~ The Advocate Asks ~

Selectmen and School Committee members talk about their Christmas gifts to Saugus and best holiday memories

  For this week’s column, we reached out to each of the members of the Board of Selectmen and the School Committee and asked them if they would like to send a holiday message to our readers. All five selectmen responded. Three of the five School Committee members participated. Their individual holiday wishes to the residents of Saugus and their favorite holiday stories follow.

  Q: Please share your thoughts on your Christmas gift for the town this year – something you hope to work for. One gift you want to give the town if it’s in your power as a public official.

Also, if you feel in the spirit, feel free to share a short, heartwarming Christmas story that is Saugus-related. Could be from your childhood or a holiday memory that sticks out with you this time of year.

Board of Selectmen Chair Debra Panetta

I think the residents of Saugus deserve a third fire station. The west side of our Town does not have a fire station, where this concern has been discussed for decades. When you’re in a crisis, every second counts. Please know that we are currently in the feasibility stage of this project. Town Meeting approved $400,000 for conducting this study in May 2023.

We also need to continue moving forward with the Town-Wide public safety fiber-optics communication system infrastructure upgrade project. Our public safety communication infrastructure needs critical upgrades and replacement of the town’s older communication and infrastructure. Replacement of this infrastructure will ensure reliability and town-wide coverage for the portable and mobile radios and a needed investment in the Town-owned network to expand fiber optics communication.

  Holiday Memory: When my children were young, they would look forward to the Saugus Christmas Eve parade. We would follow the parade and stop when the parade stopped to admire the parade participants and meet Santa and Mrs. Claus.

Back a few years ago, my family was asked to participate in the parade. My husband hooked up the candy house to his truck with my son, Mark. My daughter, Sabrina and I drove around all night in the candy house, handing out treats to residents. The happiness the parade brought, and smiles from people young and old, was something we will never forget. For some people, this was the highlight of their holiday season. This was my favorite Christmas Eve.

I hope everyone comes out this Sunday to enjoy this awesome parade!

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays for whatever you may celebrate, and a happy and healthy New Year!

Board of Selectmen Vice Chair Jeffrey Cicolini

The one Christmas gift I would like to give to the town if it were possible would be to pause the pace of development on route 1 and have our state delegation work to improve the infrastructure on route 1 and surrounding roadways and off ramps to alleviate the traffic burden. Currently the traffic on both Route 1 and Walnut Street are worse than ever. An effectively implemented action plan that mitigates the traffic delays would be an amazing gift to all of our residents regardless of age.

Selectman Anthony Cogliano

My Christmas gift to the town would be delivering the much needed, and forever talked about West side fire station. I’d also hope to see our town employee contracts settled since they expired in June. This should be a priority because where are we without them? I’d like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a safe and Happy New Year to all.

Selectman Corinne Riley

My first gift that I would like to give Saugus would be peace and harmony. The next one that I would love to see Saugus receive is a brand new playground in Golden Hills. They deserve a place that they can go to safely. I will keep advocating for this project to be completed.

  Holiday Memory: Childhood holiday memories that I have in our town are many! My favorite childhood memory with my parents and my older brother was being woken up at midnight to come out and see everything that Santa brought us. Those Christmases were so special, and we still live in my childhood home, so those memories are still alive and well for me. We have brought forward past traditions and have started our own traditions that hopefully our kids and grandchildren will remember for the rest of their lives. I’d like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and happy holiday season. And one thing that we all need which is the most important is our health, so may we all have a healthy, happy, and prosperous New Year in 2024.

Selectman Mike Serino

My Christmas gift for our town would be to continue to try and be a hardworking selectman that does his homework, makes common sense decisions, respects everybody’s opinion and fights to protect our neighborhoods and preserve the quality of life in Saugus. I will continue to work with my fellow board members, town manager, town meeting members and other public officials to make Saugus a better place to live.

  Holiday Memory: During the holiday season I think back to when I was a kid in the late 1960’s. My father came from a family of nine. At Christmas time we would walk over next door to my grandfather’s house on Serino Way. Since coming from a large family, we sure had plenty of food to eat. I had so much fun. My uncle Jack O’Connell would walk around with a large movie projector on his shoulder. I am fortunate enough to have a copy of his movies from that period in my life. I watch the movies every Christmas.

School Committee Chair Vincent Serino

The one gift I would give the town this Christmas is more teachers and support staff in our schools. We are facing a teacher shortage nationally and here in Saugus. We have great teachers and support staff, but they are being asked to do so much more with less. The gift would allow teachers to spend more time and give more resources to the students. We understand we have work to do and issues that need attention and we are committed to the task in front of us.

  Holiday Memory: As far as Christmas memories I have too many great ones to just share one. I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Please take this time and spend it with family and friends, let us remember this season is about giving, especially of yourself. Once again Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

School Committee Member Ryan Fisher

My gift to the town in 2024 is a year of working very hard behind the scenes to strengthen Saugus Public Schools and provide stability, safety and solutions for our families and staff. If history has taught me anything, it’s that I can’t predict in December what issues Saugus will face over the next twelve months, but we’ve demonstrated as a committee, time and time again, that we’ll face any challenges with integrity.

  Holiday Memory: The Santa Parade is always going to be my Christmas memory. It’s driven by my house since I was a child, and my parents would reschedule our Christmas Eve plans around making sure we were home to see it. I’m now the parent that gets to share that experience with my daughter, and it means so much to have that shared memory that I know she’ll always remember. I’m so grateful to the organizers and volunteers for that gift.

School Committee Member Stephanie Mastrocola

My Christmas gift for the town this year would be open-mindedness. I want to meet with people and better understand their point of views. We don’t always have to agree on everything but if we can put some of our differences aside, we can focus on what we can make better for our town. For example, with the School Committee, I want to ask questions and figure out how we can come up with solutions together. We have to work collaboratively but most of all in a respectful way.

  Holiday Memory: When my son started the Waybright School, I met the most amazing group of people there. We would meet at our friend Lisa’s house before the tree lighting, have pizza and then all walk down together. As the years went by and our kids went in different directions, we still remained friends. This year I went to Lisa’s house and it’s as if we never stopped. These are the people who I love having in my life. We laugh, we joke but most of all we have seen each other and our kids through life events. I couldn’t feel more blessed to sip hot chocolate, walk down to the center and see the lights go on with a great group of friends.