CITY OF TONAWANDA, N.Y. — Just days before Christmas, City of Tonawanda 1st Ward councilman Thomas Newman died of COVID complications.
His widow told 2 On Your Side's Claudine Ewing that she wants to fill his seat on the council.
Kerrie Newman said it's important to carry on her late husband's work and serve the people who voted for him in November. He was the lone Republican on the council.
"He absolutely loved this city, and he fought very very hard for the residents, to earned the respect and trust of all the First Ward residents," Kerrie Newman said. "And that's why he was re-elected. Even though I am not Tom, we shared the same values and morals and ethics. I will not be a replacement, but an extension of him."
On Tuesday, the City of Tonawanda Common Council will put forward a resolution for Kerrie Newman to be appointed to the now-vacant seat that Thomas held.
Not long after his re-election in November, Newman, his wife, and others in the household tested positive for COVID. The councilman and his wife were hospitalized; she eventually went home, but Thomas ended up in ICU. He died on December 17.
The First Ward councilman was also the City of Tonawanda Republican Party chairman, and he also served as a volunteer firefighter.
His widow told Ewing she was approached by some residents to consider filling the seat. She consulted with close family and friends she decided to continue the work her husband loved to do.
Newman says she will never fill her husband's shoes. "I want to make the residents proud," she said.
"I will vote the way that he would, and I will fight the way that he would, and I just want to make the city as well as my husband proud," Newman said.