PEABODY — There will be one new councilor sworn into office at City Hall this January.
The Ward 1 race to fill the vacancy left by Jon Turco was won by Craig Welton over Russell P. Donovan.
In the councilor-at-large race there were seven candidates running for five seats with fierce competition for the seat vacated by David Gravel.
Councilors-at-Large incumbents Ryan Melville, Thomas J. Rossignoll, Thomas L. Gould and Anne Manning-Martin were re-elected.
Turco took the fifth and final councilor-at-large spot.
“It was my first time running and I’m very excited to represent Ward 1. I’m eager to get to work and look forward to working with the community to make it as strong as it can possibly be,” said Welton.
Once again, Gould received the most votes city-wide with 5,898 cast for him, followed by Rossignoll with 4,693; Manning-Martin with 4,630; Melville with 4,389; Turco with 4,133; John DeRosa with 3,618 and Jarrod Hochman with 3,069 votes.
Welton received 1,289 votes to 395 for Russell Donovan.
Ward 3 Councilor James Moutsoulas and Ward 5 Councilor Joel Saslaw ran unopposed and were re-elected.
Challenger Jaclyn Corriveau came up short in her bid to oust Ward 2 incumbent Peter M. McGinn with McGinn winning, 646-291.
Incumbent Edward R. Charest defeated challenger John W. Salisbury-Rowswell in Ward 4, and Mark O’Neill in Ward 6 was also re-elected, defeating Keith E. Doucette.
“I had no concerns or expectations that we would have any problems as we have a great City Clerk’s office,” said Charest.
Saslaw said the new Council now needs to turn its attention to the containment of residential real estate taxes, which he says is the number one issue facing the city.
“Taxes have gone up 17 straight years,” he said. “I’m concerned about our seniors. I read that social security is going up only 1.6 percent, so that is a real issue when taxes continue to rise. I don’t think revenue is a problem, but spending is. We can’t continue to feed the giant.”
Mayor Ted Bettencourt ran unopposed and returns to office for a fifth two-year term.
School committee members Joseph D’Amico, Brandi Carpenter and John C. Olympio ran opposed and were re-elected.
Stephanie J. Najjar, Donald S. McAllister, Peter T Bakula and Stephanie S. Dallaire were re-elected to six-year terms as Library Trustees, while Morgan Yeo was elected to a two-year term as Trustee of the Peabody institute.
Municipal Light Commission Charles W. Bonfanti was re-elected over challenger Raymond J. Melvin.
Peabody debuted a newly-designed ballot box for the election.
