By James V. Horrigan
Staff Writer
When Brian Dell’Olio topped the ticket earlier this month in the race for a three-year seat on the Scarborough School Board, runner-up John D. Cole wasn’t surprised, given the 25-year-old Dell’Olio’s deep roots in town, which stretch back five generations, Cole said.  
Dell’Olio confirmed the pedigree earlier this week during an interview at Tim Horton’s on Route 1, an eatery he calls his home away from home.
But he left himself some wiggle room in the process.
“I say five generations because that’s what my grandmother feels comfortable saying and she’s sort of my validation, or the person who puts merit or authority behind it,” Dell’Olio said.
So when exactly did the first Dell’Olio settle in Scarborough?
Not that long ago, apparently. The blue blood running through his veins comes from his mother’s side, Dell’Olio said.
“She was a Higgins,” he said.
As in Higgins Beach?
As in Higgins, one of those hallowed old Scarborough family names that line the border of the 350th anniversary map, alongside names like Prout, King, Westbrook and Moulton?
“I don’t know if it’s the same Higgins as Higgins Beach, but here’s a guy who might know the answer, my cousin Dale Higgins.”
Dell’Olio gestured toward a man who had just walked into Tim Horton’s and greeted the new School Board member with a wave.
“I always thought we were in some way, but probably a long, long bloodline [ago] or something,” Dale Higgins confirmed.
Sort of.
“My father’s father and Brian’s mother’s father were brothers,” Higgins said. But as for the connection to the branch of the family who gave their name to the beach, inn, market and lobster pound?
“I just don’t know for sure,” said Dale Higgins, who turns out to be Dell’Olio’s second cousin.
But why, growing up in Scarborough with a name like that on his family tree has Dell’Olio never tried to prove or disprove the consanguinity?
“That is something we should really figure out as a family,” he told Dale Higgins.
“I don’t know for sure, for sure, but I would think that somehow through everything we are,” Higgins said.
“We’ve got to be related somehow,” Dell’Olio agreed. He said his interest in finding out more about his Scarborough forebears was sparked by a combination of things, including his recent campaign for office and the on-going celebration of Scarborough’s 350th anniversary.
He does however confess that growing up his interest in genealogy was focused on the paternal side.
“I’ve always been more interested in the Italian side of my family. It’s just a bit more exotic, I guess,” he said.
“Dell’Olio is just such a different and interesting last name that people always kind of asked about that, as opposed to Higgins. So that’s kind of why I haven’t really looked into it.”
If that’s the case, then what exactly does Dell’Olio mean in Italian? Another cousin, he said, told him it means fish oil.
“Or something ‘of the oil,’” he said.
As far as the 350th anniversary celebration is concerned, Dell’Olio is co-chairman of the Scarborough High School all-class reunion with Linda Lambert.
“We’re working very hard to try and have an event in conjunction with the celebration that provides an opportunity for anybody that went to Scarborough High School, regardless of whether you graduated or moved or whatever, to come back and see old friends and how the high school has changed,” Dell’Olio said.
He described the event, which will take place in July, to coincide with the start of the 350th anniversary celebration, as more of a homecoming than a reunion.
So whether he’s a Higgins of the Higgins’s or not, Dell’Olio is getting into the municipal birthday spirit, even if he’s yet to read “Scarborough at 350.”
But that’s not to say he won’t.
“The book looks absolutely fabulous and I was going to purchase it because I do obviously support the cause.”
Then why hasn’t he?
“I suspect a little birdie might have said something about a Christmas present,” Dell’Olio said with a laugh.
But he’s not going to wait for a visit from Santa before purchasing a copy of Deb Merrill’s commemorative map.
“It’s definitely something that I would like to have for sure because it’s absolutely beautiful. I think it would be really great to have it in the office. It would make a great talking piece with clients,” he said of North Atlantic Securities, LLC, where Dell’Olio works with individuals and families as an investment/ security analyst and advisor.
Although he grew up on the Scottow Hill Road, Dell’Olio lives now on the Pine Point Road, in a house owned by his mother, which he shares with his girlfriend, a teacher in Freeport, and yet another cousin.
“It was my grandmother’s house, that my grandfather built back when Pine Point was a single-lane dirt road,” he said. Dell’Olio would like to buy property in town, but is waiting for the right opportunity.
“Property is expensive here. Scarborough is becoming quite an affluent town south of Portland. I think the town is working on some sort of affordable housing initiatives, but there’s just not a whole lot out there,” he said.
But that doesn’t mean he’s looking to move elsewhere.
“I really have no plans to leave. I like Scarborough a lot. It’s a great community and we have a lot here. It’s the same reason why people keep moving in,” he said.
Although he is welcoming to newcomers, Dell’Olio said he can tell, whether out on the campaign trail or having a cup of coffee at Tim Horton’s, if the person he is speaking with is new to Scarborough.
The number one way that he knows? It’s how they pronounce Haigis, as in Haigis Parkway.
“If they say ‘Hay-giss,’ they don’t know. It’s generally a sign that they haven’t been here too long. If they pronounce it ‘High-gus,’ that’s how I get an idea of how long they’ve been here,” he said.
But the politician in him causes Dell’Olio to qualify his statement. It’s not necessarily a case of townies versus people from away.
“I don’t know that I see it as ‘Us versus Them,’ because that kind of has a negative, almost battle connotation to it. People want to live here for the same reason that I want to live here,” Dell’Olio said.
Although he doesn’t want to talk about his plans –if any– to run for higher office in the future, it is clear that Brian Dell’Olio, though only 25, is a thoughtful, circumspect man.
“Is there a way to find common ground to come together on something? That’s always the part [of running for office] that I’ve enjoyed the most,” he said.
Dell’Olio and the other two new members of the Scarborough School Board will be sworn in by the Town Council on Wednesday, December 5. The first meeting of the new committee will take place the following night.