MONTICELLO — George Nikolados held his lead against incumbent Gary Sommers to become the next mayor in the Village of Monticello.

After absentee ballots were counted on Friday, Nikolados had garnered 473 votes compared to Sommers' 281.

“I'm very honored and excited to be elected mayor,” Nikolados said on Sunday. “I look forward to working with my colleagues to move the Village of Monticello forward as there are many exciting projects and opportunities on the horizon. There is much interest in the village at the moment, and it is up to us to capitalize on it.”

Including absentee ballots Michael Banks maintained his front runner status to claim one of the two open trustee seats. He collected 384 votes.

Banks is cofounder of H&M Realty Services LLC and a former member of the Village of Monticello Planning Board.

As trustee, Banks said his goals are to reduce crime in the village and entice more businesses to open up on the largely vacant Broadway. He also expressed a desire to get the landlords who own properties on Broadway to commit to more repairs and renovations.

“We need a parks and recreation program, which we haven't had in a number of years, but I want to do it better than we've ever had [before],” Banks said.

He's optimistic about what can happen in the village and what's on the horizon.

“I see great things,” Banks said. “Where other people don't see opportunity, I see it.”

Local coach and activist Michael Greco pulled significant support as a write-in candidate, particularly among the young people in the village. Greco was ahead of Incumbent Trustee Carmen Rue by 18 votes as of presstime Thursday.

Yet Rue managed to turn the tides, pulling ahead of Greco with the final vote being 365 to 260.

Trustee candidate David Komatz garnered a total of 225 votes.

During the campaign, Rue had allied herself with Sommers and was critical of many of Nikolados' positions. Now she'll serve her fourth consecutive term as a village trustee.

“I offer my hand in congratulations to Monticello's newly elected mayor, George Nikolados, and junior Trustee, Michael Banks, and promise to work with them on the good things they hope to accomplish, and to oppose any issues which I might believe are unfair or detrimental to the good of our community and Village,” Rue said.

It seemed for a time that the election results would be contested as Sommers and Rue filed a lawsuit against the Sullivan County Board of Elections alleging that over 100 absentee ballot applicants did not receive their ballots.

Over the weekend, however, Sommers and Rue both consented to the dismissal of their lawsuit in a letter to Hon. Julian D. Schreibman, Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York.

“Since filing of the above entitled action we have consulted new legal counsel who devoted significant time to research and provided what we consider to be well informed advice that regardless of the merits of our Verified Petition and the facts as alleged therein, it is our attorney's opinion that we lack clear standing in the matter as filed, and that if such a Complaint is to be made it ought rightly be presented in a State or Federal venue of their choosing by the aggrieved voters who were injured by the discriminatory actions of the Board of Elections as alleged, in violation of their civil rights,” the letter states.