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Yorktown Councilman Seeks Highway Superintendent Job

YORKTOWN, N.Y. – Yorktown Council member Dave Paganelli, elected to the Town Board in 2011, is looking to take on a new role and run for the vacant Highway Department superintendent position this November.

Just 14 months into his career as an elected official, Council member Dave Paganelli is looking to run for another Yorktown office.

Just 14 months into his career as an elected official, Council member Dave Paganelli is looking to run for another Yorktown office.

Photo Credit: Dave Paganelli

“I think it’s a very good fit for me,” Paganelli said. “It gives me the ability to be around, taking care of constituent problems. Over 80 percent of the problems we deal with on the board are highway issues.”

Paganelli will seek the endorsement of the Republican Town Committee. If he does not obtain the endorsement, he would have the option of running in a primary or dropping his candidacy and returning to the board. Paganelli said he will keep his options open.

The relatively new council member believes his nearly three decades of management experience makes him an ideal candidate for the superintendent position.

“I feel it feeds into my strong suit, which is management and constituent response,” he said.

Paganelli started at Travelers Rest restaurant in 1980 as a waiter but moved his way up to manager in 1983. He remained in the position until 2002, when he leased the restaurant and became the owner/operator. He chose not to renew the lease in 2012.

Eric DiBartolo, who has been highway superintendent since 1996, said earlier this year he would not seek re-election.

“I don’t think I would have run against him, to be honest with you,” Paganelli said. “But the opening’s there. I think he’s done a very good job. I think in the next four years we can continue to move Yorktown forward.”

Paganelli praised DiBartolo’s performance and said he hopes to keep Yorktown’s roads in the same shape he’s leaving them.

“It’s an amazing difference when you come from Somers or Cortlandt into Yorktown,” he said. “You can tell you’re in Yorktown.”

If Paganelli were to be elected, his seat on the Town Board would be vacated, and the board would appoint a replacement. That appointee would have to run in a special 2014 election to finish out the term. Paganelli’s seat will be up for its usual four-year term in the 2015 election, and his replacement would have to run again, if he or she desired.

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