing costs so we can retain our current police force. I don’t think we need to go from our current situation to outsourcing it.”

Birdwell served in AmeriCorps working in early education and as a caregiver for adults with disabilities in college. Later she ran child care and educational programs in New York City. From 2014 to 2023, she worked as a nurse in hospitals, dialysis centers, and primary care clinics. Currently she is a nurse practitioner at a local health center that aims to provide health care to residents regardless of income, ability, gender, or any other social determinant of health. 

Robert Ketcham

Ketcham has many thoughts on the borough and what has been done and remains to be done in Oxford.

“Pauline Garcia-Allen brought many skills to the job of borough manager,” he explained. “She is excellent at securing outside funding, so we have done very well in that regard. Under her leadership, we have strengthened our Public Works Department and the administrative team in the Borough Hall, including the Codes Department. The Water Department has made major progress as well.”

However, he sees two big challenges that remain. “One is to build a Capital Replacement Fund,” Ketcham said. “The idea here is that we set aside money regularly so that we build up the funds we need to replace capital items when they need to be replaced. These items include everything from computers and trucks to road surfaces and the driving surface of the parking garage. We are playing catch-up here because borough councils in the past have not set aside money for these predictable expenditures.”

He also spoke about a subject on everyone’s mind: the police force.

“The second challenge is to keep our police force in good shape,” Ketcham said. “We are the victim of market forces here.  Relatively few people are going into policing careers and that means municipalities compete for the ones who do. Wealthier municipalities offer higher salaries and we lose people to them.  We are under pressure to raise our salaries. We are looking at ways to keep the financial impact of this situation to a minimum.”

Ketcham spoke about another problem facing the borough. “We have a small revenue base and that is a fundamental problem for us,” he said. “Most of our revenue comes from property taxes.  We can raise or lower our local tax rate but distributing the burden equitably is a function of how properties are assessed, and that is not in our power. We need the state and the county to do their jobs in this area.”

 Ketcham also said that the borough has to be very careful in making financial decisions. 

“This is always true, of course, but it is really critical in Oxford because of our small revenue base,” he explained. “I do not have special training in municipal finances, but I do have experience working with quantitative data and with testing ideas so I think I can make useful contributions here as a council member.”

Ketcham expressed what he felt about several other topics that will be important in the near future.

 “We have pretty serious traffic congestion,” he said. “It has worsened as new developments have been built outside town, and more are on the way. We might do one thing helpful if we can create enough space at Locust and Third Street to accommodate a turn lane.  Ideas for bigger solutions are in the Comprehensive Plan we finished last year.  We should keep holding conversations about traffic, even if we don’t have quick fixes at hand.”

Ketcham strongly believes that the borough has a great resource in the Oxford Area Recreation Authority on Locust Street.  

“We should encourage people to find out about the park and use it more,” he said.

Good things are coming for the borough and one is the cooperation among current property owners along Niblock Alley to develop second storefronts.

“That is the best news I’ve heard about downtown since I’ve been on council.  I want to encourage that project. It will make downtown more attractive and enjoyable,” Ketcham said.

Matthew Harper

Matthew Harper moved into Oxford from Nottingham in 2017. He served in the Army in the HVAC field. He has very specific thoughts about the borough. “Right now, I think the most important thing is to save our police department,” he said. “I’d like to see us do a National Night Out and continue to do the community policing our police department does. That is very important.”

Harper continued, “I would like to see more business in town. Oxford is now the ‘Gateway to Chester County.’ We have to increase our Business Infrastructure District to include more of the businesses. I want to see bigger First Fridays.”

He owns PA Boy’s Barbecue which started as a food truck. The food truck continues and he now has purchased the former Varsity Grill and also operates that on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Harper was a former football coach at Octorara and served in the Army from 2011 to 2016. He feels like a lot of changes are coming to Oxford Borough, and he would like to see a younger generation step in.

“I feel everyone should have a voice in the decisions that are made,” he said. “I’m not sure they are all being heard. I would like to be the voice for the people and the small businesses.”

He feels Oxford is a safe town and would like to see it stay that way. He feels that can be done. He loves the diversity in the town and feels that as long as everyone follows the rules the town will be okay.

Harper feels it is time for some changes, but regionalization of the police department is not one of them.

One aspect he loves about the borough, he said, is that “Everyone looks out for each other.”

Michael Brandt

This will be Michael Brandt’s first attempt at running for a political office. His biggest concern is the borough’s financial situation. The second biggest concern he has would be setting the town up for commercial success going forward. Brandt would like to do his best to see the town flourish and he strongly feels he has the knowledge to do so.

“I have a strong sense of community and the drive to cooperate with everyone to make Oxford the best it can be,” he said. “I think it is possible to bring more businesses into our town and expand our commercial district. I think that would be a win for everyone.”

“I believe we can find a common-sense solution to the police issue and other financial concerns,” he said. “I would welcome the opportunity to be a part of the re-building after the tragic fire in the center of town.”

Brandt works for Intuit, a company known for helping small businesses, and he would like to bring his expertise to Oxford Borough Council.