Michael J. Dennehy, challenger for Byram mayor

I have lived in the Lake Mohawk Section of Byram Township since 2010 along with my wife, Katie, daughter Michaela, son Ryan, and daughter Madison, and our black Lab Molly.

Originally from Westwood, N.J., I am the son of two school teachers, grandson of a police officer, and stone mason and husband of a school teacher. For the past 23 years, I have worked on the beverage alcohol industry as a supplier for major brands. Through hard work, grit and determination, today we have grown into a successful importer of beverage alcohol from all parts of the world and we sell to distributors in all 50 states.

Outside of work, I have been involved in many boards including Treasurer of Lake Mohawk Beach Club, President of the Lenape Valley Youth Baseball and Softball League/Hobb Engler Little League as well as a volunteer baseball, softball and football coach, avid boater, charity activist and community leader.

1. Re-Developing our aging parks and recreation facilities: In order to do this, we first need a field utilization analysis and then a review with each of the leagues to understand their wishes including field revamps, lighting, scoreboards, exercise trails and equipment, children’s playgrounds amongst others and not just CO Johnson, rather each of our locations. We then need to build a new field-house/press box, which will house specialty club rooms for our sports leagues and our senior citizens as well as a safety shelter. We should apply for grants for this from the department of homeland security, which I have already looked into and which will aid the taxpayer.

2. Working on providing more services to our residents similar to comparable townships with our heavy tax burdens: This will target but not limited to: multiple garbage pickups per week, recycling pickup once per week, natural gas to as much of the township as possible, better cell service and wireless cable throughout the township as well as much better road repaving and looking at re-opening our township recycling center. Through my long history of negotiating with multi-billion dollar distributors and vendors, I am uniquely qualified in how to tackle the BPU apparatus and other government bureaucracy’s to ensure our taxpayers get their fair share.

3. Making Byram Township more business friendly: We have many vacant buildings in our 206 business district. We need to reduce regulations, create a multi-year planning strategy with aggressive outreach to developers and entities and make Byram “attractive” to various businesses such as butcher shops, fish markets, gourmet delis, coffee shops, all of which our residents can enjoy and frequent and take pride in.

Keeping our Taxpayers First and Moving Byram Forward!