To the editor,
An open letter to the members of the N.H. House of Representatives:
As you are no doubt aware by now, the House Transportation Committee voted 11-6 to declare the compromise SB-27 that would increase allowable speed on the area of Lake Winnipesaukee known as The Broads, ITL. The reason that the majority of the committee gave for their decision is that “it’s a local issue and the locals objected”.
Without getting into the unethical and deceptive ways that opponents of SB-27 were able to create the illusion of local support, this is NOT a local issue. Lake Winnipesaukee is the largest lake in N.H. and the one of the largest, if not the largest, tourist draws for the state’s tourist industry. Decisions about the lake and its use affect everyone in New Hampshire.
If you go along with the thinking of the Transportation Committee you will be relinquishing state authority and decision making to local landowners who own property near our state’s prime resources, and because of this the legislature will be flooded with requests for bills in the future for restrictions of public use on public property of all types “because the locals want it so it’s a local issue”.
Do not open Pandora’s Box!
Safe Boaters of NH has provided you with facts and backed up those facts regarding the safe use of Lake Winnipesaukee for all boaters. We came up with the compromise that leaves 86-percent of Lake Winnipesaukee unchanged but opponents to the compromise SB-27 say that is not good enough, they want it all.
We urge you to support SB-27 when it gets to the floor and avoid opening Pandora’s Box, something that will touch off a stampede of bills restricting the public use of public property on the whim of private landowners.
Scott Verdonck
Safe Boater of New Hampshire
|