Dear Readers,

The other day, a snow plow rumbled down our street as I watched one of the state “experts” tell a TV reporter how government is a big waste of tax dollars.

As The Weather Channel said we were facing certain doom, the snowplow's flashing lights and roadside thunder offered a bit of comfort.

The plow guys, paid with our tax dollars, have been on the job for the last two weeks. Their hard work is the reason we were able to leave the house and go to the store, the post office, and enjoy a lovely dinner at The Thistle Inn.

The police, another tax supported service, do a pretty good job pulling us out of roadside ditches. They are helped by firefighters. Around here, most firefighters are volunteers, not paid municipal employees, although many of their activities are funded with tax dollars.

When we need services from these emergency workers, we expect them to respond. Most taxpayers favor funding them.

Many also support sending a large chunk of our local tax dollars to fund the schools that teach our children. Schools are important, too.

Which brings me back to the beginning of this missive, and those “experts” who say all government is wasteful and urge us to take a meat ax to its budgets.

On a local level, most of us think our local governments do a pretty good job. There are others who disagree.

No matter what side you are on, you now have a chance to do something about local government spending (in addition to exercising your jawbone at the coffee shop).

It is local election season.

All of our local governmental agencies are governed by elected boards. Some examples are elected trustees of the cemetery district, the water district, the schools or the board of selectmen.

The candidates seeking those offices are your friends and neighbors. Those elected will decide priorities, includes raising and spending local tax dollars.

Few of us will ever have a chance to decide major national questions, issues like world peace or energy policy. But, on the local level, our elected officials decide issues that affect us and our neighbors every day.

To be one of these officials, all you have to do is go to the town office and ask for nomination papers, fill them out, and turn them in. Then convince your friends and neighbors to support you.

You may or may not be elected.

But I guarantee all who run for office are winners because they get to meet their fellow citizens and quickly learn the inner workings of their hometowns.

Most of all, candidates have the chance to participate in a bedrock American process that differentiates us from much of the rest of the world. I am talking about free, fair and public elections. Good luck to all.

P.S. If you are elected, your neighbors will expect you to listen to their concerns and work hard. And that is a good deal for all of us