By Russ Tarby
Contributing Writer
Marlene Ward, the first woman to be elected mayor of the village of Liverpool, died Jan. 8, after suffering a stroke. She was 80 years old.
Ward served on the Johnson Park improvement committee in the early 1980s and helped establish the Liverpool is The Place Summer Concert Series there. For eight years she clerked for the village justice court and worked part-time in the town of Salina tax department. She also served on the Liverpool Public Library Board of Trustees for more than 25 years.
After serving four terms as a village trustee from 1994 to 2000, Ward, a Republican, became mayor after defeating Democratic candidate and former Mayor Jon Zappola by a vote of 389 to 172 on June 20, 2001. She ran three more times, each time unopposed, and left office in 2009.
“She was my mentor,” said current Mayor Gary White, who succeeded her. “I’m going to miss her. Over the years, I’ve often reached out to Marlene for advice and to pick her memory. I’m going to miss her as a resource, but I’ll also miss her as a friend.”
White recalled that Ward and then-Trustee Dave Murray introduced him to local politics in the mid-1990s when they approached him for help sorting out a controversial consolidation with the Syracuse Police Department, from which White had recently retired as a deputy chief.
Dissolving that unpopular consolidation “was one of Marlene’s biggest accomplishments,” White said. That was a battle she fought and won even before becoming mayor.
As the village executive, Ward also waged an inspiring five-year battle with Wal-Mart, which proposed a SuperCenter on Route 57. She lobbied hard against the proposal, chaired public hearings on the subject, wrote letters to town, county and state officials, and in 2006 Ward and the village sued the Salina Town Planning Board, charging the planners with failing to protect town residents who live in the village from the adverse effects of the traffic increase which a Supercenter would cause. The Article 78 court case was never resolved, as Wal-Mart dropped its Route 57 development plans in April 2008.
Under her leadership, the village undertook several major projects, including replacement of a 77-year-old sanitary sewer system, business-district streetscaping and significant improvements at Washington Park, including the construction of an “Amish Country” gazebo in 2006.
During Ward’s administration, playground equipment was purchased and installed in smaller parks and the Tamarack Street-area drainage improvement project was completed.
Less visible but no less important was Ward’s helming of the Village Comprehensive Plan 2025, finally adopted in 2007 after more than five years of study by a committee led by Planning Board Chairman Nick Kochan. The plan encourages officials to nurture a “pedestrian-friendly” village by working to calm traffic, reduce signage and clarify zoning issues all to preserve the area’s quality of life.
Kochan called Ward’s work “visionary,” and predicted that her contributions to the Comprehensive Plan would benefit the village for decades to come.
Former North Syracuse Mayor John Heindorf described her as “a go-getter.”
A longtime and vocal supporter of women in politics, Marlene participated in Village Republican Caucus on April 27, 2015 when she nominated Christina Fadden Fitch to run for an open trustee seat on the village board.
Senior prom engagement
A native of the Albany area, Marlene Black transferred to Liverpool High School during her sophomore year in the early 1950s. There she met Richard “Ace” Ward, who was a senior.
After he graduated, Ace went off to college. “But in the fall of 1952, we got reacquainted,” he said. On their first date, they attended the Ice Capades, and when Marlene’s senior prom rolled around, Ace was there with a diamond ring. “In those days, the proms were held right there, at the high-school gym,” Ace recalled. “And that’s where we got engaged.”
After Marlene’s graduation Ace quit college and the couple tied the knot on Oct. 10, 1953 at DeWitt Community Church, with Ace’s friend, the Rev. Alex Carmichael officiating.
The Wards had two children, Margie and Rick, and three grandchildren – Rachel, David and Christopher – who lovingly called their grandma “Nana.”
In the spring of 1994, just after she was nominated to run for a village trustee seat, Marlene was diagnosed with breast cancer. She tackled that challenge the way she tackled public service, Ace said, with positive thinking, courage and strength.
Ace Ward pointed out that public service had always been important to his wife. “She was excited about every challenge that came along,” he said, “and she wanted to contribute wherever she could.”
