Castillo bids farewell, hints at future run

Andrés Castillo

By JEFF MORRIS

Town Board member Andrés Castillo, who was elected in 2021, said goodbye at the board’s Dec. 16 meeting, after having chosen not to run for another term in November.

Castillo was the town’s first Latino Town Board member.

Supervisor Ellen Calves introduced Castillo’s farewell by saying, “We wanted to extend our gratitude to you for your service, your commitment, and your passion for so many worthwhile projects.”

She said he had “really made sure that all residents have a voice, especially those residents who identify as Hispanic; you’ve really tried to make sure that all people are heard.” Calves ran down a list of the many initiatives of which Castillo had been a part.

“It has truly been the honor of my life to serve as a Town Board member these last four years,” said Castillo, who first acknowledged his parents. “They made the bold decision to emigrate to the U.S. from Peru — that’s where I’m from — about 26 years ago.” He said thanks to their “determination and sacrifice,” he had the privilege of growing up in northern Westchester, also obtaining an education and all the opportunities that came with it, which would not have been possible in his home country.

“I’m a proud graduate of the Bedford Central School District, which empowered me to attend Princeton University, where I became the first in my family to graduate from college,” Castillo said.

His initial dream was to become a health care professional, “which clearly is not what’s happening right now,” but he experienced a radical shift in where he believed his work and advocacy could best serve the community during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“At the peak of the pandemic, when the challenges that my patients had been experiencing were not only entrenched in structural inequities, but also as a matter of life or death, I knew that I could no longer sit back and work in a broken system — I had to become the change that I was looking for,” he said. 

From that moment, when he ran for office at the age of 25, to his last few weeks as a first-term council member, he has been serving the town “with this very ambitious goal” of creating “a model of local government that advances the quality of life for all residents” and leaves no one behind. “I made this my mission because I was fully aware that there are entire groups of people that have never been represented on this Town Eoard,” Castillo said. He cited the town’s capacity to “serve as a beacon for local progress.”

Castillo said in looking back at the accomplishments of the last four years, “I can truly say that we have gone above and beyond to fulfill this goal that we had laid out from the very beginning.” He mentioned being among the top three clean energy communities in New York state, which he credited to both the Town Board and collaboration with Bedford 2030, and Director of Energy and Sustainability Mark Thielking; promoting public health through the town’s first community health fair; securing a $625,000 federal grant to support mental health and prevention of drug abuse in local schools; creating a Changemakers program and supporting recruitment for Westchester Youth Alliance; collaborating with assemblymember Chris Burdick to secure a $300,000 state grant to promote equitable access to college education at Fox Lane High School; launching Bedford Hispanos Unidos, dedicated to unifying and empowering the town’s Hispanic residents; and a needs assessment through the county’s Hispanic Advisory Board, which had not been done in 20 years. “It’s really important, because it will inform equitable policies and resources at the county level,” Castillo said.

He also listed fostering the social, political and infrastructural conditions needed to advance affordability in Bedford, including the recent Affordable Housing Forum. “This, I believe, will promote awareness and consensus to address what doesn’t have to be a very controversial and divisive issue; I think it’s something we all care about.” Castillo added, “You can expect a lot of great policies on affordable housing to be coming in the first quarter 2026, and I’ll certainly be involved in that, hopefully through our housing committee.” 

Castillo went on to say he would be remiss if he did not “thank and acknowledge my fiancee Bruno, who not only knocked on hundreds of doors when I ran for office, but also patiently waits for me at home during the many times that my public commitments take up most of my schedule, especially in the evening.”

In May, said Castillo, he will be graduating from Columbia School of International and Public Affairs with a master’s degree in public administration, specializing in urban social policy, leadership, innovation and design. “Although the next few months will be largely devoted to finishing my studies and finding my next role, what I can promise you is that I will remain actively involved in building on the progress we’ve made in Bedford for as long as I possibly can. I am also not discounting a future run for office, so you may see me again on a ballot in the near future. I’m really sorry, Bruno, I know I said I would spend more time with you, but you know how much this means to me!”

As of Jan. 1, Castillo’s seat on the board was filled by Midge Iorio, who ran unopposed in November.