Does anyone else find it distressing that Brian McDonald had to file requests under the Right to Know Law and bring his case before the public in the newspaper to get information from the town of Weare? We think it’s inexcusable for any government entity – whether a town hall, school board, police department, you name it – to deny access to anyone when they ask for information that belongs to the public.

Small town officials and workers like those in Weare are often the worst offenders when it comes to understanding that the information they keep is not their personal information.

It belongs to the people whom they serve. The town hall’s job is to make it as easy as possible to find out where taxpayer money has been spent, not throw up roadblocks to that information. It is against the law to ask who wants the information and why they want it. Newspapers have no special privileges, but can sometimes get information regular people are denied simply because the government worker knows reporters are more knowledgeable about what they can ask for and will make it known they’re being denied access. Even then, reporters are also routinely brushed off with a snort and a comment that it’s not public information under the personnel exception.

The people of Weare and other towns have a right to know how much money they’re spending to settle lawsuits and end contracts. That’s money they worked hard to earn, and we’d bet no one is happy to see being spent on legal settlements. Knowing this tells us a lot about how our elected officials are doing their jobs. When they hide that information, we can only assume the worst about what is going on behind those closed doors.

— Editorials published by Neighborhood News Inc. are written by an editorial board. The board is composed of Publisher and President Amy J. Vellucci, Executive Editor Ginger Kozlowski, Managing Editor Christine Heiser and News Editor Susan Clark.

To the Editor:
Thanks to everyone – the hundreds of players and spectators, dozens of volunteers and sponsors – who turned out last Saturday at the annual Crispin’s House 3-on-3 basketball tournament, making it our biggest 3-on-3 tournament ever. It was a wonderful day that everyone will remember for a very long time.

This annual event serves two purposes: it gives our families an opportunity to be together and it helps raise funds to support our mission of helping the youth of our communities learn to make good choices.

Our sponsors helped ensure the financial success of the day, and we sincerely thank Bedford Wal-Mart, Brown Graphix, Granite State Plumbing and Heating, Citizen’s Bank, Crown Trophy, Dr. Philip Mansour, Pizza Market, Sam’s Club, Subway and Shaw’s.

The Crispin’s House event committee did a great job organizing the event and working all day to make sure everything ran smoothly.

Thank you Jim Gallagher, Al Baines, Nancy Clark, Joan Greenan and Robbie Grady.

We also thank our volunteers who came to help on Saturday: Jason Evans, Phil Bouchard, Jack McLean, John Riehl, Bruce Hartwell, Dave French, Colleen O’Hurley, Scott Hambleton, Shea Sennett, Ian Kendrick, Leigh Rose Kendrick, Darcie Hambleton, Tom Mirando, Nathan Walton, Emily Hambleton, Tiffany Walton, Brendyn Miller and Eric Hambleton.

Last, but not least, thank our guests and players for participating in the tournament. Congratulations to all who played so well and acted with the greatest sportsmanship. It was a pleasure to have you with us! We hope you had as much fun as we did, and we hope next year you’ll want to come back and “take it to the hoop for the house” again.

Laurie S. Hambleton
Goffstown

To the Editor:
On March 14, the voters of New Boston passed Article 4, which involves the former residential property on Whipplewill Road to become a designated commercial zone. I wonder how many voters knew exactly what they were voting for, as the location of this parcel was not mentioned on the ballot!

It seems that New Boston is in the habit of “spot zoning,” an insidious practice that profits individual landowners, at the sacrifice of the majority of residents and homeowners who must endure the daily noise and intrusion upon our rights to a reasonable quality of life.

Furthermore, the fact that the abutters of this parcel were not notified of the pending change, brings into question the overall legality of this proceedure.

John Melito
New Boston

To the Editor:
The question: to purchase our community and run it ourselves or not.

It was a hard fought compaign but in the end, only one side can claim victory. By the time the vote was finally taken, feelings were running high in both camps. Those in favor were elated, they had worked very hard to get all the information out to the residents and get all the financing in place.

The group opposed worked equally as hard to present their side of the picture.

The vote to purchase the parks was 171 to purchase and 64 not to purchase and in our democracy majority rules. This doesn’t mean that the people who were against it are going to suddenly change their thinking.

They are very disappointed and who can blame them? They worked very hard to convince people to vote no.

One or two amoung them slashed the new (and temporary) signs that were put up by those who were in favor of the purchase. One or two out of 64, we can’t blame the whole group for their actions. We are a community of adults and now is the time for our maturity to show.

The vote is over. The decision was made. The papers are signed. Medvil now owns the parks.

These are the undisputable facts. Now we have a huge job ahead of us and a lot of us are excited about the prospect. One of the most important things to accomplish is to get our feeling of community back. We are no longer neighbors on different sides of an issue. We all live in this community side by side.

It’s time for neighbors on both sides of this issue to let go of the animosity that has divided us. We don’t have to agree on this issue, or any other, but it would be nice if we were at least polite to one another.

Hopefully we’ll all be here for a long time and it is so much nicer when we are all friendly as we meet in the mail houses, at the many activities and on our walks through the park.

Forgive and forget, not easy but possible with time and effort.

The golden rule comes to mind: Treat others as you would have them treat you.

Barbara Doiron
Medvil

To the Editor:
What is the name of the new community in town? Is it Medvil Coop, Med-Vilco-op or Medvil Co-op? Wouldn’t you think after all the commotion that has been going on in the past year that the new owners would know what their name is?

Is this a clue as to what our new community is going to be like in the near future? Is anyone going to be strong enough or care enough to pay attention to the details? Medvil, if it is to survive, will need pride of ownership and should be paying attention right now or the “trailer park” atmosphere will creep in and it will be to late. The new signs on the road are just that, a sign of things to come.

Who are we trying to attract?

People who don’t care or residents like we have now? It is time to get on the stick and pay attention to details. Now, not later! It may be just that I am a quality assurance person by trade, but everyone should pay more attention to the facts and the details of their surroundings.

Keep the pride and pay attention!

Roger and Marilyn Buxton
Goffstown