The new Town Council will be sworn in on Dec. 13 at 6:30 p.m. at Cary Town Hall. Twice last summer, we filled the chamber with citizens wearing white tops to draw attention to our concerns. Please join us this time, wearing white, to acknowledge our newly elected officials and our positive expectations for Cary’s future.

DavisandHighHouse.org will be active in 2008, with regular updates to the Web site (davisandhighhouse.org) and dynamic action committees focused on specific local and regional issues. We will be sending out e-mail updates to those of you who would like to receive them, and updating our e-mail distribution list early in the new year.

The people have spoken. This has been an extraordinary time. We look forward to working with all of you to continue our efforts toward balanced growth and preserving our neighborhood quality of life in our residential communities.

Patricia Lee, Cary

Pleasant surprise at post office

I wanted to comment on the service I received this week at Cary’s Main Post Office on Wrenn Drive. Before this week I would have told anyone that my least favorite place to have to spend any time whatsoever was at any U.S. Post Office; however, this week has shown me that I misjudged the service provided to us by the Postal Service, at least in Cary. Crescent State Bank, with the help of our customers, sent off 275 care packages to military personnel serving oversees. I dreaded the trip to the post office because I thought they would dread to see us coming and I would see it in their customer service to me.

I was pleasantly surprised at the accommodations and help they provided to us, from the supervisors to Mr. Preston Mitchell, the postal pervice employee that weighed and prepared each one of the packages we sent. Mr. Mitchell went above and beyond to help us and all the while, helping other staff members and customers. I had a great experience and I wanted to formally thank all of the great folks at the Cary Main Post Office. You are the best!

Debbie S. McLamb , Crescent State Bank — Cary

More on downtown parking

Owners/employees of Tenacious/ Kuttin Edge routinely park on Chatham Street in one-hour parking spaces for the entire working day. The town does not enforce the parking ordinance. While the owner/employees take up several parking spaces on the street they have customers from Cindy’s towed. On several occasions they have blocked cars in until the wrecker arrives. The spaces they occupy on the street, all day during working hours, could be used by anyone visiting the downtown area. This situation just magnifies the parking problems we have downtown. In this example, a fine enterprising young company invests thousands of dollars to renovate and equip an old building that could still be vacant, and look how one of their next door business neighbors welcomes them.

Now here comes the town to the rescue. The solution, employ an out-of-state company to do a $50,000-plus parking study and come up with a proposal to build a $9 million parking deck three blocks away. Think of the ground-level lots that could be strategically located in downtown for millions less.

If you are going to Cindy’s you are welcome to park in our lot on the east side of the building at 149 E. Chatham St. across the street from Cindy’s. Most of us want everyone to enjoy and love downtown Cary, as I have for 72 years.

Bill Rogers, Cary

Speak mind online

Online petitions are a new way for citizens to voice their opinions about developments in town. Unlike vague e-mail petitions, an online petition service validates each e-mail address and allows the signer to add comments. All signatures and comments can then be presented to town leaders so they have additional input from residents on important issues up for vote.

The Morrisville Board of Commissioners will soon consider the largest commercial project ever proposed for its town. Park West Village, with over a million square feet of retail, office, hotel and apartments, will be located at the intersection of N.C. 54 and Cary Parkway. Many residents are concerned about the impact this will have on traffic, especially the two-lane sections of N.C. 54 to RTP, congestion at other nearby intersections, water consumption, the size and density of another big-box retail mixed-use project and its impact on Morrisville’s future.

Would you like to tell town leaders what you think about this project? Go to ipetitions.com/pe tition/NoPark West/ to add your comments about Park West and to sign the online petition. Tomorrow [Thursday], the P&Z will make its final recommendations and next Tuesday, Dec. 18, will be the last public hearing before it goes to vote. Your input by petition or at the hearing will help the board make the right decision for Morrisville.

Rick Holcombe, Morrisville

Thank you CCF

On behalf of the children who attend Adams Elementary I would like to publicly thank the Cary Community Foundation for their generous $3,000 grant award. Adams will use the grant award to purchase six handicap-accessible picnic tables for their soon-to-be-built “Shelter for All” that will be located on campus adjacent to the Miracle League site. The investment in Adams enables our school to provide an outdoor shelter the entire the Cary community can enjoy regardless of their abilities. Adams is honored to be a grant recipient and appreciative of the Cary Community Foundation’s support of our school and other worthy nonprofits that serve Cary. Thank you!

Barbara Walsh, Cary

Voters: Don’t depend on media

Media coverage of presidential races bears too much influence on how voters perceive candidate electability. Too often, in newspapers, TV and magazines, there is excessive coverage of certain candidates over others, unfair positioning in news reports and disproportionate amounts of time or space given to candidate positions. For example, in the last democratic debate, presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich was given one-third the amount of time to speak that was given to other candidates. This feeds into our notion of who has a chance of winning, which in turn impacts how we vote. Is the media telling us who to vote for? Voters who want to make decisions based on where candidates stand on the issues without being manipulated by media bias are forced to be proactive in learning about candidate positions. Web sites like dehp.net/candidate/ and 2decide.com/table.htm exist to help serious voters to get the information they need, but unfortunately, but few resources are available for those who are not active on the Internet.

This is a serious problem that threatens the fundamental principles of a democracy in which people depend on the media to elect a president that best represents the people of the United States of America.

Gloria Mahin, Cary