Senior Center to be renamed for Ayotte

Formal renaming ceremony now slated for Aug. 15

WOONSOCKET – More than a year after the City Council passed a resolution to rename the Senior Center in his honor, the late Mayor Gaston A. Ayotte Jr. will officially get what’s coming to him.

City Council President Daniel Gendron announced the council will hold a formal ceremony to dedicate the 84 Social St. facility as the Gaston A. Ayotte Jr. Memorial Senior Center on Saturday, Aug. 15.

“The City Council passed a resolution a year ago in June 2019 recognizing and honoring Mr. Ayotte’s significant service and contributions to the city by naming the senior center the Gaston A. Ayotte Jr. Senior Citizens Center,” Gendron said. “The long-awaited signage has finally arrived and we will now be holding a formal dedication.”

This is actually the second landmark to be named for Ayotte, who died suddenly in 2005 at the age of 71 after serving in numerous elective positions. Ayotte Little League Field was named for him and still exists, though it’s been on the auction block for years and no sign or other marker remains there, at Providence Street and Great Road, to call attention to the distinction.

As efforts to market the site continued last year, the council thought it appropriate to provide Ayotte with a lasting tribute worthy of his record. The operators of the Senior Center quickly embraced the idea.

Ayotte served as mayor from 1981 to 1985, but he was also the very first official who served in every elective capacity in municipal government.

Trained as an accountant, Ayotte got into politics at the age of 25 then lapsed away from public life for more than a decade. He ran for council again in 1967 and thereafter served on the panel for almost 14 more years.

He automatically became mayor in 1981 when, as president of the city council,