AMESBURY — Nicholas J. Costello, selectman, state representative, state senator and the city’s first mayor passed away Monday night, according to his wife, Cynthia Costello.
“My beloved Nick has slipped his earthly bonds surrounded by family last evening,” Cynthia Costello wrote in a statement.
As a state representative in 1978, he filed the original legislation for the purchase of the Moseley Estate now known as the 400-acre Maudslay State Park. His vision was of a passive recreation site combined with a cultural component open and accessible to the public, a Mass History Alliance official said in 2023.
In 1992, along with the late Edward Molin and Jim Gaines, he founded Newburyport’s Maudslay Arts Center, a popular cultural and entertainment destination. As president and vice president of the center, the Costellos have personally welcomed tens of thousands of patrons.
Check back for more on this developing story later today.