Having served as a Mount Hope councilman for nearly five years, Christopher Furman said he was running for reelection to continue serving residents and moving the town forward.
A Greenville native, Mr. Furman has lived in Mount Hope for 16 years and first ran for the town board when one of the seats was up for grabs during the 2018 special election.
His urge to run at the time stemmed from a desire to make the town board decisions more transparent to residents, according to Mr. Furman.
“I feel like they were making decisions that did not represent the town residents, and they were not being fully open to the public about what and why,” Mr. Furman told The Epoch Times, citing the now-dissolved Mount Hope Fire Department and the once-pending sale of the Old Otisville School building as examples.
The town at one time canceled its contract with the Otisville Fire Department and formed a new fire district as a replacement, a controversial move later vacated by the successor board.
It had also considered a controversial sale of the Old Otisville School building, which promoted a petition drive by opposing residents and resulted in a referendum that buried the proposed transaction.
Mr. Furman said that after being elected as a town councilman, he did his best to be open and transparent to residents.
“Before every board meeting, I go over everything that has to do with my responsibilities, and if there is an issue with anything or we need help doing something, I always announce them during the meeting and make sure that everybody hears what is going on,” he said.
“When residents come to me with a question, if I know what the answer is, I will tell them; if I don’t, I will find out the information and get back to them.”
As a town board liaison to Minisink Valley Football, Mr. Furman facilitated the installation of a new fence on its field to protect the safety of the young players; he also got the town board to agree on spending a portion of federal COVID-19 relief fund to get the maintenance at Hidden Valley sewer infrastructure up to date.
“They would fix whatever was broke, but that was it,” he said of the Hidden Valley housing development. “But things needed to be maintained and updated on a regular basis for them to last longer.”
He said he knew that point fully well from his professional job as a supervisor at Star Collision Center, an established car repair shop in the City of Middletown.
Town infrastructure improvement is a highlight during his terms, including the new youth center, new signage at parks, and various upgrades to town buildings, according to Mr. Furman.
“The main thing that I want to continue, if I am reelected, is the infrastructure improvement, just keeping rebuilding and making it better for our residents,” he said.
Mr. Furman said he also wants to do more to bring the town and residents closer, perhaps through more frequent town newsletters or new e-blasts.
“I am trying to figure out a way that we can help so that there will be more interactions,” he said, noting that he also hoped for more public participation in town board meetings.
As for town finance, Mr. Furman said current economic conditions, such as inflation, had burdened municipal operations everywhere and were the key driver of recent tax levy increases.
One way to hedge against future financial uncertainties is to grow the town’s tax base by attracting the kind of development that fits the character of the town, he said.
Mr. Furman cited Pearson Farm as a good tourism model, which has developed into a local attraction that travelers visit to experience country life over the past years.
“I would not mind seeing a brewery or something like that come to our town,” he said.
Three candidates are vying for two town board seats in Mount Hope this fall: Republican candidates Mr. Furman and Keri Carey and Democratic candidate Moniysha Maldonado.
