Winthrop: Year in Review

Special to the Transcript

The decades-long effort to build a new fire station in Winthrop became a reality in 2025.

In April, voters approved a $38.5-million debt exclusion to finance the construction of a new fire station at the site of the old middle school.

The successful vote came after a failed attempt at a debt exclusion to build a new fire station at the Wadsworth Building site the previous November.

After that vote in 2024, town officials quickly narrowed down several potential sites for a new station to the old middle school property. Nearly 75 percent of the voters who turned out for the special election voted in favor of the debt exclusion.

“We are incredibly happy with the results for the firehouse, we can’t thank the citizens enough,” said Town Council President Jim Letterie following the vote.

The end of the year saw major demolition work get underway at the old middle school.

Town Manager Tony Marino recently stated that major construction for the new fire station should get underway next summer, with the entire project taking about 16-20 months.

There was more good news for the Winthrop schools during the special April election, with voters approving two Proposition 2-½ override requests from the schools totalling $4.9 million.

The first override for $3.5 million will help close the expected budget gap in a level services budget for the 2025-26 school year. The second override amount for $1.4 million will fund an education stabilization fund which school officials said will help stabilize the budget for several years to come.

In November of 2024, a single vote for a total override amount of just under $5 million failed at the polls.

“On behalf of myself and my entire administrative team I would like to say thank you,” said Superintendent of Schools Lisa Howard in April. “Thank you for supporting the schools and letting us continue to build upon the programs and progress we have made as a district. Thank you for allowing us to keep our class sizes at levels that are conducive for learning, and thank you for recognizing that our students and our community are worth the investment.”

The past year saw a lot of change on the Winthrop Town Council.

In the spring, Precinct 2 Councilor John Munson stepped down from the council, citing business and family commitments.

The town council deadlocked in an attempt to fill Munson’s seat for the remainder of the year, with four members backing longtime Winthrop resident, volunteer, and member of numerous boards and commissions Karin Chavis, while four backed Michael Kinlin. Kinlin would later run for Precinct 2 seat in November, but lost out to Conservation Commission Chair Kim Dimes.

The November election also saw incumbent Council President Letterie defeat Precinct 3 Councilor Hannah Belcher for the president’s seat.

In Precinct 3, Joseph Romano narrowly defeated Elizabeth “Betsy” Shane; and in Precinct 5, incumbent Joseph Aiello lost to Joseph Reardon.

Precinct 1 Councillor Pat Costigan ran unopposed.

Shortly after the election, the Precinct 6 seat opened up, as incumbent Councilor John DaRos announced that he was stepping down from office. The council will attempt to fill that seat early in the new year.

There was also drama during the year revolving around Councilor-at-Large Max Tassinari’s seat. A recall effort was mounted against Tassinari. The town’s Board of Election Registrars initially ruled that the recall proponents had the signatures needed to place the recall on the ballot. But Town Clerk Denise Quist later notified the town council that the recall would not go on a ballot.

“Based in large part upon the receipt and review of the most recent additional information, advice, and directive from the Legal Counsel to the Secretary of State’s Election Division and after consultation with the Town Attorney regarding my obligations, options, and previous objection to the Recall Petition, I have concluded that the document on the above date, titled Certification of the Petition to recall max Tassinari contains an inaccurate conclusion,” Quist wrote to the town council.

The state’s Supreme Judicial Court later denied a petition filed by the Committee to Recall Max Tassinari.

The MBTA 3A Communities Act continued to be a hot-button topic in town during 2025.

For the second time in less than a year, the town council in June failed to accept an MBTA 3A compliance plan.

The council voted 4-4 last to accept the planning board’s recommended compliance plan, which was essentially the same as the one the council failed to accept from the planning board last year. The recommendation needed five votes for acceptance.

Councilors Joseph Aiello, John DaRos, Max Tassinari, and Hannah Belcher voted to accept the compliance plan, while Council President Jim Letterie and Councilors Rob DeMarco, Pat Costigan, and Suzanne Swope cast votes against the compliance plan.

Thanks to a State Supreme Judicial Court ruling earlier in 2025, the town council had additional time to reconsider a compliance plan, with the town being in compliance until the middle of July. The 3A act requires communities to establish zones for multi-family housing in communities with or adjacent to MBTA transportation.

Last January, the state court ruled that communities act is constitutional, but that the current housing guidelines are unenforceable. The newer state ruling established 3A as a state regulation, rather than guidelines.

The plan recommended by the planning board called for the creation of overlay districts at Seal Harbor and Governor’s Park that the planning board stated would create no new units in the town, as well as acceptance by the state of 221 units in the Central Business District as credit for off-site units.

The Winthrop High School Class of 2025 held its graduation ceremony on Friday, May 30.

“And as we step into the world, let’s remember what it means to be from Winthrop and graduate from Winthrop High School,” said WHS Class of ‘25 President Amelia Spencer. “There’s a quote in the gym from Coach that says, ‘You can go to any high school in the country for four years and be a student-athlete… or you can go to Winthrop High School and be a Viking for life.’ That’s not just about sports or athletics. That’s about all of us. We are Vikings for life . And that means we carry the lessons, the loyalty, the fire—everywhere we go. The future is unwritten. And that is the most beautiful part. We get to choose. We get to build. We get to become. So let’s walk into this next chapter—not with fear, but with fire. Not with a perfect plan, but with open hearts.”

The Winthrop School Committee saw three incumbents not run for reelection in 2025, including Committee Chair Jennifer Powell, Julie Barry, and Suzanne Leonard.

The newly elected incoming committee members are Kaitlin Burroughs, Leslie Darcy, and Shannon Kubik. One of the first orders of business for the school committee in the coming year will be settling a new contract with the Winthrop teachers, school nurses, education support professionals, and secretaries.

The past year saw plans move forward for a new regional dispatch center with a new partner.

Chelsea will be joining Winthrop and Revere as the third member of the Metro North Regional Emergency Communications Center (MNRECC).

The addition of Chelsea helped move forward plans for a new regional dispatch center at the McKinley School in Revere. The McKinley School project is currently in the design phase, with an anticipated completion date of 2027.

The town also welcomed a new fire chief this year in former Deputy Fire Chief Stephen Calandra.

Former Fire Chief Scott Wiley officially retired on Sept. 2.

“Chief Calandra has worked his way up through the ranks of Winthrop Fire for the past 21 years, and we are proud to have him on board as our next Fire Chief,” Marino said.

In other public safety news in 2025, the Winthrop Community and Law Enforcement Assisted Recovery (CLEAR) team was recognized by the International Association of Police Chiefs (IACP) as one of the best Community Policing programs in the entire world.

Winthrop Police and the Winthrop CLEAR Team were recognized at the IACP’s 2025 annual conference with the IACP/Walmart Leadership in Community Policing Award, one of several international awards presented by the IACP.