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Date: 7/2/2021
HOLYOKE – A former Holyoke city councilor has entered the race to become the city’s next mayor.
Diosdado Lopez first moved to Holyoke from Puerto Rico when he was a teenager. He said after graduating from Holyoke High School, he attended UMass Amherst and then went on to enlist in the Massachusetts National Guard. He then began his career in Holyoke politics in 1991, where he continued until 2011. He said he left the council in 2011, but was asked to come back and fill a vacancy in 2015.
“I was elected as a city councilor and was there for 20 years. I went back to fill the vacancy At Large, and did that for a year and a half,” he said.
Lopez said given his experience, knowledge of the community and love of Holyoke he decided to seek election as the city’s next mayor. “I know I have the experience, I know the community so I thought why not, let’s try one more time,” he said.
Lopez said he’s spent about half of his life serving the city in one capacity or another. “Not only was I a city councilor for 21 and a half years, but I also organized a big hispanic family festival for 31 years. We just stopped last year because of COVID-19 but I did that for over 31 years,” he said. “I started early.”
He said he’s been doing work in the community, even when not serving as an elected official and as mayor he would have access to more resources, allowing him to continue his work on a large scale. “I’ve been in the community, been working in the community, been bettering the community. As mayor I would be able to do a lot more,” he said.
Lopez said he would start by working with city department to resolve issues currently facing the community. “I would like to work with the Police Department to see how we can bring the Police Department's safety to the top of the list. [Also the ] School Department, then all the issues with the trash, the city image,” he said. “I would like to come out with a plan not only doing the cleaning, but educating the folks and creating what I call a new resident booklet with some of the key ordinances they need to know, where they can go to find out what’s going on in the city.”
An example of an ordinance that he felt new and current residents would know included fire pits in city limits. “A lot of people think they can put a fire pit in the back of their house, in Holyoke that’s not allowed, stuff like that,” he said. Additionally, he said he hoped to create a program that would address those who illegally dispose of trash around the city.
“Another issue I see is illegal dumping, I want to see if we can come up with a program to stop people from going around dumping in the city,” he said.
Lopez said he’d also like to see Anniversary Hill Park restored to its former glory. “I know there’s a committee working on bringing it back. Way back in the ‘30s, ‘40s it was a beautiful attraction for the city,” he said. “It’s up in Community Field, we used to have a park. The tower is still there. It’s something I’d like to see come back.”
He said one habit he formed while on the City Council was walking the city, specifically his Ward 2 while he represented those residents on the council. This, he said, allowed him to see issues affecting residents firsthand. “I want to make sure if I become mayor, I want to deal with every single issue. I think walking around, going to a lot of the city streets, if I see a dead tree I’ll make sure we remove it and remove big liabilities from the street,” he said. “People can join me, we can do better.”
Lopez said as a city councilor he had dealt with and resolved issues of all kinds around the city. He laughed as he recalled an issue he dealt with during his time on the City Council, when a family moved to Holyoke from Puerto Rico, where it was common to own chickens. “So when they came to Holyoke, they decided to remove the filing cabinets and have three or four chickens and a rooster,” he said.
Lopez said the family was living on the third floor of an apartment building and neighbors were being kept awake and complaining of the noise the rooster was making. He said they were able to go to the apartment early in the morning with the assistance of the Police Department and resolve the issue. “We were able to talk to the family, that was wild,” he said, laughing. “We took care of it.”
He said he hopes to begin addressing some larger issues first with establishing a community relations board. “I would like to establish a community relation board, some of the issues would be able to be handled at that level. We’ll have another avenue to handle these issues,” he said.
With regard to the schools, he said he would work with the state receiver in hopes of reviving the district. “I would like to work with the receiver and see the schools get better. I don’t like the numbers, when you take a look at the numbers in reading and math, we need to do better,” he said. “I would like to see the city take the school back, I don’t want to be with the state for years.”
Lopez said he would like for a new review of the schools to be done, since it had been more than five years since the schools fell into receivership, to develop a plan for the district moving forward. “We would sit down and see how we’re doing. The state took over in 2015, it’s been five years. What can we do in the next two or three years,” he questioned, adding that he was “more than willing to work with anyone.”
Additionally, he said in the next year a significant issue for the city would be the construction of a new school. “A big issue for the next year will be the big decision to build a new school. It’s a big decision to come up with the money to do something like that,” he said.
He also addressed the ongoing issue of filling in the former rock quarry on Mount Tom that is no longer in use. He said when he was on the City Council, “this company wanted to remove some of the gravel, some of the stone from the mountain.”
Lopez said initially he voted in favor of the quarry to eliminate any chance of the entire mountain being taken away should the case go to court, but now they needed a plan to fill in the quarry. “The only reason I voted to allow the quarry at the time is it was being taken to court, running the chances of allowing them to take the whole mountain away,” he said. “It was a way to limit the quarry. I think we did the right thing, now we need to come up with a plan how the quarry will be filled.”
Ultimately, he said he doesn’t “want to see that hole filled with trash,” and wanted to ensure that local water sources were not contaminated. “Now the big question is, how are we going to fill that hole in, in a way that will not contaminate the water sources in the area. I’m hoping we will do it our way and do it the right way,” he said.
“I want to see it be done well for the next centuries. I’m trying to stay on top of that, whatever happens there won’t be contaminated. I know I won’t be here for the next 200 years, but I want to make sure people can use that water,” he said.
At the time he spoke with Reminder Publishing, he said he had “close to 450 signatures,” and planned to submit them to be certified in July prior to the deadline. “I will be a candidate,” he said.
While he was working on getting his website up and running, he said anyone interested in getting to know more about his campaign could email him at diosdadolopez@hotmail.com.