To the editor:

I feel a little like Al Pacino in The Godfather movie, when he suggests that no matter how hard he tries to get out they keep dragging him back in. In the aftermath of an election in which I was clearly defeated, it would be my intention and remains my intention to fade out of sight at least until the new year and give the new council an opportunity to proceed unhindered. However, I will respond if somebody makes an accusation with respect to me. 

Mr. Philip Driscoll suggested in a letter (“Mr. Levesque: This ‘reprobate’ has a memory,” The Portsmouth Times, Nov. 7) that I had described him at a Town Council hearing as a “reprobate.” I cannot guarantee I didn’t say that, so I will tell you that usually you use the term “reprobate” for someone you have at least a little affection. 

He then meanders through the issue of a potential sewage treatment in the north end of a town. He acknowledges that I put in legislation at the direction of the Portsmouth Town Council, whose members included Huck Little, Denny Canario, James Seveney, Bill West and Peter McEntire. I would hope he is not accusing all of them, who have stellar reputations in our community of any sort of sub rosa conduct?

At the time of the proposed legislation, the state Department of Environmental Management was essentially threatening to shut down any number of homes in Portsmouth Park, Island Park and Valhalla based upon determination that they were polluting. The town requested that I put in legislation and I felt at the time I was duty bound to do so. My desire at the time would have been for the Portsmouth Water and Fire District to take on the obligation, as there’s a symbiosis between water going into the house and sewage coming out. But I was a state legislator and this was a particularly town issue, so I stayed out of it. 

Charles Levesque

Portsmouth