Sam Gurwitt Photo
Colaiacovo at the Council table in December.
Fixing fences is not in the job description of members of Hamden’s Legislative Council, but to Michael Colaiacovo, Jr., serving Hamden’s 7th District was not just about passing budgets. It also meant planting lengths of fence in a constituent’s yard on a scorching Saturday morning.
Colaiacovo died on Friday at CT Hospice in Branford at the age of 48 after a year-long battle with cancer. He left behind what many said are enormous shoes to fill in a district that loved him.
The woman who called Colaiacovo asking if the town’s public works department could fix her fence must have been over 100 years old, recalled former Mayor Scott Jackson. She told him some kids in the neighborhood had run over the fence. She wanted it fixed, and the kids caught.
Colaiacovo and Jackson went out to inspect, and, well, “it wasn’t really the case. It was just old and fallen down,” recalled Jackson. It was not something public works could fix. “But we didn’t have the heart. So we agreed to meet out there.”
Colaiacovo and Jackson told the woman the town would take care of her fence. Colaiacovo went out and bought the fencing material. Jackson rented the equipment.
“We met out there at 8:30 on a Saturday morning with a length of fence. Mike had no problem dipping into his pocket for that kind of thing. It was a hot day that day,” Jackson recalled.
Colaiacovo was an operating engineer, so he knew what to do. It took the pair of politicians — one mayor and one councilman — about four hours to put up a sturdy new length of fence.
“That’s who Mike was. He would go out of his way to help somebody,” said Jackson.
Colaiacovo was first appointed to represent the 7th district on the town’s Legislative Council in 2005, and served in that seat for 15 years until he resigned last week due to his declining health.
Shortly after friends and political colleagues got word of his death, an outpouring of praise began on Facebook Friday evening.
“Hamden lost a true public servant this afternoon,” Mayor Curt Leng posted on Facebook Friday. “His district will never see a representative like him, someone willing to do anything and everything to help his constituents and his neighbor. He was genuine, honest, caring, had an integrity that always made his family proud and made his friends love him. I was honored to call him a friend.”
Colaiacovo lived his whole life in Hamden, and devoted much of his energy to serving the town. He graduated from Hamden High School in 1989. In addition to serving on the Council, where he was president pro tempore for one term and chaired multiple committees, he was a member of the Democratic Town Committee for decades, a member of the Dunbar Hill Civic Association, an honorary member of the Dunbar Hill Volunteer Fire Station #8, and a member of the Hamden Community Emergency Response Team (CERT).
He worked at Buchanan Marine for 22 years, where he was a union steward and devoted member of Union of Operating Engineers, Local 478.
Read Colaiacovo’s obituary here.
Though he was not always the most outspoken council member in meetings, he poured energy into helping his constituents.
“If I had to say to people what about being a councilman he liked most, it’s constituent services,” said his sister, Debbie DiLeone. “In that 15 years, I can honestly say that I don’t think there has been anyone that called him and he has not called back and helped them… My brother, everyone loved him.”
He continued taking calls and helping constituents even after he got sick, DiLeone said. She said she remembers him helping one district resident even while he was going through radiation.
He didn’t just fix fences. There were countless stories of him going out of his way to help constituents, said Council President Mick McGarry. “Just story after story.”
He would drive constituents to doctor’s appointments or the grocery store if they needed help getting there.
When the Dunbar Hill School needed a new playground, Colaiacovo went out and got a state grant, and then corralled some friends from work to help him, unpaid, in putting up a new playground one Saturday, as former Councilman Jim Pascarella recalled.
“Someone would call him and say ‘can the town do this, that, and whatever,’ and if the town couldn’t, he would just go do it himself,” Pascarella said. “None of us could keep up with this guy. None of us could keep up with Mike.”
Pascarella described Colaiacovo as someone who spoke for working people. “The Democratic Party has traditionally been very much a pro-labor party. Mike spoke for people,” he said.
His colleagues on the council also remembered him as a clear thinker who was always honest, said what he thought, and never sought the spotlight.
They also recalled his humor.
“He was a funny guy,” said Berita Rowe-Lewis, who sat next to him at the council table and remembered the jokes he would tell.
Colaiacovo also loved animals. He helped his longtime girlfriend Gabrielle Scirocco with the animal shelter she runs, and advocated for a town animal shelter, which is now finally underway.
With his death, the town loses someone with a deep knowledge of Hamden, and an even deeper love for the town.
The Democratic Town Committee’s 7th District must now recommend a replacement to represent it on the council, and the council will vote on the candidate at the beginning of August.
Whoever steps up will have some large work boots to fill, and a lot of fences to fix in order to fill them.
“I think they’re going to have a hard time finding someone to fill his shoes,” said DiLeone. “Doing right by the people in his district was one of his top priorities. I don’t know what else I could say about him. He’s just, you know, one of a kind. Our hearts are broken.”
First Fred McCarthy a dedicated member of Friends of Brooksvale Park and the Veterans Commission, then Mr. Colaiacovo. Sympathies to both families and prayers that other citizens will rise to the occasion and serve Hamden with passion fairness, and clarity as they did so well for so many years.