NORTHAMPTON — Although there are three available seats for the Smith Vocational and Agricultural board of trustees in the coming municipal election, only two people are named on the ballot, as an incumbent looks mount a write-in campaign. 

Richard Aquadro, who is running for reelection to the board, had filed the necessary paperwork to be listed on the ballot to the city’s Board of Registrars, but did not pick them up to submit to the City Clerk’s Office, a necessary requirement for any candidate, according to the city’s charter. 

Aquadro saide he was still intent on running in the campaign as a write-in candidate, but also said he was hoping to appeal to the city to try to find a way to be listed on the ballot. 

“I plan to do a write-in campaign, and in the meantime, look at if I can get my name on the ballot, plain and simple,” he said.

Elected to the board of trustees in 2021, Aquadro has long been associated with Smith Vocational’s carpentry program. Many students over the last 20 years had been trained at his company, Aquadro & Cerruti, and eventually came to work for them. The company has done construction work for institutions like Cooley Dickinson hospital and the city’s downtown fire station on King Street. 

“A lot of young people who went through the carpentry program, they came to work for our company and worked for us for 20 to 30 years and never worked for another contractor,” Aquadro said. “The next generation, things started to change in the world and people didn’t stay in jobs like that, but we had a good run of employing Smith Vocational students for years.” 

Aquadro isn’t the only candidate on the municipal ballot who plans to run as a write-in candidate in the election after failing to submit paperwork to the City Clerk’s office. 

Marissa Elkins, who currently serves as one of the city’s councilors at large, is also having to conduct a write-in campaign to be reelected to her seat after failing to hand in her election paperwork. 

“My campaign’s mix-up about the date means I probably won’t be on the ballot, but I don’t intend to drop out of the race,” she told the Gazette earlier this month. 

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.

 

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