HOME: http://www.blackmarketgold.com/taxpayersbridge.html SOURCE: http://www.seacoastonline.com/2000news/11_15_sb2.htm TAXPAYERS BATTLE OVER NAME ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Portsmouth, NH Wednesday, November 15, 2000 Townies battle over name of Big Dig bridge By Associated Press BOSTON (AP) Residents of the Charlestown neighborhood are taking issue with Gov. Paul Cellucci's move to name a Big Dig bridge after the late civil rights champion Leonard P. Zakim. Charlestown residents say the bridge's location, and the fact that its two towers are modeled after the Bunker Hill Monument, call for it to be named the Bunker Hill Bridge. "The bridge is too important to be named after just one person," Arthur Walsh, a member of the Charlestown Historical Society board of directors, told the Boston Herald. So far, Walsh and a handful of others have collected over 1,000 signatures in support of their name. State Rep. Eugene L. O'Flaherty, D-Chelsea, has asked the Legislature's joint committee on transportation with whom Cellucci's bill currently resides to amend the name to the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Freedom Bridge. "I don't think that's a big deviation from the intent of the governor," O'Flaherty said. "I don't feel the friends or family of Leonard Zakim would feel that's detrimental to his legacy in any way." Cellucci, however, isn't budging. "The people of Massachusetts and Charlestown already have a wonderful and fitting memorial to the patriots on Bunker Hill the Bunker Hill Monument," said Bridget Goertz, a Cellucci spokeswoman. O'Flaherty said he'll seek to kill Cellucci's bill if there isn't some sort of compromise. "I don't want to take it to that degree," he said. "But I'm going to make sure the voice of Charlestown is heard on this issue." Walsh said O'Flaherty's suggested name is too long, and hoped that Zakim will be honored with something else in downtown Boston. Zakim, the crusading head of the New England office of the Anti-Defamation League, died Dec. 2, 1999, after a long battle with cancer. He was 46.