Judge Philip P. Mangones wisely signed a temporary order on Jan. 12 reinstating Frank Carpentino as Goffstown's fire chief and said voters must decide whether to approve the merger of their police and fire departments.

We cannot agree more. Merging the two departments has not sounded like a good idea from its inception, particularly given the likelihood costs would go up, even if only for the short term, as Selectman Gossett McRae himself admitted. Of course, selectmen said there'd be long-term savings. But how many times have you heard that, Goffstown? Meantime, your property taxes go up once again. And never go back down.

The merger wasn't well thought-out and its long-term – and even short-term – effects are unclear. It certainly appeared as though the selectmen just wanted Carpentino out, as they had few other details to offer about the plan.

And, even if the merger does turn out to be a good idea – once ample research into its merits and disadvantages is conducted – that merger should be decided by Goffstown's residents.

Goffstown's voters must be convinced of the proposal's advantages.

The judge's order also stated that selectmen cannot fire Carpentino without due cause and that potential harm to Carpentino outweighs any harm to the board of selectmen. Again, we concur, as his ouster certainly appeared to be politics at work.

“The court said ... that the town can't reorganize the fire department unless it is on the town warrant and voters approve it,” said John Krupski, the attorney representing Carpentino.

Selectmen need to figure out if this plan truly will benefit the public, or simply give up on what was really just a sneaky way to try to remove Carpentino from his job.

— 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:
To a lot of people, change is a difficult thing to accept. It usually disrupts old habits and generally makes a mess out of our usual routines. Change is sometimes necessary as our environment and our daily lives change even so the world around us changes. Take in 2005 the natural disasters that this country went through with hurricanes. Even in New Hampshire, we weren't immune from natural disasters such as the flooding they had in the western part of the state. On the lighter side, who would have ever thought that Bob Baines would not be the mayor of the city of Manchester? What does this all mean?

As taxpayers, we want to see how our tax dollars are spent, such as on our schools, our highways and especially our emergency services.

I think that the selectmen of Goffstown may have gotten onto an idea whose time has come, to be studied and certainly looked at. The concept of merging fire and police is not new. In fact, it was studied over 20 years ago with the then existing Goffstown Fire Department Board of Fire Wardens. A committee was formed and it was studied and it was considered too radical at the time and it was dropped. However, now we live in radical times and our emergency services have to broaden their expertise.

Today, if it's not Mother Nature that's affecting our daily lives, it is people here and even outside of our country who want to disrupt our daily routines and our safety. We need to think outside the box and think about our children's safety in our schools and even in our own neighborhoods.

I think the selectmen need to be praised about being bold, innovative and thinking about our futures as citizens of the town of Goffstown.

What an innovation: Our fire and police merged together to work together under a unified command system. After all, we already share our communication system and our facilities for training. With the advent of Homeland Security, our fire and police have to work together simultaneously to thwart threats, whatever they may be, whether environmental or manmade such as terrorist threats.

Who could possibly be better than Mike French to lead our combined emergency services!

His leadership qualities go beyond exemplary. It takes a good officer to have good leadership skills to run these services, not the drill sergeant mentality that was in place in the old fire department.

Yes, changes are hard and usually negative in infancy but it takes bold people to make bold changes in a world that is changing a lot faster than we are. In the fire service we have a phrase. It is called “Try Before You Pry.” Don't bust down the selectmen's door with a battering ram, just turn the knob. The door is open. Come in and listen to what they have to say. This merger may be just the thing that will provide better emergency services for the town of Goffstown and may even be a model for other communities.

Gil Upton
Goffstown

To the Editor:
The judge hearing the case against Goffstown Fire Chief Frank Carpentino and the Goffstown Board of Selectmen (BOS), deserves credit for ruling that the BOS acted inappropriately when they bypassed the voters to make severe changes to the Goffstown Fire Department (GFD) command structure.

The judge obviously recognized the arrogance and misuse of political power by BOS members. Although Chief Carpentino was reinstated, this battle is not over! The original problem still exists. The revenge scheme against Chief Carpentino by certain BOS members has not ended!

If you saw the news story on WMUR-TV about Chief Carpentino's reinstatement, you certainly noticed the continued arrogance of Gossett McRae and Robert Wheeler! They were still acting like the dictators who created the Public Safety Department (PSD) scam! “Taxpayers will save money” was Wheeler's message.

If you look at “the big picture,” perform some research, ask the professionals and rely on your common sense, the conclusion is that the PSD will add a significant increase to your tax bill. Wheeler is once again working with smoke and mirrors in order to trick the uninformed or confused voters in town!

The BOS cannot be trusted!

They did not listen to the voters last March and instead of accepting the taxpayers' desires of supporting the GFD and the plan to make it a first-class fire and rescue service, they voted to dismantle it and make it a victim of tax cuts. The GFD is too important a department to allow this to happen!

Join me in voting against the PSD and the re-election of any current members of the BOS.

Let's support Charles Carr's petitioned article which requests that in order to be elected to the BOS, you must physically live in Goffstown. We have seen the problem that was created by the BOS appointing Gossett McRae to fill a vacancy on the BOS and then voting him chairman.

Perhaps another article could address this flaw!

Maybe the BOS should be more aggressive in developing a larger commercial and light industrial tax base for Goffstown instead of constantly cutting services to lower our taxes!

Bruce Lemire
Goffstown

To the Editor:
Some readers misunderstand the term “states' rights.” I am a staunch “states' rights” supporter, as long as the states draft their laws within the framework of the Constitution of the United States.

Some have attempted to claim the Kelo decision as a victory for “states' rights.” This is a gross misunderstanding. When the legislatures of the states ratified the Constitution, those states agreed to be bound to governing themselves within the framework outlined by the Constitution.

States cannot pass laws that deny citizens their Constitutional rights. States do not have line item veto power when it comes to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights is not optional. This includes the Fifth Amendment.

The Civil War is an excellent example. The southern states believed that the president, Congress, and the Supreme Court were too involved in state affairs, especially when it came to commerce, slavery, and property.

They believed that they should be allowed to draft laws that stand in clear defiance of the Constitution. The states believed that they had the ?right' to deny certain portions of the population the freedoms and protections granted by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Approximately 618,000 Americans died in the ensuing Civil War.

No state has the right to deny any citizen the protections granted by the Constitution. The Supreme Court knows it. Justice Souter knows it. More Americans died for these protections than in World War I, World War II, Vietnam, Korea, the Revolution, and the War of 1812 put together.

Why do those huddling around Souter simply dismiss the opinions of the four dissenting Justices and their opinions?

Do they claim to be more learned than Clarence Thomas, or Sandra Day O'Conner? These are four experts that know much better than you or I that this decision is not a victory for “states' rights.”

Joshua Solomon
Weare
(The writer is a candidate for Weare's board of selectmen)

To the Editor:
In what appears to have been a successful plot to get rid of Fire Chief Carpentino, the selectmen voted to eliminate his job. They had no valid reason to fire him.

Following their vote to eliminate the job, Assistant Attorney General of New Hampshire Orville B. Fitch wrote to the selectmen advising them that under RSA 154:1, they had no legal right to eliminate the chief's job; the right to determine the form of the fire department was up to the voters.

Despite the letter from Attorney Fitch, they eliminated the fire chief's job, effective 12/31/05. They then appointed Police Chief French to head both departments and to craft a plan to integrate the fire and police departments. Town Administrator Sue Desruisseaux was requested to create a job description for the job for Chief French.

It appears to me our selectmen have successfully passed the buck to Chief French and Sue Desruisseaux. Shouldn't these duties have been the responsibility of the selectmen?

Fast forward to 1/4/06. Prior to this date, the merger has been renounced by the fire department, the police department, the N.H. Fire Chiefs Association, the head of the National Fire Chiefs Association and, from all indications, the citizens of Goffstown. This has apparently not registered with our selectmen, who say that a warrant article will be presented on the March ballot seeking voter approval. However, on 1/06, Selectman McRae is quoted, “McRae did not definitively say whether the warrant article would be binding.” How he has the audacity to think he and his fellow selectmen can disregard the laws of New Hampshire is beyond belief! They have ignored Attorney Fitch's letter with no repercussions so far, so why not continue to do so?

On 1/3/06, Chief French, as requested by the selectmen, presented a merger plan. As proposed, the merger would require cross-training, new equipment, multipurpose vehicles, etc., etc.

In addition, the merger would create six new positions: a public service director, a director of operations over the police department, an operations chief over EMS and fire departments, a director of support (to handle administrative tasks), and later on two categories of public safety officers. A consultant will have to be hired to put this merger together, according to Chief French.

The costs of this merger seem to be absolutely frightening. On the subject of costs, nothing was mentioned, nor did any of the selectmen ask about estimated costs. Interesting, since Selectman Wheeler has fought 24/7 coverage because our tax base could not support it. I cannot think of a valid reason why costs should not have been the first time of discussion following Chief French's presentation.

Cost has always been the reason for not fulfilling the voters' decision for 24/7 coverage.

As taxpayers, I think we are entitled to at least a rough estimate of the costs of the proposed training, new equipment, new positions and costs of additional personnel.

I urge all who read this letter to attend or watch the selectmen 's meetings on Channel 22.

The meetings are held Mondays at 9 a.m. in the selectmen's office in town hall.

As always, I invite the selectmen to respond by way of a letter to the editor of this paper.

Robert L. Dunn
Goffstown

To the Editor:
In a recent posting of the new Public Safety Press Release page, on the town's Web site, Sue Desruisseaux quoted The Goffstown News editorial of Nov. 17, stating, “The Goffstown News editor sensibly concludes that “Selectmen need to reveal more details of this plan.”

I wonder if the town administrator will be rushing to her computer to post that same editorial board's comments of Jan. 5. Here are a few of them:

“While the people of Goffstown directed the selectmen to improve the fire department at last year's Town Meeting, no mention was ever made about merging the two departments.”

“This merger is happening too fast, with no proof and no public input.”

I'm sure one comment you will never see on the town's Web page is that same editorial staff's closing comment of “What on earth are the selectmen thinking?”

Mrs. Desruisseaux stated in her press release “research shows that the key to a successful consolidation of Police, Fire and EMS services in a Public Safety Department rests in the process a community uses to develop their unique model.”

What is missing in her comment is the fact that a community must first carefully study to determine if consolidation will even work in their particular situation.

The “Consolidation Report to the Board,” posted on the town Web site, lists a recommendation that within two to six months the town look at the cost of an “Allocation and Distribution of Personnel” study to determine the feasibility of integration.

Responsible town leaders would have performed feasibility studies before embarking down the road of consolidation and not six months after implementation.

When Gossett McRae left the Board of Fire Wardens in 1992, he wrote, in his letter of resignation, that the town should consider police and fire consolidation.

Now that he is in a position of power, he is going to shoehorn the town into that configuration regardless of whether or not it fits.

He claims that he has been talking about a combination department for years. Really. To whom did he speak? When the town was seeking a new fire chief, following Chief Nault's departure, why didn't Mr. McRae come forward with his great notion? Isn't it curious that he didn't pursue his idea of consolidation during the time he was in a position of authority as a deputy fire chief?

Following the script of this charade is Selectmen Wheeler, who on Dec. 19 requested that the town administrator make a recommendation regarding the appropriate compensation of the public safety director. Interesting.

During the Nov. 5 nonpublic session of the board of selectmen meeting (copies of those minutes were obtained through a right-to-know-request), Mr. Wheeler described keeping in the budget $22,584 for the public safety director. That would be on top of the police chief's current salary. Apparently, Mr. Wheeler already set the “appropriate compensation” package in secret one month prior to his public request of the administrator.

Regardless of whether you are for or against the idea of public safety consolidation, don't lose sight of the real issue. This is the issue of process. As a resident and taxpayer of Goffstown, you should be appalled at the process the selectmen have used to perpetrate this change. It is time we hold our elected officials accountable for their actions and show our outrage by voting them out of office in March.

Nick Campasano
Goffstown

To the Editor:
The Goffstown Area Salvation Army would like to thank everyone this 2005 year for their wonderful support and donations.

Hillside Methodist Church, Congregational Church and the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation, Shaw's, Sully's, JCI Eastern Inc., Cures, Aubin Hardware, Rite Aid, Subway, Advanced Auto, Sue's Barber Shop and Salon, The Village Trestle, Travers Village Eatery, Dunbarton Country Store and Pages Country Store and Deli.

A special thank you to Donald Caron, Richard Parkhurst, Dave Donnley, Jill Langille and all the wonderful bell ringers this season.

God bless you all for all the help and support and God bless the people that make things possible by your generous donations.

Debra Urella
Goffstown Salvation Army