Meet Youngstown Mayor Mike DeDario

By Senior Contributing Writer Benjamin Joe

Mike DeDario is the new mayor in the Village of Youngstown. A former social studies teacher on Grand Island, DeDario had never run for public office before putting his hat in the ring for the mayor’s office this year – though he did serve as commadore for the Youngstown Yacht Club during the COVID-19 pandemic and the flooding in 2019, which was a challenge as well.

“I’ve lived here for 10 years now, but I’ve been coming here my whole life. I’ve been sailing out of here. My grandparents lived here and I’ve always loved it and always wanted to live here,” DeDario said. “We bought a cottage in 2010 and then knocked it down to build a house so we could live here permanently.”

DeDario said being mayor is a challenge, but he has time to devote to this job. He noted Youngstown is a “special place” and he wants to “maintain what we already have.”

“It would be nice to bring in some more business,” DeDario said. “It’s tough with a small population, but it’d be nice to have some more nice places to eat, maybe a store for essentials. It could be a pharmacy or a convenience store … something so people can get essentials without having to go to Lewiston or Ransomville. Being a little more self-sufficient and being able to stay home a little more.

“Our location is amazing. It’s kind of a secret to most people in Western New York. They think it’s so far away from Buffalo. It’s really not. We have this wonderful waterfront, and I’d like to utilize that waterfront more. Maybe develop some resources … like a kayak launch or fish-cleaning station. The people use the waterfront for recreation, and I’d like to support that with some resources for them.”

The new mayor also envisions an expanded recreation department, a well-funded library, and systems and resources in place to answer citizen questions and solve problems “as they come up,” he noted.

DeDario said he’s always been a leader, though that may not be what people think it is.

“I don’t take sides,” he explained. “I’m a good listener and good decision maker.”

DeDario said his goal is to make the best decisions for the village – and he’s capable of doing so. But that’s not in a vacuum, he noted. DeDario said he intends to listen to everybody in the village before making those decisions.

“That’s really my goal. Make sure everybody has a voice and we are calculating a decision that makes the most sense for the village,” he said.

DeDario was born in Lewiston and went to high school on Grand Island – but he is passionate about the Village of Youngstown – a “small, tightknit community” where “people know each other.

“When you’re from a small town, you have a tendency to really care about it – maybe more than a big city, because you have those connections to people. You have connections to places in the village.”

“Everybody has to chip in a little bit to do this,” he said. “We have the Garden Club; and we have the Friends of Youngstown; and we have the Friends of the Library. A small village can’t support all those things all on its own, necessarily. And you can’t do those things unless you have the people to put in the time and the effort and run those organizations – which supports what we can do and take the burden off the village government by supporting us in that way. That’s part of what makes this a special place, as well.”