Lebanon is a great place to live. I was born here 83 years ago on Mascoma Street (well, not exactly on the street). We have very nice walking and biking trails, a very nice skateboarding and picnic park along the river, good playing fields, a very good school system with excellent teachers and administrators, Colburn Park is getting a nice improvement and the city administrators are doing a good job in their various occupations.
Now, after all these sincere encomia, I have a small favor to ask. The road crew does a great job, but could we please have the streets repaired? We have potholes that could swallow a Volkswagen Beetle. There must be a little extra cash somewhere in City Hall to buy some hot patch to fill the holes. Look in all the drawers. I really have no desire to buy new ball joints for the front end of my Mustang. (What’s an 83-year-old doing with a Mustang?)
Anyway, I thank you all, and be sure to wear your masks.
BOB CATTABRIGA
West Lebanon
The horrendous litany of fatal shootings of Black men by police continues to lengthen. Of the specific suggestions for reform of police practices that have come to my attention, such as the banning of chokeholds, conspicuously absent is the simple idea that when shooting is deemed necessary, killing should be avoided if at all possible. When a target is running away, for example, what excuse can there be for shooting to kill rather than to immobilize?
Here’s hoping the guilty verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial will catalyze much-needed improvement in the training of our nation’s police.
DAVID M. LEMAL
Norwich
There’s a certain magic about the Upper Valley that makes it seem like its own little world. I first encountered it during summer camp in Orford, and my impression of the region that summer brought me back for college five years later. I live here now, but every time I come and go, I’m struck by just how inaccessible this little world is and how hard it is to travel inside of Vermont and New Hampshire.
Today, especially with the long closure of the Amtrak Vermonter, the Upper Valley is cut off from the East Coast except by interstate. But rail is a cheap and efficient way to bring visitors, and badly needed tourism dollars, to the region.
Trains are the most environmentally friendly form of travel, emitting between three and 10 times less carbon dioxide than road travel.
They’re also more popular with younger generations: Young people are driving less and, according to the London School of Economics, American regions with rail lines are more likely to attract young people than those without.
President Joe Biden’s new infrastructure plan would allocate $80 billion to rail travel. Amtrak announced that if the plan passes, new lines will be built from Boston to Manchester and Concord. Upgrades are also planned for existing lines in western New Hampshire.
In Vermont, new lines would connect Rutland to Burlington; another new line would run from St. Albans to Montreal.
The new routes will facilitate inter-regional commerce and tourism, not to mention the many local jobs created by the project.
They say money doesn’t grow on trees, but in the Upper Valley, that’s not necessarily true. Every year, thousands come to the region to experience our world-class foliage, supporting local businesses along the way. By reopening the Vermonter and urging our representatives to pass Biden’s infrastructure plan, the region will be better positioned to capitalize on the tourism boom coming this fall as the pandemic abates.
It’s time to put pressure on our representatives to make rail travel a priority.
JACK BARKSDALE
Hanover
Thank you to the Hanover High School Environmental Club. In small teams led by teachers and staff, HHS students celebrated Earth Day 2021 by planting 200 silver maple and red oak seedlings at the Mink Brook Nature Preserve, or Mosbasak Sibosis (“Mink Brook” in Abenaki).
Environmental Club advisers Jeannie Kornfeld and Linda Addante began working with the Hanover Conservancy in early 2020 to plan such an event for the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, but the pandemic had other plans. Undaunted, the team revised its plans and flawlessly organized a COVID-19-safe event. Forester Ehrhard Frost of Full Circle Forestry guided the planting locations and helped train student leaders on proper planting techniques.
Hanover High’s Environmental Club meets weekly and runs a schoolwide composting and recycling program. In 2017, the Earth Systems class, under the guidance of HHS graduate Hannah Kornfeld, wrote the first climate action plan of any high school in the United States. A Climate Action Plan Implementation Team composed of students, teachers, administrators and community members is working together to carry out the plan. The club also planted a pollinator garden in 2018.
Students in the Environmental Club wanted to involve the school community in a project that would help offset some of the greenhouse gas emissions generated by the school, and also reverse some of the degradation in the Mink Brook Preserve caused by invasive species. The seniors are especially eager to make progress toward meeting the greenhouse gas reduction goals outlined in the HHS climate action plan before graduating this spring.
The event was sponsored by Hanover High School’s Environmental Club, the Hanover Conservancy, Full Circle Forestry, and LindeMac Real Estate.
Celebrating its 60th anniversary, the Hanover Conservancy is the oldest local land trust in New Hampshire. A private, nonprofit organization whose mission is to protect land and waters in the community, its members include nearly a quarter of Hanover households and others throughout the Upper Valley and beyond.
COURTNEY DRAGIFF
Hanover
The writer is program coordinator for the Hanover Conservancy.
I learned recently that it is costing U.S. taxpayers $60 million per week to house some 16,000 migrant children at the southern border. This is approximately $350 per day for each child. These are our tax dollars and we have no say in the matter.
President Joe Biden is acting like a dictator and doing everything the progressive left tells him to, by executive action and by his party’s total control of the House and Senate. Biden has no support from the GOP, nor from 75 million taxpayers who didn’t vote for him but are footing the bill for his social agenda.
So far in 2021, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the number of migrants entering the U.S. is at the highest level in 15 years. These people will become the house cleaners, nannies, yard workers, construction workers, farm help, factory workers and pool cleaners of the Democratic elite. Biden has opened the door to legal “slaves” for his rich-class Democratic supporters (and those disguised as Republicans). Just follow the money and see who gave to Biden in his 2020 campaign.
JEAN LIEPOLD
Grantham
I would like to suggest a correction to some people in the mass media broadcast news: “Liberal” is not a four-letter word. Conversely, “fascist” just might be a three-letter word.
RICHARD H. SULLIVAN
Hanover