We conclude our 2025 Year in Review with memorials for Charlie Kirk and the victims of Oct. 7, the Veterans Day parade, a change on the Town Board following the 2025 local elections, and a devastating fire.
Yorktown residents and public figures gathered to denounce political violence after the Sept. 10 assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and the June shootings of two Democratic Minnesota state lawmakers, which killed Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and severely wounded John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette.
“Evil exists," Pastor Julio Vasquez of Freedom Chapel told the crowd gathered near Veterans’ Memorial Field & Track. "But the wonderful news this evening is that good also exists and we overcome evil with the good that each and every one of us do in our everyday life.”
The vigil – which initially saw the town’s Republican committee invite the Democratic committee to co-sponsor – ultimately proceeded as a GOP-led event when Democrats objected to including elected officials from either party in the speaker lineup.
A memorial service organized by a Yorktown high school student for victims of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack in Israel ended with verbal confrontations between attendees and a group of protesters outside the Albert A. Capellini Community and Cultural Center.
The Sept. 29 event, the second of its kind organized by YHS Senior Talia Pierson, featured a survivor of the terrorist attack and an American lone soldier who was wounded in Gaza. The packed gymnasium included local officials and community members—most in support of Israel, but some claiming the death of Palestinian civilians in Gaza was being minimized and ignored by town officials and the local media.
Yorktown loves a celebration, and 2025 included some big ones, from the solemn remembrances of Memorial Day and Veterans Day to the bright lights of the Fireman’s Carnival, the appetite-amplifying Feast of San Gennaro, the fast-and-furry-ous Grange Fair and the heart-warming Holiday Electric Lights Parade.
Yorktown residents voted in contested local elections for supervisor, two open town board seats, two spots on the Westchester County Board of Legislators, with incumbent Republican Ed Lachterman winning a re-rematch with Democrat Jann Mirchandani, and incumbent Democrats Colin Smith and Vedat Gashi returned to the county legislature along with reelected Democrat County Executive Ken Jenkins. With four candidates vying for two Town Board seats, incumbent Republican Sergio Esposito won reelection, while Ilan Gilbert, a Democrat, narrowly defeated incumbent Luciana Haughwout. Incumbents Highway Supervisor Dave Paganelli and Town Judge Aviah Cohen-Pierson were returned to office in uncontested elections.
A house fire on Ridge Street displaced a family just before the holidays, and while no residents or pets were injured, the situation was yet another challenge for an extended Cordova family still mourning the murder of Michael Raimondi, a teenager who was shot to death in a domestic incident that also saw his mother Christina and brother Matthew hospitalized in 2024.
Gunman Fernando Jimenez Meza, who was in the U.S. illegally, pleaded guilty to the crime and was sentenced on Dec. 18.
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