It’s the most wonderful time of the year, so the song goes.

The holidays evoke so many things – memories, traditions, hopes and dreams. It really is a magical time, and we all work so hard to make it that way.

We choose the perfect tree, buy the perfect gift, cook the perfect meal, trying to create a special feeling for those we love.

But in all the flurry of activity, the rush to get from here to there, we sometimes forget to tune our senses on the things that really make the season so special. The quiet sounds of a silent night. The crunch of footsteps in the snow, if we’re fortunate enough to get some in time. The acrid smell of wood smoke mixed with the fresh scent of pine boughs. Seeing the twinkle, both of colored lights and in our loved ones’ eyes.

Whether or not the holidays are a religious celebration in your family, these next few weeks can still be a time of peace and tranquility.

Take time to focus on family and feelings, and less on material things and your checklist. Then you’ll be able to wish others the joy of the season with your whole heart.

Have a wonderful holiday season and a joyous new year.

— Editorials published by Neighborhood News Inc. are written by an editorial board.

To the Editor:
It seems that no one in public office, from the Oval Office to the board of selectmen, wants to be held accountable to their constituents.

Perhaps they are the wrong people for the position.

I, for one, will remember how our selectmen voted on Gary Caron’s request that their votes be recorded in a roll-call fashion.

I, too, would like to be able to check a candidate’s position before an election.

Herbert Edwards Goffstown

To the Editor:
“Dark in Goffstown” (was an editorial that) appeared in The Union Leader, Friday, Dec. 15, 2006. The article looks like the handy work of Andrew Cline.

D’Avanza, Griffin and Hunter ought to be ashamed of themselves. The public should be aware of how their representatives vote. Unfortunately, the majority rules and many times other members go along just to go along.

I did that very thing at our last council meeting Dec. 6. I went along with a small-potatoes vote much against my gut feeling because I decided, after 16 weeks of my sitting in an unplugged electric chair, I would pick my battles.

The councilor that sits next to me said, “I know you do not support this. Why did you vote yes?”

I replied, “ I am a coward.”

I could not believe I said that. Again I will pick my battles, but what I fear now. I will become like so many others in our great nation; I will go along just to go along.

Goffstown voters should put those three on notice and if the silence continues remove them.

I walked out of a Hooksett Town Council meeting last Sept. 28, 2005, so angry because I still believe the Hooksett voters are going to be taken advantage of. I hope I am wrong and if so I will duly apologize publicly. I witnessed the best PR job I ever seen in my long life.

I am blessed over the years to have collected many friends as corporate nomads and I sent 305 Christmas cards this year.

Next year there will be only 303 because I lost two friends after they were mailed. I send a newsletter plus a personal note to all.

In my newsletter, I conveyed to my friends what happened politically with me. I told them the natives of New Hampshire tend to be naive. Let us hope the voters are not being used by carpet baggers. Elected officials should never keep the voters in the dark.

Pat Rueppel Hooksett
Rueppel is a Hooksett town councilor.

To the Editor:
The votes of all members of our federal Congress are recorded each and every time a vote is taken; Congress knows it is responsible and answerable to the voters who put them in office. Why are our local officials so special and secretive? What do they fear that they must hide behind not recording their votes for future posterity? The voting and meetings are open to the public and appear on local TV channels. The videos are reused after approximately 30 days and do not constitute a permanent record -- the recorded minutes should.

How our town officials vote is crucial to how they represent those who voted them into office. Are they fearful of being rejected next election? A nonrecorded vote, yea or nay, shows disrespect for the voters, shows irreverance for those who put these elected officials into the position from which they feel they rule the town. Perhaps the next election can correct the current arrogance of our town’s officials.

Linda A. Gelfand
Goffstown

To the Editor:
I believe that so far, everyone is missing the point as to why the rotary, traffic circle or roundabout was constructed where it was.

It was not to slow traffic down, it was not to improve traffic flow, it was not to learn how to develop patience.

The reason for this rotary at Grasmere is because our town officials were baited by the Janigans and Elmer Pease with a delicious deal. The deal was: we will design and build a “lovely” downtown shopping/condo development as long as you let Elmer build 278, now 218, manufactured homes on Tirrell Hill Road. The bait was taken.

Now the dilemma: How to appease all the residents living in the area? The planning board let all concerned citizens air their views and opinions.

They also stated how much of a concern this issue was to the “town.” That was all a smoke screen because the planning board had already made up its mind that this project was a “Go.”

So, knowing that 218 new residents with probably two cars per residence would create horrible traffic situations, problem solved. Build a rotary at taxpayers’ expense and there we go. The town boards are happy, the Janigans are happy and the clear-cut king is happy. Wow, what a deal.

All that was left was to convince us that the rotary was in Goffscity’s best interests. Well that issue still remains unclear. I will never be convinced that this was done with the citizens in mind.

Oh, I take that back, this was done with the “future” citizens in mind.

Robert Schultz
Goffstown

To the Editor:
The rotary is the best move made to address traffic flow and the hill grades at Grasmere and other anticipated locations in town. Lights are the “dumbeddown” bailout for drivers so ill-equipped they should be retested.

Go to a town like Carmel, Calif., with a 4,500-person population (and that again in tourists) and a grid of street intersections that look like a waffle iron on the map (including some special six-seven road hum-dingers), and there is not one traffic light in town.

There is, however, a lot of crosswalks, suggestive signage and apparently courteous drivers even with all the service, contractor and bus traffic weaving around.

There are so many opportunities to calm traffic and prod operators into more responsible and effective traffic behavior including rotaries.

In the end, it will keep gridlock at bay and relieve us of a town center with columns of traffic stopped and chugging away waiting for lights to run through their numb sequence.

Lee Berard
Goffstown
Berard Martel Architecture Inc.

To the Editor:
We had to take a break for a few weeks on letters concerning recycling due to pressing other business. And perhaps the break did some good, because I am told that the recycling rate went up from 27 percent since this series of letters started, to 29 percent a month ago, to a recent 33 percent rate. Keep it up, Goffstown!

Many towns achieve over 70 percent rates, so we need to convince many of you who are participating halfheartedly to really pitch in.

The Solid Waste Commission’s next candidates for doing it right with respect to recycling are Michael and Michelle Wooding of 76 Magnolia Drive.

They have two young kids and recycling sets a good example to them. They have a 7-year-old boy and a 1-year-old girl. The 7-year-old is into recycling big time. The Woodings have a bin under the sink for recycling, and the 7-year-old empties it into “big blue,” mostly twice a day! They also have a trash bin in the corner of the kitchen.

Pizza boxes, paper, letter mail, plastic, milk bottles, laundry detergent bottles, teacher paper supplies and anything else that is recyclable does get recycled.

The only items in the trash are food waste (if they composted it, the dogs and other animals would get at it, so they need to build an enclosed compost of some sort), used diapers and coffee filters with grounds.

Congratulations, Michael and Michelle Wooding, and keep up the good work!

Fred Plett
Chairman Solid Waste Commission

To the Editor:
The Hillsborough County Nursing Home already has become the recipient of many thoughtful gifts from the local community.

Staff members attended a dinner sponsored by the PSNH Women’s Committee, a nonprofit organization, and were introduced to lots of Santa’s helpers who filled the Hillsborough County Nursing Home sleigh with all shapes and sizes of gifts for the facilities’ residents.

In attendance were representatives from five nursing homes in the Manchester area.

All recipients are very grateful to the women’s committee and all its elves who stop to think about the elderly during this holiday season.

They too, are lonely and lots of them are without family.

We thank the PSNH Women’s Committee with extreme appreciation for all their endeavors, throughout the year.

Cynthia Daniel
Goffstown

To the Editor:
Dear Board of Selectmen, In a little less than five years, Goffstown will celebrate its 250th anniversary. This event offers the town a unique opportunity to commemorate its past in a year-long celebration that we hope will include the entire town. This is a chance to share memories of how Goffstown was, take pride in what it has become and speculate about how the town may develop in the next 250 years. Such proceedings require both planning and organization, though. Toward that end, we ask the selectmen to organize a steering committee at the earliest possible date to begin coordinating this anniversary event. This committee needs time to study how other towns have commemorated similar anniversaries, plan our own celebration and coordinate the effort to turn this vision into reality. Furthermore, dozens of towns across New Hampshire and Vermont were granted charters by King George III in 1761, meaning that our town will not be the only one celebrating a bicentennial in 2011. With careful planning and communitywide cooperation, though, Goffstown’s commemoration could be one of the best. Please form a steering committee as soon as possible so that the important work to shape this event can get underway.

Elizabeth Dubrulle
Goffstown Historic District Commission
Mac Morgrage
Goffstown Historical Society