Ciccarello honored at All-Star roast
Published on June 21st, 2006
STONEHAM, MA - For over two-decades, his telephone constantly rang, and the person on the other line usually only had one request: Please help me out.
But these days, retired Selectman Cosmo Ciccarello lives a quieter life, although he readily admits that he still regularly hears that same familiar jingling.
“I watch CNBC for the stocks and work in my backyard. Sometimes I’ll go out to breakfast. And I still go out on my monthly casino trips,” the former Selectman responded, when asked how he fills the time.
“I still get phone calls, believe it or not. I tell them that there’s really not much that I can do, but I try to refer them to the right person,” Ciccarello added, referring to the regular requests for help he still receives from citizens.
Honoring the 21-year Board of Selectmen veteran, who describes himself as first entering politics to “help the average person cut through the red-tape”, several of the DiNanno Road resident’s closest friends will hold a roast for Ciccarello at the Montvale Plaza on Wednesday night.
According to Selectman John DePinto, who chaired the committee to organize the event, which was put together against the former Zoning Board of Appeals member’s wishes, 270 tickets have already sold for the celebration.
And although DePinto and Town Treasurer’s office clerk Kathleen Sullivan, another event organizer, admit that the widespread interest caught them off guard, they both believe that they perhaps should have known better — given the honoree's’ willingness to field those hundreds of citizen phone calls over the years.
“Based on previous retirement parties, I thought if we got 150 people that it would be a good turnout,” explained DePinto. “Originally, we had booked the downstairs function room, but now we’ve moved it upstairs.”
“We always used to joke about his so-called favor list. But it really is huge,” said Sullivan. “These are all people he’s helped over the years. There’s three tables filled with just his neighbors. That’s 30 people alone.”
According to Ciccarello, he originally resisted the idea of holding a party, telling his friends that he intended to duck-out of the political arena quietly.
But after the group refused to accept that offer, the politician, well-known for his strong-willed nature, relented — perhaps a sign that the former Governor’s Council candidate has softened the at-times fiery and take no prisoner approach that he was renowned for.
“I just wanted to lay back. I didn’t want a party, but they insisted that I have one,” Ciccarello explained.
”It makes me very, very happy. I didn’t think I had that many friends,” joked the veteran town official, referring to the large draw to the roast. “I’m happy with what I accomplished, and sooner or later I knew I had to stop. But this makes you feel like people really did appreciate you over the years.”
According to Sullivan, who became a good friend of Ciccarello after she handed him his only political defeat in a Selectman’s race, she considers a roast to be the perfect forum for the anything but shy politician who often used a quick-wit to jab at his counterparts — both in good-fun and during sometimes heated debate.
But at the same time, the decades old friend of the DiNanno Road resident knows better than to participate in any of those roast sessions on Wednesday.
“When people asked me if I was going to roast him, I said, ‘there’s not a chance’. Because nobody wins a roast with Cicc. He always gets the last word,” Sullivan laughed.
Wednesday night’s roast, which will begin at 6 p.m., was also organized by Board of Selectmen office manager Muriel Doherty, Town Clerk John Hanright, Jeanne Craigie, Planning Board Chair August Niewenhous, former Board of Health Chairman Mike Rolli, Carmen O’Rourke from Paul Casey’s office, and local attorneys Charles Houghton and Steven Ciccatelli.
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