EASTHAMPTON — The inauguration of the mayor, City Council and School Committee drew two prominent guests to City Hall on Thursday.
U.S. Sen. Ed Markey and U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, D-Springfield, were two of the main speakers at the event, which saw Mayor Nicole LaChapelle sworn in for her second term.
The six other members of the School Committee were also sworn in, as were seven of the incoming City Council’s members. The two missing incoming councilors, Salem Derby and Lindsey Rothschild, will be sworn in immediately prior to Wednesday’s meeting of the council.
LaChapelle said Neal and Markey were included in a broad invitation to the inauguration, and they responded.
“I was thrilled and pleasantly surprised,” said LaChapelle. “I think it speaks to a good partnership.”
Neal, who served as mayor of Springfield during the 1980s, was referred to as a “mayor at heart,” by Markey.
“Once a mayor, always a mayor,” Markey said.
Markey also said that President Lyndon Johnson once said that when the burdens of the presidency became unusually heavy, he would remind himself that things could be worse.
“I could be mayor of a city,” said Markey, to laughs, paraphrasing the 36th president.
Markey said he was proud to have joined with LaChapelle and Neal last fall to announce that the city’s Fire Department had secured more than $600,000 in Federal Emergency Management Agency money, money that Fire Chief David Mottor mentioned on introducing the senator.
Reflecting on his time in city government, Neal, who has served in the U.S. House for more than 30 years, said he had never done anything in Washington that got people madder than when he voted on a zoning change when he was a city councilor. And he said that LaChapelle getting re-elected without opposition was remarkable.
During his remarks at the inauguration, Neal noted his defense of new markets tax credit, the low-income housing tax credit, and the historic tax credit, used at the Cottage Street Mills.
“I consider this to be a full partnership with this community,” he said.
LaChapelle said Markey and Neal have been great partners in her first two years as mayor.
“From day one you picked up the phone, you told me who to get ahold of, you worked with all of our department heads,” she said.
After the ceremony, Markey and Neal also confirmed that they were backing one in another in their respective primary races.
State Rep. Dan Carey, D-Easthampton, was also present at the swearing-in, as was Mary Olberding, the register of deeds for Hampshire County.
Following the ceremony, council members present voted to make Peg Conniff the council’s new president and Daniel Rist vice president. No other councilor ran for either position.
Conniff said her election was a combination of her seeking the position and her colleagues asking her to. She also said that tax relief would be a priority for her.
Rist, who has served on the council since 1997, has previously served two terms as vice president and two terms as president.
“I really appreciate that Councilor Conniff invited me to do it,” said Rist. “I think the president of the council should have someone in the vice president position that can be an aid to her.”
Bera Dunau can be reached at bdunau@gazettenet.com.