Vincent M. Padula

Vincent M. Padula, known as "Red" Padula, was a Billerica Planning Board member from 1960 until about 1970 and its chairman in 1962, chairman of the town's Permanent School Building Committee, and a selectman in 1967 and 1968. He was a precinct three member of Town Meeting from its first year in 1956 until his death, and in the 1970s gave his address as Ridgeway Avenue.

Padula was elected to the Planning Board in 1960 and was its secretary in 1961 under Charles J. Faria. When the board reorganized for 1962 he became chairman, with Edgar A. Williams as vice chairman. That year, his report noted, "for the first time in the history of the Town the Planning Board asked for a declaratory judgment from the Court to see if Subdivision Control could be enforced"; the board also approved the largest subdivision it had ever seen, in East Billerica, and at its suggestion town meeting adopted flood plain zoning. He was re-elected in 1965 and served under chairmen Richard D. Manning and Thomas H. Conway Jr..

As the town's school population grew, Padula was vice chairman of the Permanent School Building Committee in 1961 and its chairman by 1965, presenting the committee's reports to town meeting. At the special town meeting of March 19, 1966, after he read the committee's report, the meeting voted to have the selectmen buy or take land for school building purposes. The memorial list credits him with service on the committee from 1965 to 1983.

When Selectman George E. Lewis died suddenly on June 7, 1967, a special election was held to fill the vacancy and Padula was elected. He signed the board's report for 1967, the year the town hired its first Executive Secretary and the selectmen negotiated a contract with the Public Works employees under the new collective bargaining law. His term ended in March 1968, when John P. Fitzgerald and Conway were elected. Vincent Padula died on December 18, 1984.

References

1. Directory of town officers, 1960 (Planning Board, Vincent M. Padula)
2. Directory of town officers, 1961 (Planning Board: Charles J. Faria, Chmn.; Vincent M. Padula, Sec.)
3. Committees appointed for 1961 (Permanent School Building Committee, Vincent M. Padula, Vice-Chairman)
4. Report of the Planning Board, 1962 (Vincent Padula, Chairman; first declaratory judgment on subdivision control)
5. Town officers, 1965 (Permanent School Building Committee, Vincent M. Padula, Chairman)
6. Report of the Planning Board, 1965 (re-election of Vincent M. Padula)
7. Special town meeting, March 19, 1966 (Padula reads the Permanent School Building Committee report)
8. Report of the Board of Selectmen, 1967 (Padula elected to fill the vacancy left by George E. Lewis)
9. Report of the Selectmen, 1968 (Fitzgerald and Conway elected in March 1968)
10. Memoriams, 1984 town report (Vincent "Red" Padula, died December 18, 1984)