New Boston Police Sgt. Frank Kochanek just received a $4 hourly pay raise, or the equivalent of an annual boost of $8,320, because Chief Christopher Krajenka said he feared losing the officer to another department.

Are you kidding? How many of you have received a 20 per cent pay raise in the past few years, let alone in one fell swoop? Yes, you heard correctly – 20 percent. Is anyone in New Boston going to complain about this to selectmen? We think they should.

Kochanek was already making $20.95 per hour, or $43,576 annually. He is now earning about $52,000 annually. He said he could not support his wife and three sons on $43,576. So, let’s see ... if you complain that you need more money, well, then, you get more money; at least that’s how it works in New Boston.

How many of you have employers who grant a sizeable pay raise just because you said you needed it? Generally, pay raises are based on merit – because you deserve a raise – or due to cost of living, which we know isn’t going up by 20 percent.

Krajenka was concerned Kochanek would leave the department because the sergeant’s friends at the Londonderry Police Department said he would make about $15,000 more per year working there. Naturally. That’s a much larger community with a much larger police force. An officer should earn more there.

If Kochanek wants to work at Londonderry PD, then he should, but he shouldn’t expect such a rate of pay from the little town of New Boston.

But we don’t blame him for asking for more money. Who doesn’t want more money? We blame Krajenka and the selectmen for letting him hold them hostage and for doling out a 20 percent pay raise.

There’s a great event going on this weekend for a local charity, and we urge our readers to give it their support.

The third annual For Kids’ Sake event takes place Saturday, May 7, from 1 to 6 p.m., at the Circle 9 Ranch in Epsom, and the profits will benefit the UpReach Therapeutic Riding Center in Goffstown.

This is a program that helps children and adults with many kinds of disabilities by getting them to ride horses. Such a simple act can give children balance and muscle stimulation, and often gives them a sense of accomplishment that is hard to come by in their usual daily life. Anyone who’s seen the smile of a child on horseback at UpReach knows this program is changing lives.

Area country bands will perform, clowns will entertain the kids, and WOKQ’s Mark Erickson will host the event. The $10 admission is a bargain, so bring along a few extra dollars to contribute to the cause. It’s a good one.

— 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:
In last week’s Goffstown News, Sen. D’Allesandro stated that “almost 80 percent of the people in the state of New Hampshire support a ban on smoking in restaurants and bars.”

I take issue with that statement as I hardly believe that the 402 people contacted by UNH pollsters are representative of what the 1.2 million residents of New Hampshire feel regarding the rights and freedoms of our independent businesses to allow smoking in their establishments or not.

For reasons of freedom, I voted against this bill as I believe it is the right of not only the independent business owner to make the decision as to whether or not to allow smoking in their establishment but the right of the consumer to patronize such a place and the right of the employee to work at a place that allows smoking.

Even without passage of HB1177, many restaurants have decided to go smoke free and join the scores of other restaurants already smoke-free. For example, the Center of New Hampshire Radisson in Manchester is going smoke-free on June 1.

The Barley House in Concord is going smoke-free July 4. And I’m sure many others will follow as the demand by the consumer will dictate they do.

Yes, we should be concerned about public health issues, but we should also be concerned about the continuous erosion of our personal freedoms from those who think they know what’s best for us and will create laws to force us into their way of thinking, for our own good, of course. What next, outlaw fast food, liquor, the lottery?

Your Goffstown District 7 representatives voting in favor of HB1177 were: Larry Emerton and Robert Wheeler. Voting against were: Karen McRae, Rip Holden, Neal Kurk and Pamela Manney. Not voting: Bruce Hunter (excused absence due to illness).

Pamela V. Manney
House of Representatives
Goffstown

To the Editor:
A lot of us have had it! Time to boycott Mexico and Mexican products ...

Everything in stores is either made in China or made in Mexico. Do not buy Mexican products! They want to hurt America? Hurt them right back!

Theodore Roosevelt on immigration from my March DAR Defender...

“In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to United States, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person’s becoming in every fact an ‘American,’ and nothing but an American! There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but, something else, also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag! We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language ... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.”

– Theodore Roosevelt 1907.

That says it all! My ancestors came from Germany in 1903... others around like Sen. Kennedy himself, ancestors came from Ireland ... others from Italy ... But, here? One flag one allegiance! ... American! My ancestor on my paternal side fought in the Revolutionary War here in New Hampshire! Did he fight for this? No way!

A disgrace changing the Star Spangled Banner ... A disgrace for all the lost soldiers in WWI and WWII ... Who do these immigrants think they are?

Time to boycott Mexico! Time to show we will not tolerate the illegal aliens ... no amnesty ... but, justice...

We are losing our country as our founding fathers devised the U.S. Constitution...

This is not the invisionment [sic] of Jefferson, Washington ... This is wrong ... If they want us to hate them ... they are in this demonstration today, turning America off!

It is time to fine businesses that hire illegals ... Time for border security ... Time to set limits for Mexican immigrants ... and round up and send the rest back.

This is not a melting pot ... this is taking over America ... and their political agenda ... not those of our founding fathers ... and what this country stands for. Boycott...

Vincente [sic] Fox wants to legalize drugs ... won’t help us? Then boycott Mexican products and companies...

Contact our Senators , House in Washington ... Speak up and do something!

J. Worthen
Goffstown

To the Editor:
The Goffstown Community Garden Club would like to thank all those who helped in the Adopt-a-Higway trash pickup on Saturday, April 22. From 8:30 to 10:30 a.m., our members cleared the roadside along 114 from in front of Molloy Ford to below Shirley Road. This is a two-mile expanse.

Volunteering in this effort were: Diane and Joe Buckner, Maggie Dolbow, Marily McKenney, Dave and Kathy St. Jean, and Patti Sullivan.

Our beautiful and clean roadsides continue to make New Hampshire one of the prettiest states!

Margaret Dolbow
Goffstown Community Garden Club

To the Editor:
Eminent domain in China means brute force and bulldozers.

In Russia and countries like them, they throw the property owner in jail and confiscate their property.

In New Hampshire, the Senate and the House Judiciary Committees passes eminent domain laws that are unconstitutional! Since 1970, the New Hampshire Legislature has participated in the intentional misinterpretation, manipulation and deconstruction of the state’s eminent domain statutes in violation of Article 12 of the New Hampshire Constitution.

The New Hampshire House did it again today, April 26, 2006, by a voice vote. The people who claim to respect and believe in the constitution were nowhere to be found.

By passing SB 287, we encouraged greed by developers, corruption by dishonest public officials’ illegal plunder of private property, intimidation and abuse of the old, the poor and the most vulnerable of our citizens.

Special interests have managed to get a partial victory by the passage of SB 287.

The Senate and House Judiciary Committees claimed that SB 287-FN would protect people’s property. This is not true, under certain circumstances properties could be condemned and handed over to developers.

Article 12 would make SB 287 illegal and abhorrent to our constitution.

Our responsibility as legislators is to protect the constitutional rights of over 1,300,000 of our citizens, and we failed them on April 26, 2006.

Maurice Villeneuve
State Representative
Hillsborough County
District 18

To the Editor:
I wanted to write this letter to thanking you for running the two recent articles (on April 6 and 20) on the need for public sewers in the Lynchville and Danis park neighborhoods.

As a new resident to the area, I was shocked to hear about the living conditions of many of the residents in the neighborhood.

It’s sad that on hot summer days, parents would not want allow their children to swim in the Piscataquog River because of high levels of bacteria that cause rashes and infections.

I encourage all town residents to take an active interest in this matter. It affects not only the residents of these two areas but the town as a whole.

Carrie Leighton
Goffstown