To the editor, my family has had a very long connection with the Common Fence Point Improvement Association. At one point my brother, Thomas, was the president. For a long period of time I was the attorney for the Trustees and the Association. And in the 2000’s my family gave to the Association land to help them enlarge the CFP Hall to its current dimensions. My commitment to the organization is not in question. I have never brought this up before as things you do for your community are not the fodder of political campaigns. I very distressed that a Portsmouth Town Council person, David Gleason, used his position as a fiduciary of the Common Fence Point Trustees to block an effort by the League of Women Voters to have a candidate forum at the Hall. The timing of this effort was evidently to prevent it from happening at all as the Hall had been reserved more than a month before the subsequent refusal. In the last election none of the Republican candidates, and they are the same this year, attended the candidate forum, which took place at the Common Fence Point Hall. They did try to suggest that the League of Women Voters had not adequately notified them. All the Democratic candidates were there and the Notice was the same for each. I have been very impressed with the activities the Hall has conducted over the last several years. It is truly one of the shining stars of the Portsmouth volunteer community. For Mr Gleason to use it for his own purposes was simply wrong.
Very truly yours
Charles J. Levesque
Democratic Candidate for Portsmouth Town Council
