Board of Aldermen 5-26-2020 Page 4
We continue to see more cases every day, although that number has slowed down. New Hampshire seems to
be doing pretty well. But | have to say that it has been a big thing that we’ve done together, Madam President,
and all of us have contributed. Of course on the front lines are our public health nurses and those who are
engaged directly with fighting the virus. You have seen that our Public Health Department along with the State
of New Hampshire has been testing people regularly at various clinics around the City. But also, all of the
people who have contributed to making sure that we contain the virus as much as we possibly can. That, of
course, includes the Board of Aldermen, you’ve been as (audio cuts out) as you could be as far as appropriating
money to make sure that we can keep people at City Hall safe and all of our employees who are out with public
contact, making sure they are fully protected or at least to the maximum we can provide.
Also you, of course, helped with the mask ordinance and other steps that we have taken. So as we look back
on this Madam President, | believe we will agree and realize that we have saved lives and we will look back and
be proud of our community for everything that we did by working together.
Now we are not out of the woods yet, though, we are beginning the re-opening of the economy. Economic
Development Director Cummings has worked very hard as have many staff people with our downtown business
community in terms of enabling the outdoor seating in the one travel lane on each side of the street as well as
on the sidewalks. So far that seems to have gone very well; people are very pleased and certainly the number
of diners has increased substantially over what it would have been had the Board of Aldermen not authorized
that step at the last meeting. So | want to thank you all very much; but we still need to be cautious because as
people begin to come out more and they gather together, they need to be careful. They need to wear masks
and make sure that we continue to limit the spread of the disease. Our Public Health Department and others
warn that as the economy gradually opens, there could be a spike in cases, which needs to be dealt with
through, again the contact tracing and cautious steps in terms of full opening.
But we here in Nashua, and | am sure at the State Level, they are evaluating all of the evidence, the facts, the
scientific information, the opinions of the medical experts in deciding how to proceed and at what pace to
undertake the return to some form or normal; although we know never be fully, probably not for a long time,
exactly as we were before. So | want to say, Madam President, that the COVID-19 effort is going very, very
well. And | know you are all interested too, | wanted to lead off with that.
| wanted to mention, Madam President, that Dottie Oliver, who you probably knew, you might have seen the
obituary, she passed away recently. Although she moved to Durham and has not lived in Nashua for quite
some time, she was a very, very significant Nashuan. The very for that was that in addition to many other things
that she did, she found the Adult Learning Center and was the driving force behind getting that going and was
the Director for the first dozen or so years. In those days, they did not have initially a home and the Crowley
Street School, which is where they are now and | think Alderman Dowd, | am sure he is familiar with that school
and Alderman Dowd may have actually gone there, | forget wnat Elementary School you went to. But that
school had closed, so the City as a result of the very effective and important efforts of Dottie Oliver, transferred
the building to the Adult Learning Center for $1.00. Now since those days, “they” the Adult Learning Center,
has made considerable improvements, they upgraded everything. They have a done a fantastic job in adult
education, with all of the programs they run. Mary Jordan exceed Dottie and was a long-time Director and now
we have Carol Baldwin and she also has done a very good job. So Dottie is the first in a line of Directors of that
institution that have done very important work for Nashua and for any adults, particularly those who need
education and those who need a hand at the beginning of their careers.
| thought also, Madam President, | think | need to mention one item that is on the Agenda for the meeting and
that is contract for firefighters. Now we all, of course, we all like the firefighters, we all respect the firefighters,
but | have to be straight-forward and say that | don’t believe that the City can undertake a contract like this at
this time in the midst of what we anticipate will be significant economic issue. Now | know that many people
support the firefighters as | do. | have closed contracts with them certainly in the past and have been glad to do
so. But looking at what we have been presented with, the average is a 4% raise, if you list at the costing sheet
for 4 years compounded 17%. That would be in place by July 1, 2022 or a little over two years. Now the
problem of course is that we don’t know what we are facing economically.
