O’Neill, Incumbents Win Peabody City Council Races

PEABODY, MA -- Peabody voters elected three new members to City Council and two new members to the School Committee in Tuesday's election. While there were several contested races in local elections, an off-year with no federal or state races, as well as Mayor Edward Bettencourt running unopposed for reelection meant low voter turnout.

Incumbents Anne Manning-Martin, Tom Gould, and David Gravel, along with Tom Rossignol and Ryan Melville topped a field of eight candidates to win the five open at-large seats on Peabody City Council in Tuesday's voting.

Sitting At-Large Councilmen Michael Garabedian and Tom Walsh did not seek reelection. Stephen Collins, Peter Bakula and Russell Donovan were the other candidates who had ran.

In other contested city council races, incumbents Ed Charest defeated Bukia Chalvire, 1,134-571, in Ward 4 and Joel Saslaw defeated James Jeffrey 789-547 for a third term in Ward 5. Corrected: In Ward 6, Mark O’Neill defeated Michael Geomelos 1,065-797 to fill the seat held by Barry Sinewitz, who did not seek reelection

Ward 1 Councilor Jon Turco, Ward 2 Councilor Peter McGinn, and Ward 3 Councilor James Moutsoulas all ran unopposed.

In the race for three school committee seats, Andrew Arnotis, along with incumbent Beverley Ann Griffin Dunne and Jarrod Hochman topped the five candidate field. Thomas D'Amato and William Aylward were elected to the Peabody Muncipal Light Commission and Kate O'Brien, Thomas Pappas, Frances Gallugi and Sandra Fecteau were elected Trustees of the Peabody Institute.

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Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).