Niel Young

To the editor,

I have known for some time that there is a large cross-section of listeners to our Saturday morning radio program — and many of them feel free to extend to me their personal thoughts.

The program is definitely “non-partisan”: Liberalism is a problem — bad behavior by Republican leaders and those elected are not exempt from criticism.

My goal in the nearly 12 years of hosting the program has been to provide a venue for opinion — be informative — present great guests — and be sure to maintain credibility for information offered.

And for those “fans” of the program who listen for the entire four hours, I really do appreciate it — and so do the advertisers!

Last Saturday I made some brief comments in the final 15 minutes concerning the recent Planning Board hearing for the new Walgreen’s in downtown Laconia.

It seemed to me that the Board could have been more helpful if they had concluded the meeting — though very late at night — by giving Walgreen’s the green light — and complained that over three years later it was about time for a decision.

Within minutes of the end of the program, I was advised by someone I have a deep respect for who wanted to set the record straight on just when the Planning Board first received a CONCEPTUAL plan from the Walgreen's developers, that the date was Feb. 2006 — followed by two brief meetings between last autumn and May — and then the hearing last Tuesday evening.

He believes my comment of the planning process taking three years was misleading to the listeners — and after his explanation, perhaps my broad brush did paint a questionable picture.

Not to defend my words but here is a quote (read in The Laconia Daily Sun) from a Planning Board member at that meeting: “It’s been three-and-a-half years, what’s another month?”

On the subject of zoning and planning, the proposed methadone outpatient substance abuse treatment clinic which would be located in a building on Primrose Drive South at the O'Shea Industrial Park will need a variance because that type of business does not fit the zoning/planning (non-conforming use) ordinances. As a resident of Laconia I do plan to speak out against the approval of the variance. Every Laconia resident who has spoken to me about this since the news first broke is opposed to this proposal.

Niel Young

Laconia