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Antonio "Tony" Pagliarulo, left, at the polls earlier on Monday. Pagliarulo easily won a seat on the Select Board, outpolling his opponents by more than 100 votes.
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Candidate Marc Strout had strong turnout of supporters.
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William Drosehn and Robert Collins were out of the running.
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Pagliarulo, Strout Win Seats on Dalton Select Board

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
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The election saw about a 20 percent turnout of registered voters.
DALTON, Mass. — Voters returned one of two incumbents to the Select Board and one newcomer on Tuesday. 
 
Antonio "Tony" Pagliarulo won one of the two seats in the four-way race with 577 votes for the board, outpolling the other three candidates by 107 votes. Coming up second was incumbent Marc Strout with 486. 
 
William Drosehn, chair of the Finance Committee, was 13 votes behind at 473. 
 
Robert Collins, who won a seat by 13 votes in February's special election found himself out of the running this time with 459 votes. 
 

Pagliarulo expressed his gratitude to the voters and hopes that he and the board can do a good job by them.


"Everybody's going to be in office, even though the other two candidates didn't make it. We have a Finance chair and we have a person on the Planning Board, so hopefully we'll work in harmony together," he said. 


Collins holds a seat on the Planning Board; Pagliarulo is a member of the Green Committee and the Public Safety Facility Advisory Committee.


The elections saw above-average voter turnout, with 1,001 individuals voting in person at the Senior Center, and 83 mail-in ballots were counted after the polls closed, for about 20 percent of registered voters. 


Residents lined Field Street with signs in support of their preferred candidates as some played lawn games to pass the time. 


When the unofficial results came in, several of Strout's supporters cheered as they left the Senior Center. 


Strout said he looks forward to serving on the board for another three years and will do so with honesty and integrity. 


This will be Strout's fourth term. When running for Select Board nine years ago, he didn't think he would ever get to this point. 


"But when you get in here and you're able to serve the people and look out for them and take care of the small things for them, whether it's a pothole on their street or the street light out, those are the things that are important to people," Strout said. 


"We got a lot of work ahead of us and bringing people together to get things done, and that's what's going to take for all of us to work together." 


Although losing this race, Collins intends to stay involved in the town, continuing his work on the Planning Board and Storm Water Commission. 


When asked whether he would request a recount given the close results, Collins said he does not intend to and emphasized his trust and faith in the town clerk’s office and the volunteers who handle the counting process. 


Drosehn said he does not believe the results reflected the true vision of the town’s people, feels there was an "anomaly" in the results, and plans to call for a recount.


He said town voters prefer to have someone on the board, "one in particular," that he thinks doesn’t approach the issues.  


Unofficial results for other contested races were: 


The Planning Board had three candidates for its two open seats. Voters elected Dennis Croughwell, who had 729 votes, and Donald Davis with 456. David Martindale had 434 votes. 


The Library Trustees had five candidates for its four available seats. Voters elected Anne Ronayne, who had 1,263 votes, Thomas Condron with 710 votes, Leonardo Quiles with 623 votes, and Sherri Belouin with 576 votes. Michael Jamrog had 356 votes.

 

 


Tags: election 2025,   town elections,   

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Letter: When the Justice System Becomes a Tool for Harassment

Letter to the Editor

To the Editor:

I am 74 years old. I spent 45 years in the professional painting trade and have always been known as a dedicated, law-abiding citizen, as well as a passionate self-taught artist and photographer. Yet, I have recently discovered a terrifying flaw in our legal system: it can be easily weaponized by individuals to harass and disrupt the lives of the innocent.

Just over a year ago, what began as a simple, justified complaint about unbearable noise in my apartment — my place of retirement and peace — spiraled into a nightmare. Instead of the system protecting my right to a quiet home, it allowed the upstairs neighbors to fabricate allegations and bring false criminal charges against me.

It is a bitter irony that a senior citizen with a clean record can be railroaded through a court system based on the word of individuals who show a disregard for the law. Even more distressing is seeing a parent stand by and support perjury rather than guiding their family toward integrity.

I am sharing my story because the public needs to know that simply being in the right isn't always enough to protect you. When the court allows itself to be used as a means of retaliation, it ceases to be a system of justice and becomes a system of shame. We must do better to protect our seniors from such blatant legal abuse.

Even though I moved out of that property months ago, on our most recent court date last week, the court again extended a restraining order against me based on completely unjustified complaints by the plaintiff.

We must hold our system accountable to ensure it protects the vulnerable rather than punishing them.

Sincerely,

Luciano Guadagno
Pittsfield, Mass. 

 

 

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