It officially summertime in New Hampshire, Concord is celebrating downtown days and the Candidates for President are visiting. It is a lot of fun and is really very interesting and entertaining for us locals and even the summer tourists can play along. But at the same time it appears our politicians are fighting to keep the New Hampshire primary first and maintain our status as the most important presidential primary.

I received a call from an angry Concord Monitor reader the other day regarding my comments in a story in Monday's newspaper. As a 15 year member of the City Council and a Merrimack County Commissioner and before that a State Representative I am used to and enjoy receiving telephone calls from people wishing to inform me as to their views on issues of the day but this call was different.

The Concord Fire Department is hurting these days. The brave and dedicated members of Concord's Fire Department have had to begin almost every day with new revelations about the recently resigned Fire Officer Mr. Mitchell. These men and women dread opening the Concord Monitor for fear that they will read yet more stories about the actions of the former officer.

Tommorrow night the Concord City Council will review the General Services Budget in our yearly quest to pass a fair budget that provides services to the taxpayers while raising taxes as little as possible.

We are about to embark on the first Holiday Weekend of the summer. Memorial Day weekend hosts the first summer backyard bar-b-ques, the first cool dip in the pools and lakes, and even the first warm afternoon listening to that Red Sox game while gardening in the back yard.

The Monitor offered its view on what the City Council should do with the Library Budget in today's editorial page, the City Council has heard from members of the Library's Board and even from the Library Director, but what do the people of Concord think?

This last week has confirmed my love of living on Concord's Heights. Yes, many people think that living on the Heights is not the most prestigious address. Other Concord residents look at my neighborhood as the place that has all the crime, all the traffic and all the less forunate residents of Concord, but we have something no other neighborhood in Concord has...we have no worries about flooding!