When you are a city councilor there are certain liberties you’re granted that the everyday person may not feel like they have the opportunity to access. For instance, calling someone like John F.Kerry to discuss a matter pertinent to the city’s future, and actually getting him on the phone. Truthfully, everyone has the opportunity to access these people but so few make the attempt.

As a city councilor I plan to utilize those opportunities. Not that our federal legislative delegation will take time to chat with me on  regular basis, but I expect that if I made a call and specifically requested a conversation with either one of them that the chances are likely high that they may return that call.

One of the first calls I’d make will go to Senator Kerry. I’d like simply to suggest that if he expected support from New Bedford in the next election that he would have to work much harder at securing the funding for our harbor clean-up and remediation. My little girls Phoebe and Payton are very young, three years and ten months respectively. At the current rate of $15 million a year for Acushnet River remediation Phoebe will be twenty nine years old, just three years younger than I am now, before its clean enough for parents to feel safe about it.. So they won’t have child hood memories of playing amongst the rocks at the hurricane barrier like I do. Those are some of my fondest childhood memories too.

It’s a shame that no one has been hounding our government for the $300 million dollars necessary to complete the project. When the EPA and various non-profits joined forces to create the trust fund that resulted from litigation on the matter of industrial pollutants, wasn’t fixing the problem part of the equation? What happened to the fervor for remediation? Isn’t that fund constantly growing? I think that’s how trust funds work? Don’t they? I do believe they collect interest and are being fed on a regular basis by the companies found to be liable for the pollution of our very precious natural resource; The Acushnet River. It’s time to go and rattle that money tree for the appropriate rate of remediation and not accept this nickel and diming of New Bedford residents because, “eh, what do they care?, we’re fixing it right? We’ll get it done eventually.” That’s the wrong attitude.

I say we all write letters to John F. Kerry, and Barney Frank to remind them that we vote for them and if they like their jobs they will get to work on funding this remediation as a four year plan instead of a quarter century plan. We deserve it. Here are their addresses. And thanks for caring. 

Senator John F. Kerry     
Boston Office:      
One Bowdoin Square
Tenth Floor
Boston, MA 02114
Phone - (617) 565-8519
Fax - (617) 248-3870

Representative Barney Frank
Congressman Barney Frank
2252 Rayburn H.O.B.
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5931

Henry Bousquet

Henry is a New Bedford, Massachusetts native. He comes from a long line of city employees. He graduated from, St. Anthony Elementary, Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School and then from Bristol Community College with an Associates Degree in Communications.

Henry is thirty-one years old and has two children. He and his wife Theresa (Tee) have been married for 6 years. They own a home in New Bedford. He has been working in restaurants most of his life. He’s owned Four Corners Breakfast on Nauset Street for two years and Cobblestone Restaurant in Downtown for the last four years. In addition to his Associates Degree Henry holds a Culinary Educator Certification and is a Culinary Instructor at GNB Voc Tech. He is also a student at Fitchburg State College earning his Baccalaureate Degree in Occupational Education.

Henry has always had a passion for public service. As a business owner Henry jumped right into the non-profit volunteerism scene donating time, gift certificates, and services. He was a Board member at Downtown New Bedford Incorporated, is a SMILES mentor and an active alumni at BCC. His passion for the city of New Bedford and its future is evident in the pieces he writes for publications like http://NewBedford360.com, the Weekly Compass and his occasional editorials in the Standard Times. He decision to leave the entrepreneurial world and enter education supports his commitment to family and the future of this city.

Henry Bousquet can be reached at: Hoek7@aol.com

Henry is a candidate for New Bedford Councilor at Large in the upcoming 2007 election. Henry's Camapign website is located at: http://www.henrybousquet.com.

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