PEABODY — The race for Ward 4 councilor in Peabody is coming to a head. The candidates, Edward Charest, Julie Daigle, and John Salisbury-Rowswell all spoke about their reasons for running and concerns they have for the city.
Charest, the incumbent, is running for his third term as councilor. He said that he hopes he has proven himself to be reliable to the people, and show that they can contact him day and night for just about anything.
“It makes my day to help,” Charest said. “They just want someone to listen, and that’s my job.”
He recognizes that one of their biggest issues with the community is the 40B project being built on King Street. He hopes that people will realize that he did what he felt he was able to do.
A developer had bought the land, and had initially decided to put age-restricted apartments there for seniors. Charest said that, due to some backlash from the community, the developer changed course and went with 40B, or low-income, housing.
Because Peabody is below the 10 percent threshold required for the city to be in compliance with state ordinance, Charest said the developers were able to skip over the town’s legislation and file their documents with the state.
“I feel for the neighborhood,” Charest said. “I don’t agree with this development. We tried to work with them for the best deal for the city, but you can’t say no now that they’ve gone ahead.”
Daigle has worked for City Hall for most of her life. She started as an intern under former Mayor Peter Torigian, and accepted a position as a senior treasury clerk under former Mayor Mike Bonfanti and was the city’s first business liaison, a position created by incumbent Mayor Edward A. Bettencourt Jr.
“I thought I’d never leave,” Daigle said.
She had the opportunity to move over to the Chamber of Commerce after giving birth to her son, and has worked there, helping create more business opportunities throughout Peabody.
While she did initially support the 40B project on King Street, Daigle says she has since stopped her support. She said the project was ideal when it was going to be a 55-and-over community, but still not a bad idea when there would be less units. Now that she has seen the full proposal, she doesn’t support it at all.
“We need housing in Peabody, but we need the right projects,” Daigle said. “It’s too bad we didn’t work with them earlier on for something we all can live with there.”
Daigle said she decided to run because of her son. She wants to make Peabody into the community she remembers growing up in for him and other children of his generation.
“I feel like I’ve been training for this all my life. I have a good relationship with everyone at City Hall; they’re like my family.”
Salisbury-Rowswell is a molecular biologist running for the position of councilor for the second time. He doesn’t have any experience working in elected office but has volunteered for many different nonprofit organizations.
Salisbury-Rowswell said that he is running because he feels that is his best option to see changes made to his neighborhood.
“I do my homework and when something is wrong in the ward, I get involved and do the fact checking as needed,” Salisbury-Rowswell said. “I just think that, thus far, we haven’t had much of a voice.”
Salisbury-Rowswell said that he wants community members to understand everything going on in City Hall, and that is what he feels the role of a city councilor should be. He says he has brought up many issues and wants to continue doing so
“A campaign is supposed to be a discussion on what the neighborhood wants, how good of an advocate you are, how well you understand neighborhood needs,” Salisbury-Rowswell said. “I don’t necessarily, I’m not looking to look at this as a stepping stone. I want to rep my neighborhood.”
Voting locations for precincts 1, 2 and 3 for Ward 4 elections are at Higgins Middle School, 85 Perkins St. Precinct 3A’s voting location is Brooksby Village MacIntosh Building, 300 Brooksby Village Drive. Polling locations will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sept. 14.
