PEABODY — Local business owner Rochelle Agneta is challenging Mayor Ted Bettencourt in the Nov. 4 general election.
Agneta, 58, owns Salon CC in Peabody and unsuccessfully ran against Bettencourt in 2023. If elected, she said she’ll aim to provide more support for the city’s special needs students and small businesses.
“My first run was really more about fiscal responsibility in the city, but over the past two years, one of the groups that really tied up my heart was meeting with the parents of special needs children,” she said. “I never realized how bad Peabody was failing in that area with these parents.”
Bettencourt, 52, is seeking his eighth consecutive term as mayor. He hopes to continue improving infrastructure in the city, and keep a job he loves, he said.
“Peabody is making great progress in so many different areas,” he said. “There’s some pivotal projects taking place in the city that I want to continue to work on, and try to make the improvements that we need for our city in the short term and in the long term.”
The Salem News interviewed both candidates on Peabody’s pressing issues. The following sections include their responses.
Infrastructure
Beyond the construction of a new public safety building and Peabody Veterans Memorial High School, Bettencourt is excited to finish the reconstruction of Central Street.
“That project is going to make a major difference in terms of the safety of that area and just in terms of the overall look and esthetic of the area,” he said.
He also plans to improve parks like Corbeil Park off Roosevelt Avenue, and seek state funding to repave roads including Andover Street (Route 114) leading into Wilson Square.
Agneta wants to improve the city’s website, and road and sidewalks. Doing this will “make Peabody look investable for businesses to come in and invest their money into our city,” she said.
“We have an industrial park with probably one of the worst roadways around,” Agneta said. “It’s full of potholes. It’s terrible, and you’re looking for people to invest in a city that doesn’t even have good roadways.”
Traffic
It’s difficult to fix Peabody’s traffic issues based on the design of the city, both Agneta and Bettencourt said.
Peabody could ease traffic through a bus program like the Salem Skipper, or an expansion of it into the city, and offering free busing to all Peabody Public Schools students, Agneta said.
“I would rather see us not charge parents and get kids on buses and take the parent’s cars off the streets that way,” she said. “A lot of us are driving our children to save the 350 odd dollars of not having the bus.”
Bettencourt said improving light sequences at stoplights to move traffic through intersections faster can help traffic issues.
“That’s something we’re continually working on and trying to find improvements to, but there’s no easy solution to that issue,” he said. “It’s something the city has been facing for decades, and we can make little movements here or there, but it’s a very difficult issue just because there’s so many cars on the road.”
Housing
Bettencourt said the city has done its job in providing more housing by approving multifamily projects in recent years, particularly 40B projects with units designated as affordable by the state. But some of these projects have stalled because of financial or market concerns.
“I’m hoping that some of those projects start to happen here,” he said. “Also, we need to look at some additional housing opportunities on Main Street and in our downtown to try to find that healthy mix of commercial and residential that I think are needed to support one another. That’s something I think we’ll be tackling in 2026.”
Agneta wants to see new condos, duplexes or other small homes that are affordable for elderly residents and young families. She likes the idea of putting 20 or so tiny homes at Centennial Park as part of a pilot program for affordable, small options.
“Developers will tell you there’s no money building tiny homes. That’s why they all build these multimillion-dollar mansions,” Agneta said. “But the city has the ability, like other cities, to offer the land to the developers. When you offer something to them, it gives them a reason to work together.”
Finances
When asked if she thinks Peabody is in a good financial position, Agneta said, “Not at all.”
“We’re dropping (on our bond rating), and part of that is because we spend, and we spend, and we don’t invest in our city,” she said. “That goes back to what I’m saying about the roadways. You need to invest in your roadways if you want to bring businesses here.”
She criticized Peabody’s reliance on reserves to fill budget holes, saying free cash should be saved for projects like road and sidewalk repairs, and said the city can’t afford to buy land to preserve as open space when it can’t afford to. The city also needs a full-time business liaison, not a part-time position held by the mayor’s chief of staff, as it currently stands.
Bettencourt disagrees with Agneta’s economic assessment.
“I think we’re in very strong financial condition,” he said. “Currently, we’ve been able to tackle major infrastructure improvements in our city, in our school system, our roads, and we still maintain one of the very lowest tax rates in Essex County and even in Massachusetts.”
The city has taken on additional debt to do this work, but doing so was “necessary and long overdue,” he said. There are also opportunities at Centennial Park to bring in new revenue for the city, he added.
Bullying
Following the death of 14-year-old Higgins Middle School student Jason Bernard, who died by suicide in May after being bullied by classmates, the city put together bullying and mental health task forces, mental health workshops for parents and a new Student Resource & Support Center for mental health at the middle school.
“I’ve really been happy with the efforts that we’ve made over the past couple of months,” Bettencourt said. “I feel like we’ve provided some additional services for our students, for our teachers, for our school community, for our families… but I think we also need to look at opportunities at our elementary schools as well.”
Agneta said the city’s steps to address bullying have been in the right direction, though she isn’t sure how much they have helped.
“It’s going to take open communications between parents and the city,” she said. “As a mayor, I would have a monthly open door so that parents could come in and talk to me, as well as residents, business owners, anyone.”
Contact Caroline Enos at CEnos@northofboston.com .