To the editor:
Like many families who've come to settle in Manchester in recent years, we were drawn by three qualities — its fine schools and abundant opportunities for children, its exceptional natural beauty and its small-town quality of life.
Tom Kehoe, throughout his time as selectman and now as the board's Chair, has worked tirelessly over many years to protect and enhance these precious resources.
Tom has worked to create many different opportunities for Manchester's children.
As a selectman, he works cooperatively with the regional school district to help form reasonable budgets. He provided consistent support over the many years it took to plan and construct our new middle and high school.
As the first chair of the selectmen's advisory Playing Fields Committee, he led the effort to better coordinate the use, improvement and expansion of the town's and district's sports fields. His work with Boy Scout Troop 3 is the stuff of local lore.
In times when municipal budgets are constrained, it is good to know we have Tom as a selectman to keep education and Manchester's children at the top of his priorities.
During Tom's time as selectman, facilities at Singing Beach, Tuck's Point and the harbor have all received improvements, guided by various citizen advisory committees called into being by the selectmen.
And that small-town quality of life? At its root is that key civic virtue, civility.
It is a quality much needed in public officials and one Tom has in abundance. At all times he respectfully, patiently listens to all sides of a question, hearing out everyone who has something to say, and finding solutions where there is significant disagreement about how to proceed. When the discord between the town's staff and the Harbor Advisory Committee erupted last June in the abrupt resignation of Ms. Smith Crawley and most of her committee colleagues, it could have put an end to all the good work they had set in motion. Instead, the selectmen, led by Tom, kept their heads, promptly found and appointed capable new committee members and kept things moving.
Please join me on May 15 and vote for Tom Kehoe for Selectman.
He supports our children and our schools, and works without ceasing to improve both the physical infrastructure of our town and our capacity as a community to respond effectively to whatever challenges we may face.
SANDY BODMER-TURNER
School Street, Manchester
