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Date: 9/28/2023
AGAWAM — Voters will go to the polls Tuesday, Oct. 10, to narrow the race for mayor of Agawam. There are currently four nominees. The top two finishers in the preliminary election will qualify for the ballot in the Nov. 7 general election.
The candidates are, in alphabetical order, Cecilia Calabrese, William Clark, Christopher Johnson and Andy Montefusco. Incumbent Mayor William Sapelli is not running for reelection, after serving three two-year terms.
Cecilia Calabrese
Cecilia Calabrese has lived in Agawam since 1990. Her husband, whom she’s been married to for 37 years, was born and raised in town. When they graduated from law school, both chose to return to Agawam.
She now manages a company that deals with commercial and residential real estate. She is in her ninth term on the City Council, and previously served as its vice president. She has also been chair of the council’s Finance Committee and has served on its Legislative, School Budget and now-disbanded Public Safety and Ad-Hoc Sewer committees. She was also on the board for the Massachusetts Municipal Association, a statewide organization of city and town leaders, from 2017 to 2020. She ran for state Senate as a Republican in 2022.
Calabrese said requests for her to run for mayor were overwhelming.
“I’m getting support from people who are normally not politically active, and that’s very exciting for me as a candidate, as a politician,” she said.
Calabrese’s top issues include taxes. She said she wanted to see what can be done to reduce property taxes, especially for seniors. She also said she wants teachers and parents to know she has “a really collaborative philosophy” on education. She supports “hardening” schools as well as more programs for children who aren’t college bound.
Calabrese said she had specific ideas for increasing Chapter 90 money for infrastructure. She also sees transparency as a top issue.
“It’s really important that the citizens of Agawam see what their government is doing,” she said.
Calabrese said Agawam needs a mayor who can do long-range strategic planning and has a track record of supporting local businesses. She believes she is the best choice due to her diversity of experiences, ability to work with others, and her championing of causes that concern Agawam residents.
“I never make promises that I can’t keep, and the one promise that I’ve always made is that I will listen to people,” she said.
William Clark
William Clark has lived in Agawam since 1983 and went to local elementary and high schools. He owned a yoga studio in town for seven years and currently works in book manufacturing.
Clark said that once during a street renovation project, he did research and found reports of underground contamination.
“They didn’t listen to the people,” he said. “So I kept going to meetings and educating myself on the engineering studies of the contamination, so when I would talk, they would listen because I had information.”
Since then, Clark has been going to all varieties of town meetings. He decided to run for mayor after seeing that Sapelli wasn’t running but Chris Johnson was.
Clark’s top priorities include investing in the neighborhoods off main roads, which he said suffer from over-patched roads and tree roots pushing into the sidewalks. He also described the local price tag of the proposed new high school as being too high, and wants to know what the Massachusetts School Building Authority is not proposing to reimburse, as he says the reimbursement rate is capable of being higher.
Other issues he wants to tackle are improving the town’s drinking water and improvements for “customer service” at Town Hall.
Clark says he hears people talk about his top issues on the campaign trail. He believes he will be the best mayor because he both does this research and listens to the people of Agawam.
“I go around talking to people and knock on their doors,” he said. “They invite me in their house, and we sit down, we talk so I understand what people want.”
Christopher Johnson
Christopher Johnson’s day job is as a partner at the law firm of Johnson, Sclafani and Moriarty in West Springfield. He currently serves as president of the Agawam City Council and has served as town solicitor in the past. He was also the town’s first mayor, serving five two-year terms in the 1990s. He has also served as chair of the board of trustees at STCC and spent 15 years on the board of directors of MassHousing, and is a trustee of the nonprofit Captain Charles Leonard House in Agawam.
Both he and his wife are lifelong residents of Agawam. Both their children are graduates of Agawam public schools.
“I care very deeply about the community that I was raised in and has raised my family in,” he said.
Johnson said Agawam is facing critical decisions over the next few years and he wants to continue the path Sapelli has started. Specifically, he wants to continue the “unique situation” Agawam is in where people “work together rather than fight and bicker amongst ourselves, similar to what’s going down in Washington.”
Johnson’s top issues are capital needs projects like renovating or rebuilding the high school.
“I’m hoping to get as much community involvement in that project as possible, but also to maintain the positiveness that we on the City Council and the current mayor have enjoyed,” he said. He also hopes to find efficiencies in local government, in order to keep costs down.
Johnson said Agawam residents have told him they are satisfied with local government and want to see the spirit of cooperation continue. He believes he is the best choice because of his experience and leadership skills.
“Whether it’s the Captain Charles Leonard House or coaching with Little League, I believe I have the right combination of proven leadership skills to lead Agawam into the future,” he said.
Andy Montefusco
Born in Springfield to Italian immigrants, Andy Montefusco has lived in Agawam for 25 years. For the past two, he has worked delivering Utz potato chips in the town, originally working in Connecticut. He has worked for Utz for 22 years. Montefusco stressed his work ethic; he works seven days a week with no vacations or days off.
Montefusco decided to run for mayor because he wanted things to be done more quickly and efficiently. He also wanted more transparency in government. He noted that, while collecting signatures, the most common complaint he heard was that too many of the same people were involved in government.
“The biggest response was that it’s always the same people,” he said. “They wanted somebody new and different.”
Montefusco’s top issues include the sewer system, which he wants to repair and replace.
“I’ve just been hearing a lot of complaints that the water is bad,” he said. “The sewer involves everybody, so that should be done first.”
For the new high school, Montefusco wants the town to get started either building a new one or repairing the old one. He also called for the Senior Center to return to its old hours and close at 9 p.m. instead of 5 p.m.
Montefusco believes he’s the best choice because of his work ethic.
“I’m not a part-time mayor,” he said. “The way that my work ethic is, I work all the time. I’m not going to disappear.”
Montefusco also said he has done no campaign fundraisers. He has supported his campaign with his day job at Utz and by working at Six Flags New England at nights.
“If I win or lose, either way I’m going to owe somebody if I take any money,” he said.
How to vote
Voting will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 10, according to Town Clerk Vincent Gioscia. Agawam voters can find both their precinct and polling location at www.agawam.ma.us/231/Election-Information. A sample ballot and absentee ballot applications can also be found on the website.
For most voters, Election Day polls will be the only voting method for the city preliminary and general elections this year. Gioscia said the preliminary and general elections are too close together on the calendar to allow for mail-in ballots. Additionally, there is no in-person early voting.
Absentee ballots, which can be mailed in, are available only for people who will be out of town during the election, or have a medical or religious reason they cannot get to the polls.