The request, clearly a publicity stunt, was handled both properly and with humor by the board. They treated the request with the same respect that anyone's request would get, but it was impossible to act on it since it had not gone through proper channels.

It is hard for us to understand why Souter decided it is acceptable for municipalities to take private property for private enterprise, no matter how beneficial the taking may be for the community as a whole. The decision is so contrary to New Hampshire's "Live free or die" motto.

In the meantime, it will be fascinating to see if this proposed "Lost Liberty Hotel" ever gets off the ground. Weare's "many shops" must be looking forward to it.

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 and Managing Editor Christine Heiser.

With that in mind, here are a few facts for consideration:

1. Article 24 of the 2005 official town ballot asks, "Shall the Town authorize the Board of Selectmen to transfer of ownership of approximately 20 acres of map 5 Lot 14 to the Goffstown school district for the purposes of building a school ..."

The parcel being transferred is 25.79 acres, an increase of nearly 30 percent. (Webster's Dictionary defines "approximate" as "nearly correct or exact.") The townspeople voted to transfer 20 acres, not 26. How and when did the additional six acres get added?

2. The State Department of Education Administrative Rules (Ed 321.02) define "buildable land" as "... land upon which a school, parking lot, or school playing field can be built. Wetlands, including required setbacks from wetlands ... are not buildable land."

The State Department of Education Administrative Rules defines minimum standards for school sites. Subparagraph (f) (1) states that "(f)or an elementary school the minimum site size shall be five acres of contiguous buildable land, plus one additional acre for each 100 students or fraction thereof for design capacity of the school building."

• A school building designed for 200 students (such as the new kindergarten building) would require seven acres of contiguous, buildable land.

• A school building designed for 500 students (for a possible future elementary school addition) would require 10 acres of buildable land.

• The proposed site has less than six acres of buildable land divided among four non-contiguous pieces, of which the two

largest are about 2.5 acres each. • Also please note that of the six buildable acres, more than one-half acre is below an electric power transmission line or transmission line right-of-way.

3. Bartlett Elementary School sits on a site of about 1.2 acres and houses approximately 258 students (based on the 2004 Town Report). It has no exterior green space or playing fields. (By state standards, Bartlett should have eight acres of buildable land.)

Maple Avenue Elementary School sits on a site of about six acres, not all of which is buildable due to wetlands and wetland setbacks. Maple Ave. houses approximately 518 students (based on the 2004 Town Report; also not the June 23 article in The Goffstown News on overcrowding at elementary schools) in the main building and two modular classrooms. Maple Ave. has limited exterior green space, and no real playfields. (By state standards, Maple Ave. should have 11 acres of buildable land.)

• We already have two elementary school sites in town which are severely undersized and have no, or extremely limited, outdoor green space and playfields. Why are we proposing a third elementary school site which will have the same limitations?

• Though it is true that the Department of Education may grant waivers to the site size requirement, is it really prudent long-range planning to build on a site which is undersized to start with?

4. At the Conservation Committee meeting on June 22, Dr. Lockwood stated that the proposal "on the table" is for construction of a kindergarten building only, and that there are no real plans for any additions to the building in the future ... It is something that may or may not happen.

• The original presentation by the School District at the Town Deliberative Session of Feb. 2, 2004, clearly indicated the intent of the Tibbetts Hill site was to be able to accommodate a kindergarten building now and an elementary school addition in the future. (Scott Gross noted at the time that the School Board has an elementary school on the CIP matrix for 2006.) Additionally, specific questions were asked by the public regarding a future elementary school addition, and the district's architect answered those questions.

We feel that most people in town who voted on this issue in March assumed the proposed site would be adequate to accommodate a future elementary school addition.

• The Goffstown School District Application for Public Kindergarten Construction Aid, dated June 10, 2002, (and signed by Dr. Lockwood) contains a conceptual drawing clearly showing a kindergarten building with a future elementary school addition. Again, it seems an elementary school addition was always in the overall plan.

5. The 1997 Goffstown Master Plan (Chapter 8, section 3. B., objective P2.2) addresses Lot 14, map 5 . the land being proposed for use as a school site. The Master Plan recommends that the western portion of Lot 14 be developed for recreational facilities (not for a school).

Finally, there is another parcel of land available, town-owned land behind the transfer station. It is more than adequately sized, has much better soils and topography for building development and is located about one mile away from the proposed site.
Kurt Lauer
Goffstown

Thanks to all of their contributions, by the time you are reading this, I will be in New Zealand, spending three weeks at the Sir Edmund Hilary Outdoor Pursuits Centre and four weeks at the home of Neil and Robyn Boothby (I'm returning Aug. 19)!

Thank you all for making this adventure possible!
Becca Norklun
Goffstown

Mercury is particularly harmful to children, impeding their ability to talk and learn and has been linked to attention deficit disorders and autism.

Effects on adults include memory and heart problems. Many animal species are also being seriously harmed by mercury, among them birds and fish.

The EPA has determined that 75 percent of fish in New Hampshire's waters have unsafe mercury levels, triggering a statewide fish-eating advisory. This jeopardizes our recreational fishing industry, which generates $316 million annually and employs more than 3,100 people.

New Hampshire is home to one of the nation's worst mercury "hot spots." Let's take advantage of the opportunity presented by SB128, and reverse this trend.

Please contact our legislators and urge them to clean up the mercury by supporting SB128.
Susan Smith
Amherst

With mounting frustration, I read the article explaining the new threat of legal action regarding the Elm Street location. I'd like to address two points made by the GRA (Goffstown Residents Association). They state that "the proposed site for the school was intended for recreational and open space use."

First, the site is not "proposed," it is approved - by about 70 percent of the town residents.

Second, daily recess is a much better way to meet the recreational and open space use criteria when you consider some alternatives: basketball or tennis courts, snowmobile trails, dog runs or any other activity that could loudly go late into the evening, as well as require additional policing to ensure the space is kept firearms-, alcohol-, and litter-free.

It is time to move on, respect the majority vote, and put the children of Goffstown first.
F. Encalada
Goffstown

Now I regret my vote.

I went and walked the site in May and was astonished by the amount of wetlands. During the three years that I was on the Conservation Commission, I walked dozens of sites in town. The Glen Lake site is one of the wettest I have seen, and seems comparable to two Planning Board applications, one on Bog Road and the other on Wallace Road next to the high school, that were both denied in large part because of extensive wetlands and unnecessary wetlands impacts.

While I have not seen a set of plans for the kindergarten, I am very skeptical and will only believe a kindergarten (and the subsequent elementary school that our town needs) can be built there when I see plans that show it.

This site seems to me much less useable than the one on Tibbetts Hill Road. For the record, I live several miles away on Black Brook Road, and I don.t care who the abutters are.

To the staff of this paper: You need to learn how the Planning Board process works. The headline of "First OK" is misleading - by law the Planning Board is required to accept any applications that are properly submitted, without any regard for their merits.

And shame on you for labeling those objecting to this site as a bunch of NIMBYs. There is a decision being made with large financial and community-planning implications, and both you and the school board are characterizing legitimate technical concerns as a small group of people thwarting the will of the majority.

I was part of that majority, and I based my decision on the limited information available at the time. I am sure many people in town voted for it because they support the idea of a kindergarten and they trusted the school board. That does not make it the right decision for our town if there are technical problems. Do some more investigation and start looking at facts.

To the school board: Please take a good hard look at this kindergarten site. If there is a decent chance that a full elementary school would not fit within the useable area of this site without having to take extraordinary engineering measures, please be honest with this community and consider alternatives.

As a taxpayer, I would much rather end up paying a bit more for a good school that will last decades and has room for expansion. Proceeding "full speed ahead" is an idea that works when there's a clear objective with minimal risk, but in this case I feel like I'm on a runaway train, with faulty brakes and an engineer determined to forge ahead no matter what.

I hope I'm wrong.
Jason Sachs
Goffstown

First of all to the Goffstown Police Department and Chief Mike French for the safety escort for the runners; also to the Goffstown Ambulance crew for all their efforts; the Boy Scouts and Bill Connor, and the Tae Kwon Do karate club and Gerry Bastien for the water stations; the Parks & Recreation commision members: Susan Tucker, George Havener, Kurt Lauer, Bob Draper, Barb Larkin, Claude Laroche, Jeff Tate and Selectman Bob Wheeler.

There were many volunteers as well, including Al and Diane Baines, Jean Walker, Lori Havener, Natalie Sennett, Eric Romein, Kathy Harrington, Linda Bradley, Chip Sennett, and the Parks & Recreation staff: Steven Paul, Al Palmer, Stasia Hurley, Steve Szumiesz, Karen Blunden, Kiersten Newcombe, Maisha Ragwar, Tyler York, Maggie Ward, Erin Dorsey, Whitney Pappas, Ariel Desfosses, Brenna Gailanas, Shannon Leblanc, Jessica Drolette, Heidi Leighton and Ann Beltz.

Also, a big thanks for all the residents who came out with water hoses to spray the runners down on an extremely hot morning, and the runners who come back year after year.

Our sponsors included Coca Cola, Lightning Lube, Indian Head Athletics, Private Label, Liberty Press, Goffstown Tru Value, Glenview Realty, Pistagua River Roofing, Crown Trophy, Shell Foodmart and Supersuds Car Wash.

Finally, thanks to Barbara, Heather and Steven French for again making this a family event.
Dave French
Goffstown Parks and Recreation director

Once again, Sen. Gregg has demonstrated his commitment to land conservation both nationally and here in New Hampshire. We especially appreciate the scope of New Hampshire projects funded in this year's Interior bill, given current federal budget constraints.

A few highlights: In the fastgrowing Merrimack Valley, a $2 million grant from the US Forest Service's Forest Legacy Program will help the City of Concord protect the 515-acre Rossview property; in the heart of New Hampshire's western highlands, another $1.3 million Forest Legacy grant will help protect more than 2,000 acres of forest around Robb Reservoir and Willard Pond; in the Connecticut River Valley, the Conte National Wildlife Refuge will receive another $500,000 to protect critical habitat; while in the North Country, the Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge will receive $750,000 to conserve additional acreage.

As the fastest growing state in the northeast, New Hampshire urgently needs to invest in land conservation - to protect our state's environment, quality of life and economic strength. Federal funding is a crucial part of our state's conservation effort, and we are fortunate to have Sen. Gregg's steadfast and effective support.
Jane A. Difley
President/Forester
Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests