For the first time in four decades, Niagara Falls has a third-term mayor. Paul Dyster believes his re-election shows the city is on the right course.
It was one of those Cataract City elections. Dyster beat city councilmember Glenn Choolokian in the September primary, only to see him back on the November ballot as an independent, along with Republican candidate John Accardo.
The incumbent never quite took a majority of the votes but had a massive plurality of the ballots, around 800 in the unofficial returns.
In his victroty speech, Dyster told cheering supporters of the work that still needs to be done.
"Work on Robert Moses Parkway North, work on the Niagara Experience Center. We are building hotel rooms. We know we need more tourism attractions to go with them," Dyster said.
"I promised the voters it's going to be a very strong priority to continue making improvement in the neighborhoods that are important to people where they live. Including dealing with vacant housing, dealing with parks."
Dyster says he will also be working on the city's list of infrastructure problems.
Republican challenger Accardo went after the mayor on what he charged was close to financial incompetence.
"(The) Public didn't care. I mean I think the city workers that are obviously benefiting from their jobs," Accardo said.
"Quite honestly, I think in another two or three years, there is going to be a control board, here in Niagara Falls because the numbers just don't add up. I think there are going to be a lot of people out of work and the city is going to lose a lot of services."
Accardo says it was a typical Niagara Falls election, with a three-way race making it hard for him to directly challenge Dyster.
