Jim Miller

To the editor:

In your lead letter on the editorial page today, April 3, you featured the letter from Meredith Selectman Bob Flanders and his critique of a Sun article in which Laconia Fire Chief Erickson was critical of the parochial approach to safety services in our area. Bob was totally justified in his criticism of the response times that were attributed to Erickson in the original article. Flanders mentioned that he challenged the Laconia chief at a meeting about the comments that were attributed to him and Flanders claimed that he is often reported accurately by the Sun and Erickson complained about misquotes. Misquotes are a staple in journalism, but incorrectly dating an entire newspaper takes pure journalism to its highest level of incorrectness. Yesterday’s entire issue of the Sun was dated a month ago, March 3, 2007.

My point in all this is that mistakes are made, usually accidental. Erickson may or may not have been critical of response times in other towns. The most important point he made was that there needs to be a regional approach to safety services. Small towns like Meredith, Gilford and Belmont need to work together to provide these services as in most other civilized areas of our country. The differences between safety service providers within each town and between towns need to be set aside to truthfully evaluate what is best. In my opinion we need to return to a county approach to police needs and consider something similar for fire protection. This doesn’t mean eliminating the local coverage each town may, or may not have, but improving it with a sensible regional approach that actually improves coverage, eliminates duplication and overall is more efficient.

Jim Miller

Center Harbor