Okay, well good morning, everybody, and happy new year.

Thank you all so much for coming out today to the Yorktown swearing in ceremony of some of our fantastic public servants.

My name is Matt Slater, honored to be asked to be the master of ceremonies for this important event for our community.

And we're going to begin, if you could please rise, we'll have Troop 173 present the cultures.

Color Guard, advance.

One nation, another God, indivisible with all.

Thank you so much, Karen.

Next we will have Rabbi Haber of the Habbat of Yorktown.

Please join us at the podium for the vocation.

Thank you.

Almighty God.

We gather here today for the inauguration of the newly elected and re-elected officials of the town of Yorktown.

We offer thanks for the privilege of living in a community, where leadership is entrusted to individuals committed to serving the public good.

For it is through the presence of an upright system of governance that law and order are maintained and that citizens are assured their freedoms and safety.

We are painfully reminded of this truth by recent events around the world, most tragically by the brutal attack at a public Hanukkah gathering in Bandai Beach, Sydney.

There, hatred was allowed to erupt into violence and innocent lives were lost.

Such moments remind us how essential wise, moral, and vigilant leadership is in protecting society and ensuring that hate finds no foothold in our communities.

May the distinguished men and women serving in the public office remain true to the founding, to the founding vision that this country be one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

And may we the people find the strength to hold steadfast to the time-honored values and principles that have made our society so decent, compassionate, and upstanding.

May our trust in God and our belief that every human being is created in his image, enable us to treat everyone with dignity, fairness, and equality.

Ribona Olamin, master of the universe.

Please grant wisdom, understanding, and knowledge to those who hold the power to make decisions on behalf of this town and its residents.

Guide them in their important work as they strive to strengthen this community, support its families, and enhance the quality of life of all who call Yorktown home.

Bless the officials being inaugurated today.

Bless them and their families with health, happiness, and success in all they do.

Grant them the integrity to choose what is right, the clarity to discern what is just, and the resolve to protect the rights and freedoms of every individual.

As King Solomon prayed, grant them a lave Shamor, a listening, compassionate heart, to serve with humility and with care.

May Yorktown be blessed with unity, prosperity, and peace.

And may God grant our leaders the wisdom and courage to ensure that hatred never enters our community, and that the values of life, justice, and compassion always prevail.

Amen.

Thank you.

You can all be seated now.

Again, I want to welcome you all to the Yorktown Swearing Inn for 2026.

Thank you to everyone who participated in our opening ceremony.

We can give them all one more round of applause, please.

From 3.73 to Rabbi Heaver, thank you all very, very much.

And thank you to all of you for joining us on this New Year's Day, a great tradition in here in Yorktown, where we come together as a community, as Yorktowners, to swear in our elected officials.

Today we will formally welcome our town supervisor, Ed Lacterman, our deputy supervisor Sergio Esposito, Councilman Lanny Gilbert, and Highway Superintendent Dave Paganelli as they begin, or in this case, as they continue their service to our community.

And I was informed before we started that Highway Superintendent Paganelli, if you enjoyed your clean roads driving here, he was up pretty late last night.

And so he may still be resting and recovering from his efforts.

But we thank him, and we thank the highways department staff and workers for always doing a great job here in Yorktown.

There are a few dignitaries I wanted to acknowledge and thank for joining us today.

We have Councilman Pat Murphy, I see here.

We have Councilwoman Susan Siegel.

We also have with us our town clerk, Diana Quest.

And I see, I think he's still here in the back.

We have our great police chief, Robert Noble, and men and women of the Yorktown Police Department who are here today, continuing to do a great job for us.

I see we have former town councilwoman Mary Capocha and former town clerk Jerry Schwab.

If we can give them all a round of applause, please.

We have Kevin Burns representing the Yorktown Republican Party and Peter Cleary for the Democratic Party.

Thank you so much, Calma, for joining us here today.

Again, this is a really special day.

And it's because of the special place that we get to call home, the great town of Yorktown.

Yorktown's built is a community built on strong neighborhoods, civic pride, and people who are willing to step forward and serve their neighbors.

Local government matters because it affects people's lives every single day.

For me, this moment is especially meaningful.

I'm a proud product of this community, and it's been an honor, absolute honor to serve your town as the town supervisor formerly and currently as the state assemblyman.

But no matter the role, the mission remains the same.

To protect the quality of life that makes this town such a special place to call home, a special place to live, work, and raise our families.

A special place to live, work, and raise our families.