LEOMINSTER – Despite the bitter cold outside, City Hall’s auditorium was packed Tuesday night for Mayor Dean J. Mazzarella’s inauguration and the swearing-in ceremony of newly-elected city officials.
Mr. Mazzarella, the longest serving mayor in the state, ceremoniously took his oath to continue serving the city in the post he will have held for a quarter of a century.
One official who spoke at the event noted that she was a toddler, and her aide unborn, when Mr. Mazzarella took the mayoral post 24 years ago.
Though the mayor has historically sailed through election after election, often winning by a wide margin, this last election proved to be somewhat challenging for Mr. Mazzarella. A local businessman, largely unknown in the political arena, threw his name into the race just five weeks before the election Nov. 7, a strategy that took him close to beating Mr. Mazzarella, who was unchallenged on the ballot.
Write-in candidate Kenneth J. Ricker, who lost to the mayor by just 210 votes according to original tallies, would call for a recount that was held shortly after the election. The recount showed the two candidates were separated by just 106 votes. Final results showed Mr. Mazzarella took 4,480 votes to Mr. Ricker’s 4,374 votes.
Mr. Ricker’s lawyer, Gerry McDonough, who he hired to represent him for the recount, said he had concerns about inconsistencies in how the ballots were handled.
“We saw piles of ballots that were not sealed in any container and we’re still not sure how they made their way from the polling place into the safe,” Mr. McDonough said before the recount results were announced. “They were just lumped in a pile and they were mostly Mr. Ricker’s ballots. There is a need for some change in the way that elections are managed in the city because you just want to be sure that elections are run fair and square.”
Alleged improprieties during the election are being reviewed by the state Elections Division, according to officials.
Mr. Mazzarella addressed the issue at the inauguration, which was attended by state and local officials and community leaders, stating that people have a right to their own opinions but not their own facts.
He asked the audience for help in defending the city against false accusations of corruption and those who say the “city is no better off than it was 24 years ago.”
“Somebody who recently moved here may not know about the city’s history,” Mr. Mazzarella said.
A slide presentation depicted some of the accomplishments of the mayor, who served as a Leominster police officer for 10 years before first running for mayor in 1993. These included a $45 million renovation to the high school, completed without raising taxes, millions in renovations to other schools in the city, a $10.8 million library renovation, numerous economic development projects and improvements to infrastructure and public transportation.
During his speech, Mr. Mazzarella also promised the city would begin the process to construct a new police station.
“It is imperative to see where we’ve been and what it took to get here,” he said. “If we fail to communicate that, we risk repeating mistakes of the past. It is the responsibility of all of us.”