Published in the InterTown Record – Newport community column – May 19, 2015
by Ann St. Martin Stout
Who can avoid the controversy of the decisions which our state government will soon make regarding the fate of Mount Sunapee State Park? If you live in this area it is doubtful you can avoid hearing about the issue.
As a lifelong resident of Newport, my extended family and I have used Mount Sunapee State Park for picnicking, hiking, and natural enjoyment through the years. We treasure photos of my grandfather, in the mid 1950s, napping beneath one of the birch trees on a summer afternoon, surrounded by his children and grandchildren playing and enjoying the wooded spaces. These same natural, wooded spaces were made possible by other local people – Newporters included – who worked toward the creation a state park so all could enjoy New Hampshire’s natural, beautiful spaces.
When the first snowmaking equipment with its pipes and other gear appeared on the slopes we hiked, we sighed and looked the other way, and lamented out defeated efforts to avoid the scars on the mountain. When the more recent expansions came with enlarging the winter (and now summer) entertainment facilities, we grimaced, and again the lovers of nature and lovers of the intention of the state land, again lamented our defeat to avoid the scarring.
Now here we are faced again with the prospect of more of my land, your land, our state’s land being further developed, — and in the process lost for future generations as a preservation of state natural lands, and the intention for which Mount Sunapee State Park was established.
People of Newport, Sunapee, New London, Goshen, and the whole area – please sign the petition to the Governor requesting that our natural resources be preserved in the current natural state, with no further development – especially development for the financial gain of private interests! Urge our elected leaders to force these private interests to develop on private land in accordance with the local regulation and keep development off our public, State Park and beautiful Mount Sunapee.
The petition can be signed at any Huberts Clothing location. Also a message to stop development can be sent to the Governor at www.governor.nh.gov/contact