METHUEN — Former Mayor Dennis DiZoglio recently published “The Value of Political Capit$l,” a book looking back on more than three decades of his life that were dedicated to public service.
“I had a great career in my mind and I wanted to share that experience,” he said.
DiZoglio said serving three terms as mayor was, by far, the highlight of his 35-year career.
“There’s no better position than mayor to make a difference in people’s lives,” he said. “I was the first modern-day mayor for Methuen after a Charter change created a city form of government. The way the city was governed changed dramatically.”
DiZoglio captured 74% of the vote when he was first elected mayor in 1993. In 1995, he took 84% of the vote before finishing with 80% of the vote in the 1997 campaign.
He said one of his major accomplishments as mayor was transforming the Methuen Mall into what is now The Loop.
DiZoglio said the property value of the Methuen Mall took a nosedive in 1992 when anchor stores Sears and Filene’s Basement moved to The Mall at Rockingham Park in Salem, N.H.
During the next four years, another 65 tenants would also decide to leave and do business elsewhere.
“The only thing that was there were mom and pop stores,” he said, adding that property owner MetLife had become an “absentee landlord.”
By the time the Methuen Mall closed its doors, the annual property tax revenue had plummeted from $60 million to $18 million.
However, DiZoglio said developer Martin Spaggot soon purchased the parcel from MetLife. As a result, Spaggot breathed new life into that part of the city as he introduced the concept of an outdoor mall.
The Methuen Mall was subsequently demolished in 1999 and ground was broken to construct The Loop.
“It was a very intense timeframe that we worked on to get The Loop to happen,” said DiZoglio.
He said another accomplishment was the renovation and reconstruction of the Marsh, Tenney and Timony grammar schools.
However, the job did not come without its share of challenges. Perhaps one of the greatest obstacles DiZoglio encountered surfaced on the evening of Dec. 11, 1995 when a boiler exploded at Malden Mills. This instantly sparked a massive six-alarm blaze that destroyed the textile manufacturing plant on Broadway.
Following his tenure as mayor, DiZoglio went on to serve as the deputy general manager of the MBTA and the executive director of the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission.
His book is available for $15 through major distributors or online at loompress.com using ISBN number 978-1-7351689-6-8.
