Dupont Council President Stanley Knick, third from left, congratulates Elaine Lello on becoming the new borough mayor. Left to right: District Magistrate Alexandra Kokura-Kravits, Mayor Lello, Knick, council members Jody Karkut, Joseph Jones, Bob Price.
Photo courtesy of Jon Price
The late Dupont Mayor Dan Lello read a brief history on the attack of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, at VFW Post 4909. This was Mayor Lello’s last public appearance on Dec. 7, 2020, before he took ill from ALS.
Tony Callaio file photo | For Sunday Dispatch
DUPONT — Elaine Lello, the widow of late Mayor Dan Lello, was appointed to succeed her husband as mayor of Dupont, fulfilling his wish before he passed away.
On Friday, June 16, family and friends along with Dupont Borough officials attended the swearing in ceremony declaring Mrs. Lello the next mayor of the borough.
“We had discussed this before he died and this was a plan to be made,” Lello said. “So I’m living up to his plan.”
Dupont councilman Bob Price said Mayor Lello would fill in for the rest of her late husband’s term ending on Dec. 31, 2023.
Mayor Dan took ill in late 2020 before being officially diagnosed on June 16, 2021, with a progressive case of ALS, passing away on Saturday, May 28, 2022.
“It will be a learning curve,” Lello said on knowing how to be a mayor of a borough. “There were not a whole lot of issues he (Dan) brought home with him. Whatever was confidential stayed at the borough building. If there was a problem with the police department or anyone else in the borough, we never talked about it.”
Mayor Lello said her transitioning in the position of mayor would be hard but she said she knows she has the support of council and police department.
“We have a great Chief of Police and council and the people of Dupont have nothing to worry about,” professed Mayor Lello. “They don’t need me to run the borough because they are all intelligent, they are educated, qualified and experienced and Danny was just another star in that group of people. I’m just filling in a little light that’s missing.”
When asked about running at the end of her late husband’s term, she said, “I’ll see when the time comes and see what my kids have to say. For now, I know what I’m doing on the second Tuesday of each month.”
