When asked why he decided to run for a second term in office, Mayor Brad Myhre said he had “a lot of unfinished work” to complete in Frenchtown.
After being elected to a second term on Tuesday, Myhre gained another four years to do just that.
Myhre, who ran unopposed, was re-elected to office, receiving over 97% of the votes. In 2015, he began his first term in office after defeating incumbent Mayor Warren Cooper through a write-in campaign. He received 238 votes to Cooper’s 186.
Myhre, who has previously served as Borough Council president and worked for both a member of Congress and a state legislator, described that write-in campaign as “very intense.
“It was a lot of work," Myhre said. “I did a lot of door knocking, and had a lot of help along the way as well. The community really got behind me, and I appreciated that.
“I was successful, but it was definitely an uphill battle. There’s no question about that. Write-in candidates often don’t win, and the spelling of my last name doesn’t make it easier either.”
Myhre said during his second term in office, he would like to see through to the end of “a lot of great things that are happening,” as well as to launch new initiatives in the borough.
In addition to enacting major zoning reforms that Myhre said "will make our downtown much more competitive,” Frenchtown has secured $2 million in federal state grants that will be used next year to fix and repave sidewalks in the community, including those along Harrison Street and Milford Road.
Additionally, the borough received a $1 million Transportation Alternatives Program grant from the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority to install street lamps and benches, fix curbing and plant trees
Myhre said he hopes to have this project started and completed as soon as possible.
“There’s all the paperwork required with that, but we are going to make sure we are ready ... that we have done our due diligence and have everything selected, from the trees that we’re going to be putting in to the lighting fixtures,” Myhre said.
The borough has established a longterm plan of creating a permanent green belt around Frenchtown by preserving as open space undeveloped properties on the borough’s borders.
“Years back, there was a big acquisition of the Horseshoe Bend track of land that’s in both Kingwood Township and Frenchtown Borough, and there’s 150 acres that was preserved there," Myhre said. "There’s another track of land around Frenchtown that’s undeveloped that’s approximately 67 acres.
“Our plan has always been that we wanted to try and keep that open space."
While wary of launching development projects in certain areas, Myhre said the borough will continue to prioritize a number of projects in the region, including the redevelopment of the ceramics mill.
“(The mill is) going to be something that’s going to take up a lot of time in the next year. I think that’s going to be something big," Myhre said.
Myhre said he and other council members are also continuing to work closely with the staff of ArtYard, which will expand the nonprofit through a $10 million investment in a 16,000-square-foot arts center that will include a 160-seat state-of-the-art theatre, gallery space and offices.
“It’s going to be a major transformational item for our downtown," Myhre said. “I think it’s going to be a big driver of tourism and visitors, and it’s going to really revitalize a whole area of town that was previously occupied by two vacant buildings that they took down.”
The borough has coordinated with ArtYard on infrastructure improvements around the property, including repaving of roads adjacent to the site and the installation of utilities.
Council President Michele Liebtag said she and Myhre have been working with Jill Kearney, founder and executive director of ArtYard, and newly elected Councilperson Kandy Ferree, who is managing director of ArtYard, to get the project moving forward.
“We didn’t want to lose the opportunity of having a $10 million theater built in our town, and so it was a really nice partnership,” Liebtag said. "They were very proactive in, ‘OK what do we need to do to ... move this project along and get shovel in the ground as soon as possible?’”
Myhre said he hopes to enhance the Frenchtown Police Department. He is currently helping to find a new police chief to replace retired Chief Al Kurylka, adding that the vacant position should be filled by the end of this year.
He also wants to reduce the department’s turnover rate.
“We’ve had a lot of transition (in the department), unexpectedly," Myhre said. “We struggle competing with larger municipalities and departments with healthier wages than we do. I think people were concerned with whether or not we were going to continue to have a police department, but we were always committed to that.”
Myhre will continue building the borough’s relationship with the Frenchtown Business & Professional Association, which organizes a number of community events, like RiverFest and the Zombie Crawl.
“I would like to continue to have a cooperative relationship and work together on economic development (with the association), to work on driving tourism to our downtown, and making sure the downtown stays vibrant and successful," Myhre said. "That’s very important to me, and I’ll be looking for some different ways to do that through partnerships, and through greater coordination when we do events.”
Myhre said that he aspires to organize more town hall meetings, which he hosted every other month throughout his first term and which “generally got more of turnout ... than a council meeting.
“I think it’s a great way to communicate with the public," he said. “I think it’s well received, and I want to do more of those just to keep people updated. I try to do social media posts, emails, things of that nature, but I think the face-to-face interactions are a good thing. You can learn things too."
An objective that Myhre said is on everyone’s mind is providing tax relief to homeowners by decreasing the sewer rates, which have increased because of lagging development of the Frenchtown sewer plant.
“(The borough has) stabilized expenses, which has been good, and our operating budget went down this last year, but we still need to find a way to provide some relief because it’s difficult on individuals with a fixed income and families in general, and I get that,” Myhre said.
Myhre said that multitude of goals the borough seeks to accomplish go hand in hand with each other.
“If we can get smart development accomplished, and we can get some of this growth ... combined with a strong downtown, it will give us the funding we need to provide relief to existing homeowners,” Myhre explained.
Liebtag, who served on council with Myhre prior to his first term as mayor, said she was “incredibly excited” to continue to work with him.
“He’s such a good government guy, and he’s the type of person that truly understands government and how to get things done," Liebtag said. “It’s been a real pleasure serving with him on council again, and we are moving Frenchtown in a very, very positive direction.”
Councilperson Caroline Scutt said that under Myhre’s leadership, the borough will “achieve everything that we started, and then some.
“Brad is the type of person who I feel really cares about his community, so he comes at everything from a point of wanting to do what’s best for everyone,” Scutt said. “I think all things happen for a reason, but I think he became mayor at a point when we needed him to be, and I think him winning the second election (reflects) his slogan of continuing to move Frenchtown forward.”
Caroline Fassett can be reached at cfassett@njadvancemedia.com.
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