Thumbs up to the Town of Old Orchard Beach for finally reducing the cost of a DVD copy of a recorded municipal meeting. For years, the town was charging people $40 ”“ a hefty fee ”“ to own a copy of a town meeting on tape. That is simply an unreasonable and prohibitive cost for such an item. If a person is unable to attend a meeting and they do not have cable TV at home, it’s tough to find out what happened beyond the dry regurgitation of motions and votes most often found in the written meeting minutes.

Dropping the cost down to $15 reflects the decrease in effort that is needed to create a copy, in this new age of DVD-burning, as well as the cheaper media, but still respects the fact that blank DVDs are not free and a staff person does have to take the time and effort to make a copy. With copies of the meetings also available for borrowing, residents who are unable to afford their own copy will still have access to see all the proceedings in living color.

Thumbs up to the Biddeford Police Department for its decision to use a newly acquired Department of Justice grant to purchase Tasers for all 41 of its officers. These electric shock weapons, which cause neuromuscular incapacitation when a person is struck, are an important non-lethal tool for officers to have. Armed with Tasers, officers will be more easily capable of defending themselves from harm without inflicting long-term harm on aggressors. Officers have been properly trained in the use of these weapons, and we’re glad to see them added to what Police Chief Roger Beaupre calls their “tool box.” Hopefully, the use of Tasers will help prevent incidents of fatal shootings when deadly force would otherwise be necessary.

Thumbs up to Sylvan Learning, the education program that provided free summer school programing for Biddeford students when the city’s grant funding for the program fell through. Sylvan stepped in to offer three weeks of classes for about 60 students in grades one through five ”“ without ever being directly asked for help. It’s heartening to see that some organizations still put education first and that Sylvan’s main concern was to keep these youth from falling behind in their studies. Of course, their efforts will benefit them in the long run, as the school is now planning to work with them in the future ”“ with paid contracts ”“ for those students who need extra help. And we can’t think of a business more deserving of such a contract than the one that stepped in to save the day when it was needed most.

Thumbs up to the students and staff at Acton Elementary School, where the youth have progressed from being on “monitor” status to achieving adequate yearly progress under the No Child Left Behind Act for the 2012-13 school year. Administrators and staff members worked closely with the children to help them reach this goal, and it’s impressive that even the school’s population of special education, economically disadvantaged students and those in a Title I early intervention program met AYP. That’s no small feat for any school, and we applaud Acton for their commitment to improving students’ scores ”“ and hopefully giving them an even better education in the process.

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Thumbnails is a Monday feature of the Journal Tribune’s opinion pages. If you would like to respond, please write the Reader’s Forum via email at jtcommunity@journaltribune.com or by dropping your letter off at our Biddeford office.