State has kept Beaver Lake clean and safe
To the editor:
In your editorial of last week titled "Lake speeds should be up to residents, not the state," you write: "If those who live on Derry's Beaver Lake want to zoom around in their speed boats, the state of New Hampshire has no business telling them they cannot."
In fact, state RSA 271:20:1 says: "All natural bodies of fresh water situated entirely in the state having an area of 10 acres or more are state-owned public waters and are held in trust for public use; and no corporation or individual shall have or exercise in any such body of water any rights or privileges not common to all citizens of this state." So, in fact, the state has every right to set speed limits on Beaver Lake and has for somewhere around 50 years.
If some residents of the lake would like to change this law they should have at it but, until such time, the state owns all of the water and all of the land underneath the water. Before they take back the lake they might consider a source of funding to replace the hundreds of thousands of dollars the state has invested in Beaver Lake over the last 30-plus years.
If it wasn't for the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services water quality testing in the early 1980s, the residents of Beaver Lake would never have known we were ruining our own lake. The residents of the lake, the Beaver Lake Improvement Association and DES have worked incredibly hard over the past 30 years to bring the lake back from "accelerated death."
New Hampshire has been very, very good to Beaver Lake, including money and staffing for watershed best management practices, The Beaver Lake Watershed Partnership, the Volunteer Lake Assessment Program, the Lake Host Exotic Weed Prevention Program and the Weed Watchers program. This does not include the thousands of trout that are stocked by New Hampshire Fish and Game every spring and fall and their management and repair of the state-owned public boat launch on Water Street.
Repeating over and over again, "It is our lake and the town's lake," is just rabble rousing rhetoric with no basis in fact.
Robert Tompkins Jr.
Beaver Lake
Derry
Protect troops' right to vote
To the editor:
I am outraged by the state of New Hampshire and its unwillingness to protect the voting rights of our military men and women not in-state. The MOVE Act of October 2009 was designed, according to The American Enterprise, to "amend the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act to ensure that absent uniformed services voters and overseas voters are aware of their voting rights and have a genuine opportunity to register to vote and have their absentee ballots cast and counted."
The legislation requires states to mail out ballots to troops in time to give them 45 days to return their ballots.
Twelve states have applied for waivers from protecting military voters in the 2010 election: New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, Maryland, Delaware, Wisconsin, Colorado, Washington, Hawaii, Alaska and the District of Columbia. Citizens from these 12 states should all be outraged that their state didn't take steps to protect military voting rights, despite having plenty of time to do so.
How can they get a "waiver" from enforcing this important voting rights legislation? Tell the Department of Justice to enforce the MOVE Act and make states comply with this law.
Also, write and ask your state representatives to please do the right thing for our military men and women. They deserve the right to vote!
Elaine Rugh
Derry
Kimball is best choice for governor
To the editor:
After reading that Gov. John Lynch passed yet another anti-business bill just last week (HB 1168), I had to write to let my neighbors know that we have the opportunity to end these fiscal attacks on our New Hampshire businesses.
The signed bill effectively tells employees that it's OK to steal from your employer as long as it's under $500. Plus if your employer catches you and decides to let you go for stealing from him, you can still receive your unemployment benefits from the state. How's that for rewarding bad behavior and hurting businesses here.
Does this make sense to anyone? Jack Kimball, who is campaigning to be your next governor, and all business owners know that employee theft is wrong at the first penny.
Jack understands how to run a successful business and knows that under Gov. Lynch's tax and spend bills, it's been getting tougher.
Jack has promised to repeal as many of the almost 70 new fees and taxes that are chasing jobs out of the Granite State. Kimball knows that we don't have an income problem in Concord, we have a spending problem, and we need tax cuts to energize our state and get our citizens back to work. Jack is a true patriot with plenty of business acumen and leadership skills.
It's time for a change New Hampshire can get excited about. It's time to vote for Jack Kimball for governor in the upcoming primaries on Sept. 14.
Margie Diggins
Exeter
Emiro supports our veterans
To the editor:
There is a candidate running for governor of the state of New Hampshire. His name is Frank Emiro. He is the most pro-veteran candidate I have had the honor of meeting. He is not that well known yet — I emphasize the "yet." His motto is "results not promises."
I believe he is the best candidate for the little guy and especially the brave men and women who are now serving and have served in the armed forces. Frank will be in your corner and will have your back through thick and thin. He will do his best for you and every resident of New Hampshire.
This is a candidate I believe people should get to know. The most important thing to remember this fall is to get out there and vote! We will not get our country and states back without everyone getting out and saying, "I have had enough!" Frank Emiro is definitely a step in the right direction.
Ernie Miller
Plaistow
