MASSENA -- The town supervisor-elect says his first priorities after taking office will be pursuing a closer relationship with the village and getting the town board to appoint a new councilman in January.

The supervisor-elect’s win means the Democrats now control both the Massena village and town boards. On the town board, Democrat councilmen Albert Nicola and Samuel Carbone Jr. also ran, but they were unopposed. Joseph Brown, also a Democrat, ran unopposed for town justice.

“We want to get things organized. I felt things had just kind of languished and we want to rebuild relationships to the different communities and different governments … A lot of work that has to be done,” O’Shaughnessy said shortly after learning of his win on Tuesday night. There’s also the study for dissolution and combination of the village and the town. One of my biggest priorities is I want to establish a good working relationship with the village.

“I don’t think we should do anything without working with each other.”

The village and town are splitting the bill for an ongoing $25,000 dissolution feasibility study.

“Even if we don’t dissolve the village, if the decision is made to keep both entities, depending, we should still make every effort to work together. They’ve got a great village board and now we’ve got a great town board,” O’Shaughnessy said.

He also mentioned that he wants to come to a resolution on the Highway Department problem. Their aging building is in need of repair or replacement, meanwhile the village Department of Public Works needs a place to store their sand and salt.

O’Shaughnessy’s election to the top town office will leave a vacant town councilman seat once he is sworn in to the new post. He wants to see the board appoint someone to complete his term, which would be on the ballot next year.

“I can tell you we’re canvassing and talking to people and would want to definitely fill it,” O’Shaughnessy said. “I would want it done on the organizational meeting night, so that person would get sworn in the same time I would.”

O’Shaughnessy on Wednesday said he would be heading out to “do one of my first promises to my constituents and pick up my yard signs.”

He and Gray seemed to take differing views of the campaign leading up to Tuesday night.

“It was a hard, good campaign. We worked hard to get our message across, the Democrats, and I believe the people really thought that we had, and we’ve got a lot of work to do. We’re going to engage a new set of people. We want to involve people that haven’t been involved before … and move Massena forward,” O’Shaughnessy said.

“This is the most negative race I’ve ever seen and I’ve been living full-time in Massena since 1986. I’ve never seen a campaign this dirty,” Gray said. The campaign included the two candidates sparring over leadership ability and experience. Toward the end, screenshotted social media comments from Gray's personal page entered the public discourse, which some said they considered offensive and insensitive. The Massena Democrat chairwoman described some of the captured remarks as “racist.”

Despite that, Gray had kind words for his opponent and wishes him well.

“I called Steve O’Shaughnessy and wished him luck and I look forward to seeing all the positive results in the next four years,” Gray said Tuesday night after the election results came out. “If you respect it [electoral system] when you win, you’ve got to respect it when you lose.”

“I thank the voters that supported me. I thank the people that supported me for eight years. I always tried to do what’s best for Town of Massena and I have results to prove that,” Gray said.