PEABODY — The city's newest councilor-at-large, Thomas Gould, also topped the ticket last night, with 9,012 votes.
Gould outpaced the four incumbents — Michael Garabedian, David Gravel, James Liacos and Anne Manning-Martin — all of whom were returned to their positions. Finishing out of the race for the five available at-large seats were Robert Croce Jr. and Russell Donovan.
Councilor-at-large Ted Bettencourt relinquished his seat to run for mayor, a position he won last night after handily defeating Sean Fitzgerald.
Gould, who owns Treadwell's Ice Cream, said he looked forward to working on Peabody's most pressing problems, including plans for flood control in Peabody Square and the reduction of the Main Street corridor from four lanes of traffic to two.
"I'm a can-do guy," Gould said. "There's no problem we can't solve."
In the two contested races for ward councilor, Ward 1's Barry Osborne and Ward 3's Rico Mello both held onto their positions.
Osborne held off challenger Robert Forti for the second time. Two years ago, Forti lost to Osborne by only 90 votes; that margin expanded almost fourfold in this contest, with Forti losing by 370 votes.
In Ward 1, Mello held onto his seat with a convincing 1,160 votes to challenger Thomas Serino's 777.
The School Committee will welcome back three incumbents, David McGeney, Brandi Carpenter and Edward Charest, with McGeney topping the ticket. Challenger Ben Russell failed to win a seat.
Of the two seats available on the Municipal Light Commission, Thomas D'Amato, the sole incumbent, won the most votes, and newcomer William Aylard came in second.
Voters also elected four library trustees: Dianne Gagnon Caputo, Martha Cavanaugh, Tracy Valletti and Linda Quigley.
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