Avoid the crowds and vote early. It couldn’t be easier. The town clerk will mail a ballot, one of your relatives can pick one up or you can vote absentee. And if one of the ballot questions passes, elections in Windham will become more meaningful.

Town councilors gave their opinions recently about moving elections to November when the most people vote. This makes sense, if the purpose of an election is to receive the voice of the people at its strongest, but there were some holdouts. Bottom line, is the people will speak. Hopefully, the council will not just listen but accept their decision.

Personally, I’d like to hear the council discuss, or at least announce, the town services available for citizens who might find themselves in dire straits this winter. For example, does anyone on the council know where/how/when people can apply for fuel assistance? This would mean a lot more to most of us than another round of catch basin cleaning and skateboard park politics, or denigrating town leadership.

I’ll admit, though, that watching council meetings is more interesting than watching a blank screen stating the School Board is in executive session or the Planning Board, where meetings are mostly unemotional, fact filled and sometimes boring. That all changes when a citizen notices a new building, a recently excavated piece of earth or a development going in their back yard. Of course if they watched the Planning Board meetings, they wouldn’t be surprised.

This morning I was doing some research which required checking the 2000 census on Windham and noted that only 35 percent of Windham households included children under the age of 18. I think that’s a relevant figure to be considered when the council talks about planning for the future of Windham. Maybe a centrally located town park for the rest of us, the 65 percent, is really a good idea. Perhaps, even, a real community center – or both. Surely, some funds will be saved with school consolidation and what better way to invest than in the majority of citizens?

Or, maybe we can play the waiting game – again – since the 2010 census is only a couple of years in the future.

See you next week.