One of Warren’s longest-serving volunteers won’t seek re-election to the Warren Town Council this autumn. Instead, outgoing councilor David Frerichs said he is going to try to slow down …
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One of Warren’s longest-serving volunteers won’t seek re-election to the Warren Town Council this autumn. Instead, outgoing councilor David Frerichs said he is going to try to slow down and work a bit less — perhaps as little as 13 to 14 hours a day.
Mr. Frerichs has spent 12 years on the council, another 12 on the Conservation Commission and served on various federal and state boards for another eight.
“I”m getting a little older,” he said Thursday. “I’m coming to the realization that it’s time for my wife Barb and I to do some traveling. I’ve got a couple of things on my bucket list and we want to do them.”
Mr. Frerichs, who owns Frerichs Farm and has worked “16 to 20 hours a day” for most of his working life, said he had been thinking for some time about not running for re-election. He wants to slow down, work less, enjoy life a bit more, spend time with his five grandchildren and do some traveling. He said now is a good time to leave, as the town appears to be headed in the right direction after some years of financial and political instability.
“I feel the town is in excellent shape,” he said, calling Warren’s new town manager, Jan Reitsma, a “brilliant” man.
“He’s very effective, very connected and smart. And these last two councils, we’ve been very proactive and we’ve turned around some financial difficulties. We’ve tried to help business here; we can’t help with empty storefronts downtown with the rents so high but every ordinance that’s come before us that would aid business, we’ve tried to move it forward.”
Over the coming months he hopes to scale back his work even more than he has, and there are plans to do some traveling. He wants to visit New Orleans, see family in California, go up to Canada, head back to Hawaii (he and Barb went 20-odd years ago) and also would like to visit Australia. Though he’ll continue farming, he is training younger helpers to help take more and more of the daily load off his hands.
“I’ve been having a lot of fun,” he said. “I’ll be able to do a lot more. But leaving now, I’m proud of my record; I feel good. I always tried to help everyone who came to me.”
“It’s been a good long haul.”
Note: Councilor Scott Lial also did not seek re-election and will not run for council this fall.