Mayor wants Quispamsis to continue growing in 2026

Looking back at 2025, cutting the tax rate was one of the biggest accomplishments for Quispamsis Mayor Libby O’Hara.

“That’s huge,” she said. “Being able to reduce your tax rate by two cents is fairly significant.”

Infrastructure was another big part of 2025 for Quispamsis.

O’Hara said upgrades to a lift station on Gondola Point Road and the starts of repairs and work along Millennium Drive.

She said as far as lift stations, many needed to be replaced due to their age, as well as mitigating any problems they could cause along the Kennebecasis River.

Millennium Drive, according to the mayor, was a project many residents had been requesting for several years.

“We are responding now to the request of the residents to maintain the road in a way that provides for walking along the road and people can get from some of the businesses along Millennium Drive or from the apartments to the local businesses,” O’Hara said.

Work was also completed on new water mains through the Cedar Ridge area of the town.

O’Hara said that project will tie into new projects in 2026.

“This is going to be a game-changer for people up in Cedar Ridge and it’s also going to allow us to bring the water down towards the Hampton Road,” she said.

O’Hara said having municipal water along Hampton Road is a necessity for the town, even more so as the town prepares for a reimagining of the road in 2026.

“We’ve had developers who have come to us who are ready to put shovels in the ground,” she said.

It’s part of keeping Quispamsis growing, O’Hara said.

We’ve got one of the fastest growing communities in in Atlantic Canada for many years in a row,” she said. “We have never been stalled, we have never been at a negative, and this is going to allow us to continue to grow.”

Of course, one other major event in 2026 will be municipal elections in May.

O’Hara said she’s giving serious thought to the idea of running for re-election, but has not made a decision yet.

“When I ran in 2021, I had decided kind of at the last minute that I would run for mayor and I think it was one of the best decisions I ever made,” she said. “We’ll see.”