Now that you have read today’s Agenda 2010 editorial – if not, you really should read that first – you have a pretty good idea of what our editorial board identified as the key issues we will we watching closely this year.

What the editorial didn’t tell you is why we chose to establish a community agenda this year and what this all will mean to readers of our Opinion pages.

Before I do that, however, let me be clear on what it won’t mean: that our day-to-day coverage will somehow be influenced, compromised or slanted to reflect the positions taken here over the next 11 months.

To be honest, that’s one of those things editorial page editors would like to think goes without saying; after all, we editorialize on issues we write about on practically a daily basis.

But we live in a skeptical – some might say cynical – world these days, so it doesn’t hurt to make the point.

Using commuter rail as an example, then, if a report were to surface later this year suggesting that establishing train service between Nashua and Lowell, Mass., would be neither practical nor cost effective, you should feel comfortable knowing that we would report that story prominently – and the same way we would if it weren’t one of our agenda items.

Besides, as you no doubt noticed in reading over our top issues, there is nothing particularly new about us advocating for job creation, first-class education, commuter rail and good government. And encouraging city officials to work with civic leaders and the public to craft a vision for Nashua hardly seems controversial.

So what’s the point of introducing Agenda 2010 onto our Opinion pages this year?

First and foremost, to fulfill our civic responsibility as a contributing member of the Greater Nashua community – the same reason why businesses, social organizations, parishes and individuals choose to participate in civic life. You don’t have to agree with our collective wisdom, so to speak, but at the very least we hope to spark a lively debate over some of the issues that impact us in our day-to-day lives.

We publish more than 300 editorials on a broad range of topics each year; why not let our readers know up front which ones we believe are of critical importance?

So critical, in fact, that we intend to come back to them again and again on our Opinion pages this year – advocating for specific actions, praising progress, identifying roadblocks and measuring success.

At a minimum, we will publish quarterly updates on these five issues, as well as a comprehensive summary at the end of the year. Those reports will be supplemented throughout the year by editorials on news related to these topics whenever deemed appropriate.

As I mentioned earlier, for regular readers of our Opinion pages, none of these agenda items should come as a surprise. Our editorials address these subjects frequently year after year.

The only difference this time is we are making them part of a formal agenda and sharing that in advance with our elected officials, business and civic leaders, and our readers in the true spirit of transparency.

A few other quick points.

? While setting a public agenda for our Opinion pages is somewhat new for The Telegraph, we don’t claim to be breaking new ground here. Newspapers across the country have been doing this for years.

Among the newspapers we studied before stepping out on our own were The Dallas Morning News, Wisconsin State Journal, South Bend Tribune of Indiana, The News Tribune of Tacoma, Wash., Rockford Register Star of Illinois and The Post-Crescent of Appleton, Wis.

And while some of the issues were a function of geography – identifying funding for the state’s 50-year water strategy made the list in Dallas – it wasn’t unusual for jobs, education, transportation, public safety and the environment to show up more than once.on more than one agenda.

? As I’ve said before, the point of publishing editorials is not necessarily to tell you what to do. (Well, maybe sometimes.) Rather, it’s to share our ideas and participate in a broad conversation that we hope leads to more informed decision-making on the issues that matter to all of us.

? Finally, if you really think this is a bird-brained idea, I’m your man. While this project has the full support of our six-member editorial board – their names appear every day at the top of this page – I was the one who brought it to the table.

And since you have never been shy about sharing your, um, opinions with me during the past 20 years, I look forward to hearing what you have to say about Agenda 2010.

Nick Pappas is editorial page editor at The Telegraph. He can be reached at 594-6505 or npappas@nashuatelegraph.com. You can also follow the Opinion page on Twitter at @TelegraphEdit. Now that you have read today’s Agenda 2010 editorial – if not, you really should read that first – you have a pretty good idea of what our editorial board identified as the key issues we will we watching closely this year.