When Mazzarella walks through Leominster’s downtown, passersby whisper to each other: “Look, it’s the mayor.”
Or, they shout his better-known nickname: “Hey, Mazz!”
Serving as the city’s mayor for a whopping 27 years, Mazzarella has cultivated a reputation as both an approachable leader and a constant presence. Little happens in Leominster without his knowledge or, in many cases, approval.
Talk to any business leader in town, and they’re likely to confirm as much: They set up shop in Leominster in large part because of the support they received from City Hall, aka Mazzarella and his team. It’s a refrain repeated to the media time and time again.
Combine this with a dogged determination to make Leomisnter’s downtown into a walkable, family-friendly destination and a commitment to obtaining as much grant funding as possible to make that dream a reality, and what you get is Mazzarella: a police officer turned city leader quite literally shaping his hometown into a new and better, more business-friendly version of itself.
What do you think the future holds for Central Mass.? “We have only seen the beginning. We have all the right amenities: Airports, medical, tourism, excellent quality of life, and are proud to be an affordable middle-class community.”
The disco mayor: Mazzarella was a night club disc jockey in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
