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Graham, Donna

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From: Gloria Henry en repre inieaioatead

Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2022 2:16 PM

To: Board of Aldermen

Ce: Graham, Donna; Cummings, Tim

Subject: Seasonal road closures and elimination of Restrictive on street parking for outdoor
dinning

CAUTION: This email came from outside of the organization. Do not click links/open attachments if source is
unknown.

To the Nashua Board of Alderman:

My name is Gloria Henry. My husband James and | own Glorious Possibilities at 100 Main

Street. We are a home decor and gift shop. We relocated to this location in November 2020. Prior
to that, our shop was located in the Chandler Library building for over eight years. We relocated to
reduce our overhead and survive during the peak of COVID19. During the last 23 months of
COVID19, we have been working nonstop to keep our business thriving. The second year of barriers
has been an impediment to our business. We do not support continuing the Jersey barriers for
another three years. Therefore, we want the ordinance overruled.

As a 39-year resident of Nashua, | have never seen such chaos on Main Street. The barriers are a
logistical quagmire to the ebb and flow of commerce in our store. Customers constantly complained
about the lack of parking, traffic congestion and the unattractiveness of the barriers. In our block and
on our side of the street, this pass year there was no parking whatsoever. Every parking area was
allocated for restaurant dinning. We see hundreds of customers each week and not one customer
has ever supported having the barriers the second year.

We believe that the Main Street restaurants, retailers, professionals and service-based businesses

should all be allowed to thrive and not disproportionately given special benefits. The barriers have

definitely favored the restaurants and that was justified when COVID19 was at its peak. There is no
longer a need for such inequality.

All restaurants can still have outdoor seating utilizing their sidewalk blueprints prior to

COVID19. Restaurants can also make reasonable outdoor seating arrangements with nearby
retailers. We are not against restaurants; we order lots of food from local restaurants. Almost weekly
we send customers to the restaurants who are not familiar with the downtown area.

Since COVID19, customers want to shop downtown and support local and small businesses. The
city should not do anything to impede that desire. Currently, we and our customers are concerned
that the ordinance will be in place once again and are befuddled that the city would reinvest in such a
venture, which would put the retailers at such a disadvantage. Therefore, we believe it is imperative
that the barriers should not be put back up and the ordinance be rescinded.

Thank you for your consideration,

Gloria and James Henry
Glorious Possibilities, LLC

Graham, Donna

From: Derick Anderson < Ge:

Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2022 10:11 AM
To: Board of Aldermen

Ce: Graham, Donna; Cummings, Tim

Subject: previous testimony

Attachments: COl-120821-fire and police testimony.pdf

CAUTION: This email came from outside of the organization. Do not click links/open attachments if source is
unknown.

Please, add the attached testimony by Chief Rhodes and Deputy Chief Rourke.

Thank you,
Derick

Derick Anderson, PharmD
Owner/President
Wingate's Pharmacy
and Compounding

129 Main Street

Nashua, NH 03060

Phone: (603) 882-9733

Fax: (603) 882-9734

Committee on Infrastructure — 12/08/2021 Page 16
Chairman O'

Yes, | will call them. Thank you, Mr. Jette.

Aide Jette

Okay.

Chainnan O'Brien

As a matter of fact, | probably should probably do it now. The thing is Chief Rnades do you want to come forward? Also
too do we have a Deputy Chief Rourke here? You might as well come up. Welcome to the hot seat. I've always liked this
when police and fire can sit together. Welcome, gentlemen. Chief Rhodes and so members of the committee know, | did
make phone communications with several people. We did hear testimony which kind of | find concerning and it has to do
with public safety. Not here this evening, | did speak to the head of AMR Ambulance - Chris Stawasz. He does have an
opinion on the barriers but | says | want to have your answer as far as is It affecting the quality or safety of the community.
According to AMR what he tells me, | know his third party testimony from me but I'm sure if inquired we could get that
written from Mr. Stawasz but he did state that he received no official complaint on the thing. I'm sure if we had received
official complaint, and | assure the citizens of this community that if we received an official complaint, | as Chairman of this
board would act accordingly. But we have never received from any of our authority people that are in that capacity never
really complained to us on the effect of the traffic situation in the city. So therefore on that segway, Chief Rhodes.

Brian Rhodes, Fire Chief

Good evening. For the record my name is Brian Rhodes. | have the privilege of serving as the 14th Chief for the Fire
Department of the City of Nashua. Nashua Fire Rescue has never and will never, I'm pretty confident to say although we
can always say always or never, like any type of reductions in traffic flow on Main Street. We were a big proponent of the
stroll - when we had the stroll. For years, we did nothing to protect the what 30 plus 1,000 people that came there. We
lobbied very hard to get hard barriers put up.

in this case, | think if we're putting people in the streets, yes we have to protect those people. Things happen. I've always
said yeah, this is Nashua and knock on wood we're a pretty safe city here but | think that's for a reason because | think we
plan well. We have an extremely professional and competent Police Department. | couldn't be prouder of our Fire
Department and that's because the community supports us. At this point it’s kind of tough for us to speak against or speak
for the businesses of Main Street because we technically work for you. We are public servants. So all we can really speak
to is you pay me to be the head fire official - Fire Rescue in the City of Nashua and you pay now Acting Chief Rourke to be
the head police official. So we can give you our best advice. We can give you industry standards, best practice. | can give
you data. Part of what! can give you is we just and every member of the board was given a copy of the Master Plan that
was just completed that the full Board approved for Nashua Fire Rescue. For those in the audience who don't have this, it
speaks about population density. All this information was taken from the city’s GIS website. So this is all Nashua specific
information.

Nashua is a densely populated city with 2,893 residents per square mile. For the sake of comparison, the population
density of New Hampshire is 152 residents per square mile and the population density nationally is 91 residents per square
mile. The most densely populated areas of Nashua with more than 10,000 residents per square mile are in the eastem part
of the city in the neighborhoods surrounding fire stations one, two and four. !t also goes on to say there's a pocket in the
south end of the city. So fire stations one, two, and four are the Amherst Street Station, the Lake Street Station, and the
East Hollis Street Station. So if you triangulate that, that's kind of the area we're talking about. When this study was
undertaken, and in full disclosure the initial number here was for the entire city. The response time in the 90th percentile
from 2017 to 2019 was 6 minutes and 47 seconds. | had our staff run numbers for us from April 1% of this year 2021 to
October 31” of this year. For the stations one, two, and four which | just mentioned are in the most densely populated
portion of our city, we have increased our response time by 1 minute and 8 seconds. Now that might not seem like a major
number but it is an increase.

My concern as the head of the Fire Department is we are undertaking some pretty significant growth in this densely
populated area. Moynahan Manor, School Street flats, performing arts center. One incident on Main Street where | have
to take one fire hose off a fire engine but we need to set up an aerial truck, we are shutting down Main Street completely.
There's nothing | can do about that. That is going to create a mess. Anytime we go down there we create a problem. The
trucks are big. What are we going to do?

As far as the traffic goes, we have traffic preemption. And for those who don't understand or know what that is, is if you if
you see a fire truck on the roads fights and sirens on but if you notice on the mast arms where the signal lights are if the if

City of Nashua

Information Technology Department (603) 589-3300
Administrative Services Division Fax (603) 594-3434
229 Main Street - Nashua, NH 03060

To: Ms. Kelly Parkinson
Purchasing Manager, City of Nashua
229 Main St
Nashua, NH 03061-2019

Date: May 2, 2022

Re: INFOR Annual Software Maintenance

Ms. Parkinson,

This request is for the annual software assurance renewal required for the continued operation of
INFOR.

Funding is Information Technology, Software Maintenance 22.1.535 — 54407.
Amount: $292,499.58

Sincerely,

Nick Miseirvitch
CIO, Information Technology

Cc: Kimberly Kleiner, Director of Administrative Services

Committee on Infrastructure — 12/08/2021 Page 17

the red strobe is flashing and the light is green, that means there's a fire vehicle coming up behind you. This system is
extremely old but it only works in the direction of which the vehicle is traveling. Anecdotally | can say I've traveled Main
Street quite a bit every day. | travel multiple times just to see what's going on and | think | can say and | think, honestly,
anyone in this room who or anyone in this city who travels on Main Street multiple times a day will understand that there
are times when the traffic is backed up. | think the problem we have is not when we're going north or south. Our problem
is when we're going north or south and we have to go east or west because people get aggravated when they're queued
up, and they sit through a couple sets of lights, and then they decide they're going to pull out into the intersection and block
it. Unfortunately when we change the lights, it does nothing for the side streets.

At the end of day, | don't know how else fo say this but we are good and everything is good until something happens.

When something happens, people are going to look at Chief Rourke or | and say what happened. So this is our opportunity
to come here and just speak the truth to you and tell you how itis but ultimately, this is a decision that the board has to
make. We were never in favor of the islands that were put into Main Street. We weren't really in favor of the barriers going
out but we live with them and we make do. So I'll answer any questions you may have.

Chairman O'Brien

Thank you, Chief Rhodes. | do have one. | do actually have a couple. It seems in the public comment, and this is really
concerning to me. Can you state for the record as what was alleged? Has any elected official ever coerce anybody on the
Fire Department to provide false information on this particularly? | find surprised that | even have to mention this but it was
said that it seems that some people in power are affecting your influence on this. | would imagine if there was a severe
safety issue, you would have brought it to this board and to the city's attention a long time ago.

Brian Rhodes, Fire Chief

To the best of my knowledge, there is no one that has coerced or threatened anyone in my organization and again at the
end of the day, it's my job just to give you the facts and give you what} believe as the head of your Fire Department is the
best industry standard best practice advice that | can give for you to make the best decisions for the citizens and the
business owners alike.

Chairman O'Brien

And Chief Rourke you're not off the hook, I'm going to ask you the same question too. But any other questions from
anybody on the board to the Fire Chief? See none, Chief Rourke congratulations.

Kevin Rourke, Deputy Police Chief
Thank you.

Chairman O'Brien

Looking forward to your new appointment and working with you. I'll just give you the floor if you would like to speak on this.
Kevi De Polic: ief

Sure. Kevin Rourke, Deputy Chief of Uniform Operations at the PD. Again 1 know it's a hot topic so just prepared tonight to
give some feedback. So what! did is | went out and spoke to the officers who drive the road every day and all day long.
80 | have some feedback from what they've seen over the last year and a half or so. Some of their major issues that

they've had with the barriers. They've created significant traffic Issues on Main Street, especially during rush hour traffic,
the afternoons, second shift when most people are out there.

They also advised that this was not taking place at the beginning of the pandemic when the berries were put out but it has
tremendously increased when people started going back out come back to work. It has delayed responses when
responding to emergency calls. (inaudible) have pointed out a certain area of Canal Street between Canal Street and Pearl
Street as the most congested area and northbound traffic seems to be more congested than southbound traffic.

Sometimes officers have sate at the lights for multiple cycles without moving and most of this is the congestion going
northbound.

As you know, every spring and summer we recelve a lot of complaints of traffic and noise complaints of the vehicles and
the motorcycles. So what we try to do every spring is try to get out there and deter this behavior. We received many, many
calls from the restaurants downtown. | mean nobody wants to go out and sit at these outdoor dining facilities of these
restaurants and hear a motorcycle or vehicle revving their engine or playing the music loud. So we try to deter that right

Committee on Infrastructure — 12/08/2021 Page 18

away for the season. So when we go out there with the barriers, we've had numerous occasions where it can be an officer
safety issue where you're pulling vehicles on Main Street because there's not a lot of room for traffic to pass by and the
officer to get out his vehicle. So that is definitely one thing that | received in the feedback that was important to them — the
officer safety issue. What they started doing is trying to pull these vehicles over on the side streets but sometimes that
doesn't happen. It's out of their control.

They did note since they removed the barriers, officers have noticed that traffic flow, although busy at peak times it has
significantly lessened on Main Street I've also noticed that the ability to navigate Main Street during emergency calis has
improved. And that is feedback | received from the offices. Again they travel that road every day and you know, work 24/7
entity.

Chairman O’Brien

Thank you, Chief Rourke

Alderman Tencza

So if | may, | just want to follow up on something that the Chief said before - Chief Rhodes. Chief you said that if there's
one call on Main Street, you would tie up the whole street but that's going to be the same whether the barriers are in place
or not, right? | mean if there was a fire on one of the main street buildings between East and West Hollis Street and Water
Street, | mean you're going to reroute traffic out of the out of that area around, correct?

Brian Rhodes, Fire Chief

| guess potentially depending on the severity of the incident but when you limit the roadway for me, our aerial trucks take a
minimum of 16 feet to set up. That’s a lot of room. So | can't have cars coming by our firefighters while they're operating
out there. So we would have shut the whole thing down. If we're back at, you know, four or five lanes on Main Street, the
potential exists that maybe two of those lanes are open on the other side and our friends in the Police Department would
help facilitate the traffic movement over there. It would still mess things up but that it's just a possibility. There's a lot of
what ifs but that's the world I live in. There are no certainties in the Fire Department or Police Department. If you would
have told me last Saturday we would have had a fire at seven in the morning and my Assistant Chief almost would have
gotten hit by a vehicle driving around him at an accident he came upon, I'd say no way. So we just, you know, we plan for
the worst and hope for the best and that's all | try to give you is the best information and the possible scenarios that are out
there.

hairman O'Brien

Allright. | do have one. Chief Rourke did you or members of the previous administration were ever influenced by any
political official on this particular thing? In other words, did anybody ever contaminate you?

Kevin Rourke, Deputy Police Chief
No.

Chairman O'Brien

Okay and if there was severe safety or a life threatening type of situation, you would make it known to city officials to
remedy this?

Kevin Rourke, D Police Chie
Absolutely.
Chairman O'Brien

Thank you. Any other further questions for any members of the board? Gentlemen | thank you for coming before this
committee. Thank you so much. At this time, | would like to bring up Director Cummings

Tim Cummings, Economic Development Director

And as I'm getting situated, | believe Julie Chizmas is on the line and I think she has a couple slides that she wants to
present to you this evening. So you may want to have her go first and I'll follow on after.

Graham, Donna

From: Gary Wingate Qe

Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2022 3:04 PM
To: Board of Aldermen

Ce: Graham, Donna; Cummings, Tim
Subject: Downtown barriers

CAUTION: This email came from outside of the organization. Do not click links/open attachments if source is unknown.

My name is Gary Wingate from Wingate’s Pharmacy at 129 Main St., Nashua. | have worked there since 1984, and am
part of a family business which has been an intrinsic part of the Nashua community since its beginning on January 1st,
1900, which was started by my great grandfather, Frank Homer Wingate, 122 years ago.

The purpose of my letter is to express:

1) tam in favor of outdoor dining with the tables and chairs directly in front of the restaurant’s boundaries, with enough
room for pedestrian traffic, made easier with the expanded sidewalk project.

2) | am against the “extended” outdoor dining which eliminates our parking spaces, both regular and handicapped, and
is “crowded out” by Jersey barriers and filled with tables and chairs, therefore “taking” our customer and freight
parking.

3) 1am also against the two lane traffic, which causes chaotic traffic flows, and unsafe travel lanes for emergency
vehicles, as mentioned by Fire Chief Rhades and Police Chief Rourke at the Infrastructure meeting on December 8th, and
from the former chair of the Nashua Fire Commission, and former co-director of Emergency Management for the city of
Nashua, Ed Lecius.

We have formed a very concerned group of business owners, which we will call the “Block”. It consists of a common
message and sentiments as listed above. They include the Print Factory, Wingates Pharmacy, Cardin’s Jewelers, Chucks
Barber Shop, Avard’s, Corriveau Insurance, Alphagraphics, Subzero Ice Cream, and Darrell’s Music Hall.

We have politely showed up and spoken at public comments four or five times at Aldermanic meetings, Infrastructure
meetings and parking survey meetings. As fellow downtown business owners, we like and are friends with the
restaurant owners. We often eat there and do take out, and supported them with the “extended” emergency dining
situation in 2020, legitimized by the uncertainty of the Covid virus. However, we were taken by surprise and did not
support the barriers being up for 2021, and even the consideration of having them for 2022.

We are often told by some of the city decision makers at these meetings that we are “in the minority” and have
“contaminated language”. So, the Block decided to take action and explore the sentiments of the business owners by
visiting stores from Sky Market to PRG Rugs. It’s was unanimous that owners, employees and customers were not only
against the “extended dining” and the barriers, but strongly against it.

We brought a petition with us, and fifty business owners were against the barriers and extended dining and two lanes of
traffic, and any thoughts of extending this for this upcoming 2022 season. Many have shared their sentiments and there

letters are in your package.

There were many new businesses like Elitonde at Sky Market, Rita at Subzero, Ruth Boland at NH Craftsman, Gloria at
Glorious Possibilities, Colleen at Bella Boutique, and many more that want their parking back. They expected when they
lease their property the city wouldn’t “take “ their parking spots with barriers and most often empty tables and chairs.
Some long time practicing lawyers with offices in Nashua like Morgan Hollis, Bob Shephard, Peter Tamposi, Tyler
McAfee, Mark Kanakis, Martha O'Neill, just to name a few, want to return ONLY to a downtown as it was before Covid.
We have Julia at Charron Medical who has a fleet of drivers that deliver medical supplies and Bill at Soprano’s who has

1

a fleet of drivers that delivers pizzas, and they say the pre-Covid delivery times of ten or fifteen minutes are more like
forty-five minutes to an hour, which adversely effects their service levels, and is frustrating for both employees and
customers.

At our pharmacy we have over a hundred customers a day. We can turn a parking spot three to four times an hour. The
Block decided after one of the Infrastructure meetings when we were “accused of being in the minority” to put a
petition out just after the barricades were removed, which were up for almost nine months, to see how many were
against it.

We had almost six hundred signatures in the one month. | understand Kristen Wilson put out a Facebook petition and
got 275 signatures “against” in a short period of time. | have been told the Nashua Telegraph put out a petition and
thousands responded and eighty percent were against.

Everyone asks why three or four restaurants are catered to and get special treatment for, at the expense of the
hundreds of non-restaurant businesses. | have talked to many of the restaurant owners and they admit it is unfair. They
admit they would be against it if it were them. All the restaurants confess they are below their normal staff levels. There
was a report in the National Association of Restaurants a few weeks ago claiming a large number of pre-Covid restaurant
employees have left the industry. The majority will be not coming back, and that will not change in the next three years.

There are almost zero customers in the extended dining areas at lunch hours. A lot of restaurants are closed for lunch.
Yet, the non-restaurants have their daytime parking spaces full of barriers and are discouraging people to come
downtown. Some restaurant customers can not find parking and they resort to restaurant options with good parking on
Amherst St, and DW Highway, and avoid downtown completely. | talked to Jake at the Flight and he does not need the
“Extended Dining”, the same with Whitney at Joanne’s Diner, Christie and Basil at Main St. Gyro, and Chris at Fratello’s.
The general manager at Peddlers Daughter said outdoor sales were lower in 2021 verses 2020. Why does JaJa Belles
take more than half a block and closes at 2PM. Why are all the restaurants blocking the parking for customers for the
barber, the jeweler , the print person, the haberdasher, the insurance man, the pharmacist, the banker, the dentist, the
financial planner, etc.

We at Wingates Pharmacy do not want any more tables or chairs or umbrellas or barriers in front of the boundaries of
our pharmacy business. We want the parking for our customers. The most disheartening and frustrating issue that ours,
and all the customers and employees of the Block have experienced, are having repeat customers, and new customers,
coming in extremely frustrated by the two lanes of traffic and the lack of parking they are accustomed to through the

years.

There are so many negatives. What is the reason for blocking our parking. What is the reason for having a major
thoroughfare like Main St. Nashua being two lanes. Why have two lanes when four lanes are tough enough with the
PAC construction with all the trucks and cranes, with the gas lines being put in, with the remodeling of the Riverfront
coming, with the new building adjacent to the High Street garage, the Bronstein project.

Since the restaurants are given extra, “free” space at no extra cost, and the non restaurants are having their space
“taken” in front of their stores for barriers and tables and blocking parking, doesn’t it make sense that we should get an

abatement of our taxes, and the restaurants should pay more.

In closing, the Block got quite an education in listening to both restaurants and non restaurants and to employees and
customers. We did not find that we “are a minority”. We found we are a well respected majority that cares about our
customers. That want to provide ease of negotiating downtown traffic. That want parking in front of our stores. We are
asking the alderman to make the right decisions that bring our great city, and hard working business owners and their
employees, a happier and healthier environment to come visit.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Gary Wingate

Wingate’s Pharmacy and Compounding
129 Main St.

Nashua, NH

Sent from my iPad

Graham, Donna

From: Beth Scaer

Sent; Wednesday, February 16, 2022 8:38 PM
To: Board of Aldermen

Subject: Downtown barriers

CAUTION: This email came from outside of the organization. Do not click links/open attachments if source is
unknown.

Dear Aldermen,

I appreciate very much Laurie Ortolano and Aldermen Comeau keeping the Nashua taxpayers in the loop about
what is happening with the plans for the downtown barriers. I am very concerned to hear that an illegal public
meeting was held to discuss the barriers, especially since the presence of the barriers downtown is
controversial.

I am very much opposed to the barriers most especially because the police and fire departments reported that the
barriers cause delays in responding to emergencies. Having had a serious house fire four years ago, I have
painful first-person experience of how every second counts when the firefighters are responding to a fire. I do
not want to see any Nashua resident lose their property or their life because Main Street is clogged up and
emergency vehicles can't get through.

Beth Scaer
111 East Hobart Street