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Date: 10/5/2022
AGAWAM – Family and colleagues gathered Sept. 27 for the unveiling of a garden planted at School Street Park in memory of Gina Letellier, the former Agawam councilor who died in May from cancer. She leaves behind her son Matthew, and a quarter-century of public service.
Mayor William Sapelli praised the late councilor’s compassion and local pride.
“She was active for Agawam,” said Sapelli. “I see a difference between an elected official and politician,” he added. “I think she was more of the elected official ... she cared about Agawam and helping Agawam,” he said.
That care and help wasn’t always quiet. Letellier was an active participant in council debates, stridently advocating her opinions, which included a close examination of the town’s budget – and sometimes cross-examination of the mayor, department heads and city councilors who disagreed with her.
“Absolutely, we had disagreements,” recalled Councilor George Bitzas. “And that’s what democracy is. A democracy cannot give you all the same ideas. ... In the floor, sometimes we disagree on some issues. And that’s very healthy. But outside the floor we still we can too stay friends.”
Her cousin Kirsten Danis remembered Letellier as a “champion eye-roller.” Also, “she could be stubborn, which I think helped her fight cancer for more than three years,” said Danis.
Her journey as an elected official began in November 1997, when she was the top vote-getter for the City Council, with 4,885 votes, 500 more than Bitzas, who was the second-place finisher that year. Even as she was celebrating on election night, she remarked to the press that “this is a kind of melancholy night for me,” as voters had also narrowly passed a ballot question allowing Berkshire Power to open a natural gas power plant off Shoemaker Lane. The power plant would remain a recurring concern for her during her 24 years as a councilor. Minutes from an April 2016 meeting report that she was “extremely disappointed” with the lack of information available about the health impacts of pollution for which Berkshire Power had been fined by federal authorities.
In addition to serving on the City Council, Letellier worked as a guardian ad litem for the Hampden County Probate and Family Court, and was a lawyer in private practice in Agawam, specializing in family law.
“She was compassionate. She was dedicated and she had a commitment to the families that she represented,” said Rosemary Saccomani, register of probate for Hampden County.
Multiple people who knew her also said Letellier was an exemplary mother to her son.
Participants in the unveiling ceremony for Letellier’s memorial garden also remarked on the untimeliness of her passing, at age 55. Sapelli had been her high school science teacher and Bitzas was on the council already for 10 years when Letellier was elected. Her father, Walter “Terry” Letellier, who worked for 40 years for the Agawam Police, pointed out bitterly that not only had he outlived his daughter, but she won’t have a chance to outlast his tenure in public service.