I am writing this letter in regards to the Kingston State Park which has been neglected and fallen into disrepair. The State Park in Kingston NH is a beautiful area with shady pine groves and a sandy beach on a small lake. During the summer of 2007 there was no lifeguard, the beach area was not raked and cleaned, and grass was not mowed. The bathhouses and showers, which were recently built, were not opened and people needed to use putrid portable toilets and many used the nearby bushes instead adding to the problems of the park. People need parks as much as ever and this is a sad reflection of the America we live in today in.
Year round there are many people who walk dogs in the park area and the lack of a “pet sanitation area” with bags and rubbish removal make for for an unsightly and unsanitary situation.
I hope that for the summer of 2008 the park can have additional personnel and increased services. Perhaps the Fee structure can be revised to support these costs.
Please contact your State and Local representative about this issue
Carl Oppenheimer Kingston
To the Editor:
Members of the Hampstead Association of School Staff are extremely grateful and pleased that the townspeople of Hampstead voted in favor of our contract. The Association would like to thank the voters for approving our contract settlement. Our jobs support the children, the administrators, the teachers and the parents and we are very pleased with the support we received from the voters at the polls.
We would also like to thank the School Board and their negotiations team. It isn’t always easy to negotiate a contract, but the Association believes the manner in which both teams participated helped the process immensely by allowing open, productive and respectful communications.
Jill Owens Hampstead
To the Editor:
"Ruthie's Law" and SB2 in Fremont
The Town of Fremont held its last traditional town meeting on Saturday March 15. Next year, there will be something called a "deliberative session" and then a full day of voting by secret ballot (known as SB2).
It was also a sad occasion as we paid tribute to the late Barbara Baker who had been a formidable presence in town government for decades. An empty chair with a purple ribbon was placed next to her spot at the supervisors of the checklist table. She was greatly missed.
The meeting lasted much longer than needed, since five people (all of them foes of the traditional town meeting) had petitioned for secret balloting on several articles--including one which did not involve any taxpayer expense. It was their right to do so, but these were not controversial articles --as the subsequent results proved. We were left to speculate on the real reason for these unnecessary and time-consuming secret balloting.
Resident Keith Stanton (one of the five petitioners), who has been leading the charge for SB2 for the past three years, called for a vote to honor Ruth Anderson, former deputy tax collector, for her "support" in seeing that SB2 was passed. People were puzzled; what kind of support had she provided to this group? Considerable money had been spent by the SB2 group with its flyer in a local newspaper --had she underwritten that or other expenses? What was even more bizarre was Stanton's suggestion that we call SB2 "Ruthie's Law." For many of us, that sounded a bit like "Megan's Law" and other such laws that have to do with honoring a female victim of a heinous crime. We lifted up our pink cards and almost unanimously voted "No" because many people had respect for Ruth Anderson and knew this was not the way to show it.
Just before the meeting was adjourned, Phil Peterson, a beloved resident of Martin Road, got up to express his sadness about the ending of this great New Hampshire tradition of town meeting voting. Most of us felt the same way and were grateful to Phil for his remarks. And so the last traditional town meeting of Fremont came to an end!
Paula Wall Fremont
To the Editor:
I want to thank John Ulcickas for his professionalism and dedication to the Town of Newton as selectman over the past three years. Newton has gone through a lot of changes, and working with John made it easier to deal with these changes because he was a team player and was always looking out for the town's best interest.
We put in a lot of hours as a Board of Selectman, especially during budget season, and John, as chairman, always held the board together. I want to personally thank him for the opportunity to work with him. Thank you John.
Selectman Robert S. Donovan Jr. Newton
To the Editor:
RCFY Youth Action would like to extend a big Thank you to everyone who voted to support their warrant article #31 on the ballot last Tuesday. It was to ban smoking on the Cammet baseball and soccer fields in town, as well as the fields located on RT 107.
The article passed with an overwhelming 881 yes votes, just over 2/3rds. The kids are very excited that their voices have been heard. They want to and deserve to breathe fresh air, especially when they are participating in activities that are family oriented and promoting healthy living. They are also taking a stand for the younger children who will be going out onto those fields and may not know how to say they don’t want to breathe in the smoke.
Last spring the students wanted to clear the air at Raymond High School in the bathrooms. With their work they proved that the majority of youth in the school were non-smokers and the majority wanted the smoking to stop. Now the voters have proven that the majority of town’s people do not want the smoking around their youth.
Our youth are taking a proactive stance and have a lot to say. They can make a difference and are working to do just that in our town. Let us thank them and they in turn want to thank you for your support.
Celeste Clark on Behalf of the Raymond Coalition For Youth www.rcfy.org
