Celebrate beauty of the Seacoast on a bike; don't put solar array at landfill: Letters
So many ways to celebrate National Bike Month
May 5 − To the Editor:May is National Bike Month, a celebration of biking as transportation and recreation and a way to improve our well being. Seacoast Area Bicycle Riders (SABR) is again partnering with other organizations to celebrate biking on the Seacoast by supporting or offering a variety of events (see Seacoastbikes.org/events) – there’s something fun for every kind of pedaler!
Have you explored the very popular NH Seacoast Greenway trail that now links Portsmouth to Hampton? On May 3, my daughter and I pedaled a tandem with two rakes over to the Portsmouth Skate Park to participate in the first-ever NH Seacoast Greenway volunteer clean up. One team started from a trailhead in North Hampton, and other volunteers were spread along the 8-mile trail to clear leaves and branches and to maintain drainage. We enjoyed working alongside others and seeing a steady stream of appreciative people on foot, bike, and trike using a trail that opened less than a year ago. Are you interested in helping maintain the trail?
SABR is offering or collaborating on rides that are social (and sometimes food-forward), such as a ride May 10 to HiFi Burritos in Dover. Riders will meet at Hilton Park and take back roads to downtown to visit this new Bicycle Benefits business. SABR is part of this national program that rewards donors with a sticker that offers discounts to bicyclists when they ride to participating shops and restaurants.
The annual Portsmouth Mayor’s Ride will roll on Sunday, May 18 when SABR, in partnership with the City of Portsmouth, will hold a slow tour of bike lanes, paths, and recommended routes with a focus on recently completed and planned improvements. This year’s ride is especially timely as the city is wrapping up its update to the Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan. Peter Britz, Director of Planning and Sustainability, will join the ride and answer questions, along with Mayor McEachern. The ride starts from Portsmouth Middle School at 2 PM, heads out Middle Street and Middle Road, and will visit two access points to the rail trail including the new side paths on Borthwick and Hodgdon. We will also discuss the future North Mill Pond Greenway and learn how the on-road Greenway route could ultimately connect to Maine. Families and riders of all types are welcome– it’s a great way to show your support for safer routes!
Exploring the Granite State’s rail trails is the focus of the Tour de New Hampshire, presented by the Bike-Walk Alliance of NH. There will be 10 free guided rides for all types of riders throughout the month, on generally flat surfaces, 15-20 miles long, at a leisurely speed. On May 20, we’ll show off the Seacoast Greenway when we team up with Treeline Outfitters in Portsmouth to lead a 17-mile out-and-back ride at a social pace.
We love programs like bike rodeos, which are an excellent way to teach elementary school-age kids bike safety skills. On June 1 SABR will assist the Town of Kittery and the Bicycle Coalition of Maine with a Bike Rodeo at Mitchell Primary School. Volunteers will help with helmet and bike mechanical checks, and monitoring the traffic skills course.
We hope you’ll join us this month or anytime for a ride, and consider exploring SABR volunteer opportunities. In addition to rides and events, SABR’s Seacoast Pedal It Forward program, with the help of dedicated volunteers and donors, works all year long repairing donated bikes and giving them away to those in need of transportation.Get details about SABR and bike riding at Seacoastbikes.org, on Facebook and Instagram, by signing up for our newsletter, and volunteering. Contact us at info@seacoastbikes.org.
So pump up your tires and we look forward to seeing you during National Bike Month and all year long!
Matt Glenn, President of Seacoast Area Bicycle Riders
Portsmouth
Jones Avenue landfill not ideal site for solar array
May 4 − To the Editor:
There have been several articles regarding placing a Solar Farm on the Jones Avenue Landfill and Ash Containment site. All post landfill uses require approval from NHDES. As reported, this site has a clay cap and contains solid waste, ash, construction and demolition debris in addition to "34,000 cubic yards of ash from the former Portsmouth Energy Recovery incinerator at the former Pease Air Force Base" in an ash containment system. Incinerator ash of this origin was also placed in Superfund Coakley Landfill and the Rye Municipal Landfill in the 1980's.
A letter from the NHDES on August 12, 2024 states that lead and carcinogenic PFOA in the respective monitoring wells exceeded for the first time in April 2023. Manganese and 1,4-dioxane continue to exceed their respective NH AGQS at monitoring well B12. By comparison the Exeter Municipal Landfill is a Brownfield site with a geomembrane plastic sheeting cap and contains no ash. The Jones Avenue Landfill may possibly be the only green space left in Portsmouth. Perhaps other locations for solar arrays in Portsmouth should be considered like rooftops rather than this landfill.
Rose Lopresto Drakatos
Rye
The world's children need our help
May 3 − To the Editor:
I have worked for 40 years to support children and their families in rural Africa and Asia during drought, famine and in many cases war. I know first hand that a small amount of funding for clean water, vaccination, basic education and food saves the lives of children.
213 million children are in desperate need of humanitarian aid due to conflict drought and disaster. Foreign assistance is essential to saving their lives and giving them the opportunity to grow up to be healthy, educated and able to contribute to rebuilding their communities. Cutting back on these programs will endanger millions of children, leaving them vulnerable to disease, exploitation and malnutrition.
As a volunteer with Save the Children Action Network, I urge our representatives in NH (Senators Shaheen and Hassan and Congresswoman Goodlander and Congressman Papas) to prioritize robust funding for humanitarian and development assistance, particularly those programs that protect children and provide education in crisis zones. Foreign assistance is not just about helping others—it’s about safeguarding our own future. By investing in children abroad, we strengthen global stability, promote peace and reduce the long-term costs of conflict.
We are better than this.
Susan Lassen
Portsmouth
We can all see what's happening and it is cause for fear
May 3 -- To the Editor:
In a recent Op-Ed Mr. Alan Forbes details the fate of two legal residents of the US who were recently arrested by federal agents. He also suggests that there is nothing to fear about the current arrests happening in our nation. This reminds me of a quote: “Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes.” We all can see what is happening, and there are reasons to be fearful. While it would be difficult to verify the details of the two arrests mentioned, his letter misses the important point. The real issue is about “due process,” guaranteed by our constitution. We can all agree that any individual who commits a crime, whether that person is a legal resident or a citizen of the US, must be prosecuted. That process includes notification of a charge, and an opportunity to defend against the charge with the help of a lawyer in a court of law.
Currently, many individuals arrested by ICE are not being given due process and are threatened with deportation. Those tactics are already being applied to American citizens, perhaps accidentally. Just a few days ago a mother and her two young daughters (all US citizens including the father) in Oklahoma City were visited after dark by armed men claiming to be federal agents. The mother and daughters told KFOR TV that they were forced to wait outside their house in the rain, while the agents ransacked their home, taking with them numerous personal items including cash. They did not identify themselves or leave any contact information behind. Could they have been just a private militia group? Are these agents not under the control of the Justice Department? Do American citizens no longer enjoy the protections guaranteed them under our constitution?
Mr. Forbes, many residents of this country have good reasons to be fearful of the Trump administration's illegal processes.
Peter Somssich, Brian Wazlaw (former state reps)
Portsmouth
Donald Trump hates veterans
May 4 − To the Editor:
So, now President Trump wants to rename Veterans Day to “Victory Day for World War I.” If there's one consistent trait I've noticed about Donald Trump, it's that he despises the military. He once displayed this hatred when he referred to Americans who died in war as “suckers” and “losers.” Then he skipped visiting the graves of American service members killed in World Wars I and II, because it was raining. He also scolded senior Pentagon officials for allowing a wounded war veteran to sing during an event because “no one wants to see that, the wounded.”
He minimized the traumatic brain injuries of service members caused by air strikes in Iran, referring to them as merely “headaches.” He called generals “a bunch of dopes and babies” and considered them to be “some of the dumbest people I've ever met in my life.” He suggested that Mark Milley (US Army general and former US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) should be executed.At a 2017 Memorial Day commemoration at Arlington Cemetery, while viewing the graves of those who served, Trump famously commented, “I don't get it. What was in it for them?” And of course, who could forget when Trump impugned the service of Senator John McCain who served as a US Navy carrier pilot and spent five years being tortured in a POW camp in Vietnam, by claiming he preferred heroes “who weren't captured.”This shallow sentiment, that he prefers those “who weren't captured,” is however the one consistency that brings to light the motivation as to why Trump is seeking to rename Veterans Day. In addition to spotlighting the US victory in WWI, Trump intends on declaring May 8th as “Victory Day for World War II.” Yet, he has no intention, thus far, of honoring veterans who served in Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan.“We won both (World) Wars. Nobody was close to us in terms of strength, bravery or military brilliance” Trump said last week. If there is anything that Donald Trump has made stunningly clear, it's that he admires victory, but not sacrifice. By doing away with Veterans Day as a collective commemoration of all who have served in the US military, President Trump is spitting in the faces of service members who put their lives on the line for their country.Additionally, if Donald Trump were actually the patriot he claims to be, he would know that May 8th (V-E Day) did not mark the end of World War II, as the fighting continued for another three months, coming to an end when Japan surrendered on September 2nd, 1945. But what more should we expect from the man who faked a medical deferment to dodge serving in Vietnam?
Trump flip-flops on tariffs. Trump flip-flops on immigration. He flip-flops on numerous other policy issues. But there is one thing Donald Trump is absolutely certain of: he hates veterans.
Joseph Conlon
Portsmouth
Trump not likely to succeed bullying China
May 4 -- To the Editor:
Trump has continued a tariff war without understanding Chinese history. China has had a long history of domination by foreign powers. To think that this country will bow down to a Western nation's decrees is unlikely. They are not the impoverished nation of peasants as J.D. Vance called them. And, to think that we can dictate financial terms upon them is an opportunity long since passed, especially as they currently own a large amount of our US treasury bonds.
I do have a remote hope that Trump knows what he is doing but to just trust his instincts and decisions seems to amplify his ignorance of history and my distrust.
Steve Little
Portsmouth
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