Village of Lewiston election: Conde reelected, Fittante to start first term

By Joshua Maloni

GM/Managing Editor

Village of Lewiston residents reelected Nick Conde to a fourth term on the Board of Trustees, and chose Historic Preservation Commission member Jim Fittante to replace Dan Gibson, who opted not to run for office again.

Conde (Republican, Democrat party lines) was the top choice on Tuesday, with 139 votes. Fittante followed with 117 (Republican, Independent Village). Leandra Collesano (Democrat) finished third, with 106 votes.

“I’ve got a lot of projects in mind, with the Red Brick; and infrastructure projects is what I want to go after,” Conde said. “The pointing of the brick on the Red Brick, the upgrading of the electrical system, the new bathrooms for the Rec Department. Some painting and some window repairs, a new cleaning person – which did come in, and I’m going to work with him on some maintenance of this building.

“And then from there, I already started working with the Town (of Lewiston) Sewer Department a little bit, about lining some sewers. I talked to DPW about how many sewer manholes we have … there's quite a few of them and they need to be lined for (flooding) problems like we had today. Infrastructure, that water line coming down. Working on that. That’s what excites me is the infrastructure stuff.”

Conde said he sought to continue serving the Village of Lewiston and its residents because “it’s rewarding to do good things for people that you live with in the community. I enjoy that.”

To the voters, he said, “I really appreciate all their support. It was a very difficult thing for Democrats to support a Republican, and vice versa, and I really appreciate them.”

Conde said he has friends in each party, and “I work with both sides very well; I think.”

Fittante said being elected to public office for the first time “feels great.”

“I just know that, deep down, I can do a lot of good for the village, and help out in a lot of places that could use some help. It’ll feel good to give back – and have a little more pull.”

He explained his decision to move up a board is because “I think there's so much in infrastructure, development, developing the waterfront, and some of our parks, and I really feel I can help out a lot more.”

Of his win, Fittante said, “It shows to me that I've been doing a lot of right things for the village. So, it's nice to have the backing of the residents and all the support.”

Election Day saw a light turnout, as just 190 people came to the Red Brick Municipal Building to vote. Eighteen absentee ballots also were tallied.

In 2022, 633 residents participated, while another 54 mailed in their ballot.

Conde and Fittante will be sworn into office at the village’s reorganizational meeting on Monday, July 8.