Support Amherst candidates for state representative

To the Editor:

We encourage our fellow Amherst residents to support Shannon Chandley, Julie Radhakrishnan and Len Gerzon for the office of New Hampshire state representative from Amherst.

All three understand the need to work on nonpartisan approaches to solving New Hampshire’s issues. All three have very impressive records in community service for the town of Amherst. They will bring this experi­ence to the Statehouse to work on cur­rent issues such as solving the opioid crisis and attracting quality jobs to New Hampshire.

Shannon Chandley has a proven and distinguished record in Amherst com­munity services, including her previous experience as a New Hampshire state representative. If re-elected, she will work again to create a vibrant economy, to protect natural resources, to respect privacy and ensure that all citizens have access to quality education.

Julie Radhakrishnan is a passion­ate advocate for quality education at all levels with an admirable record of volunteerism in the Amherst School District. She has been praised by the University of New Hampshire officials. She also has a unique set of business and analytical skills that will be useful in carrying out her responsibilities in the state representative position.

Len Gerzon has a very impressive background, having worked as a mu­nicipal employee and private consul­tant to cities and towns in property tax assessing. He wrote the state manual "Understanding NH Property Taxes" and was awarded the New Hampshire Business Leader of the Year by the Souhegan Valley Chamber of Com­merce. He is currently chair of the New Hampshire Assessing Standard Boards and was vice chair of the New Hampshire Real Estate Appraiser Board until 2012. He will work to help develop rail service to Boston via Nashua and Manchester and to im­prove our schools.

This is just a small snapshot of what these three eminently qualified indi­viduals bring to the position of New Hampshire state representative. Please consider them when you cast your vote on Nov. 8.

Patrick and Penny Eggleston

Amherst

Democrats represent best hope for our country

To the Editor:

As Milford’s Democratic chair, I am proud of our slate of candidates for the New Hampshire Legislature.

Running to represent Milford in House District 23 are Elise deMichael, Frank Emmick, Joelle Martin and Herb "Chip" Salmon.

Our candidate for House District 40, which includes Hollis, Milford, Mont Vernon and New Boston, is Kat McGhee, of Hollis.

Running for Senate District 11, which encompasses Amherst, Merrimack, Milford and Wilton, is Roger Tilton, of Milford.

All are smart, well educated and knowledgeable about the issues facing us, and all care a great deal about New Hampshire and the towns they wish to represent.

All of our candidates have expressed their desire to reach across the aisle to create a responsible budget, one that will keep property taxes in check and allow local businesses to prosper. They emphasize the need for a sound infra­structure, including commuter rail, that will benefit all of us. They support women’s issues and advocate equal pay for equal work. They are sensitive to environmental concerns.

The standard bearer for the Repub­lican Party has run a campaign based upon ignorance, hate and paranoia, and most of its party leaders have refused to come to terms, at least publicly, with its toxic effects. Democrats represent our best hope for putting this ugly and embarrassing chapter in American history behind us. I urge Milford voters to "Vote blue all the way through" on Nov. 8.

Gertrude Morgan

Milford Democratic Chair

Vote Republican to balance our nation’s government

To the Editor:

This is a follow-up letter to one I wrote a few weeks ago concerning my suggestion as to whom to vote for president on Nov. 8. After listing all of the negatives for both candidates, I concluded that I did not have a recom­mendation.

I still don’t, as either of the major-party candidates will surely spell the end of America as we know it. It seems there is no stopping Hillary from claim­ing the presidency. That being said, the only way to keep America, America, is to vote to keep the Republicans in charge of both the U.S. House and Sen­ate. They will continue to do what they have done with Obama for the past four years, and that is to stop his misguided policies by voting, as a bloc, against his proposals.

Let us look at the Republican candi­dates who can help in this endeavor. Kelly Ayotte certainly deserves re-election as senator. For sure, I don’t always agree with her votes, but I do for most of them. She is centrist con­servative. I don’t know much about Jim Robinson, who is running for the U.S. House, but he surely is a better can­didate than Annie Kuster, the incum­bent, who has done very little to help New Hampshire, or any other state’s residents.

To sum it up, the U.S. Senate and House races are truly the most im­portant races on the ballot. If the Republicans lose either the House or the Senate (or both), there will be no stopping Hillary from changing the face of America, turning it into a socialistic state, where the government knows best, and also controls all of your mon­ey and way of life. The "great American experiment" will surely die.

Please vote on Nov. 8, and please, for your own sake, vote Republican for the U.S. Senate and House. The rest of the ballot, I don’t have any strong recom­mendations, so vote any way you think will help America and the state of New Hampshire.

Stephen Takacs

Milford

Add pedestrian pathways instead of sidewalks for safety

To the Editor:

My name is Suzanne Lemire, and I am a resident of Lyndeborough. I am a freshman at the University of New Hampshire studying health manage­ment and policy.

For my major, I am enrolled in Intro­duction to Public Health. I believe that it would be beneficial for the public health of all towns in the area to look into adding pathways along busy roads that do not have sidewalks. Mothers have informed me that they do not feel safe walking with their young children along the roads, and would like a way to go for a walk more safely.

Instead of adding sidewalks along ev­ery main road, the towns affiliated with this newspaper could create flat dirt pathways. These would ensure a space between the road and pedestrians.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, 8 percent of all pedestrian deaths occur when the pe­destrian is walking along the roadside. While 8 percent does not seem like a large percentage, that’s an average of 360 deaths per year that may be prevented. Adding separate or larger walkways has proven to dramatically decrease this number in other areas, and I believe that adding pathways would make our towns safer for ev­eryone by allowing residents to walk without fear.

Suzanne Lemire

Lyndeborough

Support House, commissioner candidates on Nov. 8

To the Editor:

When you go to the polls on Nov. 8, I ask that you vote for three Republi­can candidates to the New Hampshire House of Representatives.

This is not because the three are Republicans, but rather as a result of their longtime interest in and service to our town.

Peter Hansen is a lifelong resident and has served in the House of many terms. Nate Jensen and Reed Panasiti are current members of the Board of Selectmen. All three know Amherst, have served Amherst well as a repre­sentative or selectman, and I am certain they will serve us with distinction in Concord.

As a closing thought, would you please check the box for me as your county commissioner.

Robert H. Rowe

Amherst

Cast your vote for Len Gerzon for state representative

To the Editor:

I’m writing today in support of the candidacy of Len Gerzon, whom I have known for many years.

A resident of Amherst for 23 years, he is a person with fresh ideas and a record of service that is too long to fully describe. For that, I urge you to look at his website at www.lengerzonfornh.com. Len is smart, thoughtful and committed to New Hampshire. He has bridged the serious partisan divide, having been an appointee of both Gov. Benson and Gov. Lynch to the New Hampshire Assessing and Standards Board. He now serves as chairman of that board, which oversees New Hampshire’s most important rev­enue source, property taxes. Addition­ally, he served as one of Gov. Lynch’s original advisers and served on his transition team.

Locally, Len has offered his collab­orative brand of leadership to Peabody Mill Environmental Center, the Nashua Family Mediation Program and the Soughegan Valley Chamber of Com­merce, where he was honored with their 2007 Leader of the Year Award.

In 2014, Len was honored to be asked by the New Hampshire Supreme Court to serve as a member of the New Hamp­shire Attorney Discipline Organiza­tion. This came after Len had served as vice chair of the New Hampshire Real Estate Appraisers Board. Len is neither an attorney nor an appraiser, but he was chosen for these boards because of his record of competence and achieve­ment, his reputation for integrity and his ability to know right from wrong.

Please join me in voting for Len Gerzon for state representative in No­vember, and encourage your friends to do the same. He will bring a fresh and creative perspective to the challenges facing our state.

Hannah M. McCarthy

Amherst

Edwina Hastings deserves support for state rep

To the Editor:

As the president of the Souhegan Valley Republican Women, I would like to enthusiastically endorse Edwina Hastings for state representative in District 4.

I became acquainted with Edwina as a member of our organization. Edwina has been an emergency room RN for almost 30 years, and as such is keenly aware of how broken our current mental health system is. She recognizes the need, and would work hard to ensure that already designated funds from the state filter down quickly to the group of people who would benefit from a com­munity home with supervision for often complicated medication regimes. She knows that life issues can be overwhelm­ing for these people, but regular counsel­ing and oversight would help keep them on their medications and out of emergen­cy rooms and New Hampshire hospitals.

Our police, firefighters and EMS are overwhelmed with the current opioid crisis. Edwina would work to expedite allocated federal and state funding get­ting to our area quickly to continue the fight against the drug runners and sell­ers coming into our cities and towns.

Senior citizens are fighting to stay in their homes, and Edwina will support expanding home health and other ben­efits to keep them out of nursing homes and safe at home.

Limited and transparent government is essential.

Edwina’s years of experience in emergency room care will make her a valuable asset in the state Legislature on these and many other issues. Her work ethic, common-sense approach and passion for helping others will serve us well in Concord.

Donni Hodgkins

President

Souhegan Valley Republican Women

Environment is a top priority for our nation’s future

To the Editor:

We are solidly behind the Democratic candidates in the coming election because we deeply feel that our country needs to make a course correction, and believe they will help bring that about.

Bernie Sanders understands this, and we hope the momentum he has built toward a progressive course ahead will continue.

Our support of liberal candidates we trust will move the United States toward democratic socialism along the lines we have personally experienced and admire in Canada, Europe and Scandinavia.

Greedy business interests bent on rak­ing in the dollar are manipulating today’s America. Perpetuating war, spreading arms and munitions across the globe, and sucking more energy out of the ground in the form of fossil fuels are ways in which they reap profits. The business interests have acquired the most influential politi­cians money can buy.

We hope, when elected, these can­didates will work to bring about cam­paign finance reform, and help move our country away from military empire building. Remember the days when the engine of our economy was the automo­tive industry around Detroit? "See the USA in your Chevrolet!" Today those companies, feeding the tools of military aggression to our own and "coalition" partner proxy countries, drive our economy. Our direction and goals are nugatory if we so pollute our atmo­sphere that climate change wipes out any chance for a livable planet for our grandchildren.

We’d like to see military spending vastly curtailed and industry (BAE, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, etc.) be contracted to develop no-emission renewable energy.

Of immediate concern is the greedy behavior of Energy Transfer Partners and the politicos they have bought in attempting to build a pipeline across sensitive environmental and Native American lands in the Midwest. We don’t need more fracking and the dirty oil it produces to further pollute the environment. Oil should be used as a lu­bricant, not a fuel to be burned. Bernie was absolutely right when he identified a war on climate change as our most urgent priority.

We ask the Democratic candidates to show courage by vocally standing with our Native American brothers and sisters who are fighting to prohibit construction of the proposed Bakken oil field pipeline.

Kathleen Boyer and Robert Wood

Amherst