James F. O'Donnell Jr.

James F. O'Donnell Jr. served fifteen years on the Billerica Select Board, from 1994 to 2009, and was its chairman several times; he later became a member and treasurer of the Billerica Housing Authority and a Cemetery Commissioner, and he was honored in 2016 for twenty-five years as a Town Meeting member.

He was elected a selectman in April 1994, in the election that followed the retirement of Thomas H. Conway Jr. after twenty-six years on the board, winning the three-year seat with 1,451 votes over Bernard F. Hoar, Mary V. Wiroll and Patricia C. Fleming. The board's report called him a "political newcomer"; with Edward J. Hurd he joined the board, and in the reorganization Arthur L. Doyle became chairman and O'Donnell vice-chairman. Re-elected in 1997 with 1,625 votes over Cosmo D. Cavicchio and Michael S. Rosa, he became chairman of the board for that year, when the town closed its fiscal year with more than $1.7 million in free cash and built its stabilization account past $1 million. He sponsored the 1997 article by which the town adopted the state's real estate tax exemption for blind persons, and he represented the board on the Lowell Regional Transit Authority and later as Billerica's alternate councillor on the Northern Middlesex Council of Governments.

He was re-elected in 2000 for a third term, in 2003 and in 2006. Like his colleague Robert M. Correnti, he declined his selectman's salary; town meeting in 2000 was told that "Selectmen O'Donnell is donating his salary to the Handicapped Commission," and that commission recorded its thanks for "the wonderful contributions made by Jimmy O'Donnell" and later used the selectmen's gifts to help buy a computer for the public library. In 2000 he sat on a long list of board subcommittees, among them those for economic development, traffic management, the county land, the prison expansion and the Vietnam Veterans Park. After Peter M. Coppinger left the board in 2002, the board elected O'Donnell chairman, with Francis M. Fraine as vice-chairman, and after his re-election in 2003 it chose him as chairman again; he was vice-chairman under Fraine in 2004 and chairman once more in 2008 and early 2009.

In September 2008 he ran in the Democratic primary for state representative against William G. Greene Jr. and polled 1,709 votes in Billerica to Greene's 2,619. In April 2009 he lost his seat on the Board of Selectmen to Andrew N. Deslaurier, 1,948 votes to 1,483. He returned to elected office in 2010, when he was elected to a five-year term on the Housing Authority with 2,319 votes, and he was re-elected in 2015, 2020 and 2025, serving as the Authority's treasurer. He has also served on the Cemetery Commission since 2009. In 2016 the town meeting presented him a plaque for twenty-five years as a Town Meeting member.

References

1. Billerica Town Report 1994, town election April 9, 1994: Selectman, James F. O'Donnell Jr. 1,451, Hoar 1,358, Wiroll 995, Fleming 907
2. Billerica Town Report 1994, Board of Selectmen report: political newcomer James O'Donnell elected, chosen vice-chairman
3. Billerica Town Report 1997, Board of Selectmen report: incumbent Selectman James O'Donnell returned to office and became chairman
4. Billerica Town Report 2000, town meeting: Selectman O'Donnell donating his salary to the Handicapped Commission
5. Billerica Town Report 2000, Board of Selectmen report: James O'Donnell re-elected for his third term
6. Billerica Town Report 2002, Board of Selectmen report: board reorganized electing James F. O'Donnell Jr. chairman
7. Billerica Town Report 2003, Board of Selectmen report: James F. O'Donnell Jr. re-elected and chosen chairman
8. Billerica Town Report 2009, state primary September 16, 2008, Democratic: Representative in General Court, Greene 2,619, James F. O'Donnell Jr. 1,709
9. Billerica Town Report 2009, town election April 4, 2009: Selectman, Andrew N. Deslaurier 1,948, James F. O'Donnell Jr. 1,483
10. Billerica Town Report 2010, town election: Housing Authority five years, James F. O'Donnell Jr. 2,319, Ronald J. DiOrio Jr. 2,038
11. Billerica Town Report 2016, town meeting: plaque to James O'Donnell Jr. for twenty-five years as a Town Meeting member