Photo: Mark Paolillo.

Belmont Selectman Mark Paolillo said he “is seriously leaning towards” running to retain his seat on the Board of Selectmen as his term will expire in April 2016.

“At some point, I will need to make a definite decision but as of now, I’m heading in that direction,” said the Pilgrim Road resident. 

Paolillo said he was not ready to commit fully to the race due to “changes in the circumstances of my family.” Paolillo’s father, former Cambridge Police Chief Anthony Paolillo, died this summer, and he is assisting his mother after her husband’s death. 

“I just want to wait to see how things are in the next month,” he said.

Paolillo pointed to several unfinished issues facing the town, such as a number of major building projects – a new High School, police station and Department of Public Works facility – as well as the implementation of a community path, that he would like to see either decided or “directed towards completion” as reasons for seeking re-election. 

Paolillo said if he does win a third election, “it will be my final term. There needs to be new blood coming on the board.” 

Paolillo, a financial executive, won his first term in April 2010 by handily defeating incumbent Daniel LeClerc and fellow challenger Anne Mahon. He ran unopposed in 2013.