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Li BORTIN GAGE

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Thank you for your time.

There is much the government can do and
should do to improve the environment. But even
more important is the individual who plants a
tree or cleans a corner of neglect. For it is the
individual who himself benefits, and also
protects a heritage of beauty for his children

and future generations.

- Lady Bird Johnson.

Since 1990, Newron Community Pride's
Beautification Commumee has designed,
planted and tended gardens in various public
spaces throughout Newton. This was begun
and led by LeoL Lev for many years. Our
display garden 5 one of only four in
Massachusetts

The signature work of ths group is the large
Neviton Centre garden between Beacon Sireet
and Langley Road next to the parking lot. It’s
named the Leo L Levi All America Selecc

which is nationally
recognized organization. Another major
garden we tend to is the Ryde Garden in
Newton Highlands

Seeds of more than 30 annual variety of
flowers aré prowded to us each year by the
AAS atno cost These have been chosen as the
best new varieves for home gardens at tria
gardens, inciuding the Mass. Horticultura
Society at Elm Bank in Wellesley, MA.

The garden year begins when the seeds arnve
v late fall and are moved to a greenhouse for
germination

The Beautification Commitee tend the
seedlings there for 6-7 weeks after their tme
a: the greenhouse. They work daily: watering,
pruning, and moving to larger pots to prepare
for the move to public gardens in May.

After planting they work weekly to mainzain
shese beautiful fiowers. Ic is a abor of love’
which is very rewarding to all. if you'd like to
join the Beautification Committee, please emai

Newton Community Pride covers all costs
related to planting and maintaining the
gardens. Please consider donating to the Leo
Lew L Fund mere. (Select it in the drop down)

List of Beautified Properties: Updated 10/2019

1.

2.

*

10.

MM.

Citizens Bank, Coliseum Avenue: dead trees along border with Planet Fitness removed &
replanted

State Liquor Store, Coliseum Avenue: unsightly, overgrown lawn and unkempt landscaping
reported to Commissioner Mollica with swift remediation

190 Broad Street, former Professional Medical Association, property owned by Nashua Mall:
abhorrent, over-grown conditions reported to Nashua Code Enforcement after unsuccessful
attempts to reach property owner, conditions greatly improved

19 Dublin Ave. (residential): abhorrent, over-grown conditions reported to Nashua Code
Enforcement; owner complied and property continues to improve
330 Broad St. (residential): abhorrent, over-grown conditions reported to Nashua Code
Enforcement; owner complied and property within guide-lines

Broad Street Elementary School frontage: abhorrent tree debris left by Eversource; contacted
Elizabeth LaRocca and property cleared

Hannaford, Coliseum Avenue: green space unsightly with numerous invasive sapling species;
GM responded quickly with great improvements

BAE parking lot, Canal Street: unsightly planters with abhorrent weeds replaced and replanted
Southem NH Medical Center, 21 E. Hollis Street: unsightly overgrown parcel needing attention,
quickly addressed by facilities management

Lowe’s, DW Hwy Entrance (Shared with former Friendly’s & Popeye’s): unsightly overgrown;
quickly addressed after two phone calls to management

569 Amherst Street: commercial retail site, unsightly overgrown quickly addressed with phone
call to property manager

List of Projects in Various Stages of Response:

1.

Walgreen’s, DW Hwy: unsightly, overgrown

Henri Burque Hwy: waiting for promised remediation of large stand of trees removed following
a brush fire last spring; very unsightly. Multiple conversations with State DOT with assurances
the trees/debris would be removed after summer and before winter

1 Deerhaven Dr.: abhorrent conditions including machinery, vehicles, etc. stock-piled in
backyard. (Neighbor contacted Beautification Committee seeking help with the issue.)

US Post Office, Spring Street: property unsightly, weedy. Met with Post Master General. She
submitted proposal to superiors for 4 landscape company contracts. All denied. Still working on
it.

Girl’s Home, 85 Concord St.: 3-phase beautification project with phase 2 to be completed in Spring
2020 with major plantings installed

Carolyn solicited neighborhood support of $1500 for project to include:

e Removal of 5-large trees by Souhegan Valley Tree Service
e Working with the girls, removed dead species & saplings
e Pruned massive shrubs in front of the house

Board of Aldermen 12-14-2021 Page 27

Laurie Ortolano

Laurie Ortolano, 41 Berkeley Street. You know | heard what Attorney Bolton said in his last comment there that he’d be
happy to win again. | just spent two full days in court working on my Right to Know trial and | have one more day to go
back. It is wholeheartedly disappointing to see what the city is doing with information. Maybe Attorney Bolton is very
confident that he's gonna beat me hands down on everything and maybe | am going to lose everything. | don't know.
We'll wait and see but | can tell you | feel you have a significant amount of information corruption going on in this city. |
handled a pro se case on December 6" in court and what | heard from city employees really was disturbing to me that
they're just deleting their emails. That they never heard of RSA 33A for record retention and they weren't even familiar
with the email storage and retention policy and this was from Louise Brown who was a Supervisor in Assessing and been
in City Hall for 20 years. You know you have some big problems in there when it comes to information. Attorney Bolton
can chuckle at Fred Teeboom but | think Mr. Teeboom is raising a very valid point and | don't think you should be laughing
about it. Your property for the art center, former Alec Shoe Store, was never valued correctly nor was the assessment
done and it was done again by Greg Turgiss who apparently never visited the property on April 1st when a wrecking ball
was put to it. And | don't know why you think that's funny but | don't think it's funny. There's nothing funny about what's
going on in here regarding these TIF properties and regarding Right to Know issues.

Regarding the barriers. | think the Mayor did a real disservice to that conversation tonight. He wrote a terrible piece of
legislation centered around pandemic politics and | believe that Tim Cummings should have nothing to do with that
committee. Don't let him lead that committee. Let him sit back and be a spectator watching that. Assign one of the non-
restaurant people who's in opposition to these barriers to head it. Let's put somebody who's on the other side of it in
charge because we've heard what the cheerleaders say and all of the anecdotal information out there is just that. Where
are these studies? Why is Paul Shea conducting data research on what downtown people want?

Donna Graham, Legislative Affairs Manager

30 seconds.

Laurie Ortolano

Why is this even happening? You know it's so disenfranchising and disingenuous when you hear Tim Cummings speak
at a meeting and discount everyone who showed up to give comment. He's simply not a leader who can handle this and |
find when it comes to Right to Know requests, his door is closed, the light isn't shining over there, and he wants nothing to
do with citizens. Okay. He doesn't have to have anything to do with citizens because...

Donna Graham, Legislative Affairs Manager

Your time is up.
Laurie Ortolano
...he’s the Mayor’s right hand man but let's fix the problems in here.

President Wilshire

Anyone else wishing to give public comment?
Alex Comeau

Yes, thank you. Alex Comeau, Lewis Street. | just have a very brief question about R-21-194 if | could. The $30,000
from the Nashua Rotary, is that in case of the $30,000 that was already approved or is that in addition to it?

Mayor Donchess

In lieu of, instead of.
Alex Comeau

Okay, thank you.

Board of Aldermen 12-14-2021 Page 28

President Wilshire

Anyone else wishing to give public comment? Saying no one.
REMARKS BY THE MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN

Alderman O’Brien

Thank you, Madam President. Since this appears to be our last meeting prior to Christmas, | would like to extend happy
holidays and Merry Christmas to my fellow members of the Board and as well to all the citizens of Nashua. | would like to
thank Alderman Lopez. | was wondering what | was going to do for the rest of the week. | will find out where that bench
is going. Thank you.

Alderman Klee

Thank you. I, too, would like to extend happy holidays to everyone here on the Board, and within the city, and have a very
safe and happy holiday.

I'd also like to continue the conversation that | had started with thanking the United Way of Greater Nashua, specifically
Sara Caesar and Michael Apfelberg, and their volunteers who 60 of them wrote 2,000 thank you cards to our healthcare
workers at the two hospitals. Some they did also in Spanish because they know that not everybody speaks that. I'd like
to also think the Brookline and Merrimack Lions Club for their generous donation for us to be able to buy $10 gift cards for
the employees also there. There were also a lot of numerous private donations from citizens throughout. | put up a post,
and they came through, and it was just wonderful to see this happening.

I'd also like to thank the Nashua School District. There were five schools that participated creating various artworks -
some were on glass; some were beautiful painted works of art, and there were two very large pieces of art that came from
the Bretton Woods School. They're beautiful. You can see them online. They say it all. Thank you in multiple languages
across that, the holding of the hearts, and so on. It was truly, truly was very emotional and beautiful artwork and | can't
thank all those people enough for all that they did. | know it seems like nothing just to say thank you to our healthcare
heroes but | made the comment about that we are at the height of the pandemic we are. But when we were at the so-
called part of the pandemic we were standing outside of hospitals and we were giving impromptu concerts, and we were
holding banners, and we were saying thank you to all these people. Well now they're short staffed, overworked, very
tired, no beds at the end, and | think they need that more than anything. | suggested to some people that perhaps they
might want to do some caroling right outside of a hospital - socially distanced and masks on - but that might be a nice way
of just being able to say thank you and we appreciate them. With the holidays here, | think that's something that we can
do. Just an idea I'm throwing out there. So thank you to all our healthcare heroes, all of the people that are in our grocery
stores.

And as far as masks are concerned, | do support a mask but | do think that we need to do better if we were to put it
through and we need to have a better enforcement of it. | don't believe that restaurants need to do takeout. So thank you
very much.

Alderman Dowd

Yeah, just a couple of things. I'd like to wish everybody Merry Christmas, happy holidays to the existing Board and all the
incoming members to next year's Board. | hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday.

Also | spent the entire day today with the Nashua Fire Department doing strategic planning. It was very efficient and
effective and we got through the entire process in one day, which I've been involved in a number of them several at the
city level and after several days, we were not as far along as the Fire Department. So | think you'll be seeing a plan
coming after the first of the year about what they have for strategic plan and | think you'll appreciate all the work that goes
into it.

Alderman Caron

Yes, thank you. |, too, would like to wish everyone a happy holiday season. Hopefully you'll get time to spend with your
family and in friends this year.

And finally, | would like to wish our City Tax Collector/Treasurer David Fredette a happy retirement. He leaves on Friday
and it's going to be hard not to be able to pick up the phone and say can you help someone within my Ward? Can you

Board of Aldermen 12-14-2021 Page 29

explain to them what's going on and give them a better answer than | could or anybody else can. So hopefully he's
packed and ready to fly out to Florida and enjoy some nice warm weather for the holidays. But he's going to be sorely
missed. | don't know what you're going to do without him Mayor for a while but John Griffin | Know we'll be able to pick up
that slack. It's not like we don't have a lot of good employees but David has always been very dedicated to this
community. So thank you.

Alderman Clemons

Thank you, Madam President. | wanted to start by giving my condolences to the Streeter family. Mayor Bernie Streeter
passed away the end of November and Mayor Streeter served as not only as Mayor for eight years but was also an
Executive Council for this city for, | think, over 25 years. He served our city well. | didn't always agree with him politically
but he was always a gentleman. Whenever we'd see each other out, we'd always have a nice passing conversation. It’s
sad to see somebody who was such a dedicated public servant pass away. But | think what we need to do is just
remember him and for what his contributions were to this city, which were significant over his tenure. So, again, | want to
just extend my condolences to the family and his friends.

Also, there was a gentleman who | found out passed away and | regret not having said anything at a meeting. He was a
democratic activist. His name was Kenneth Stephen. Kenneth was somebody that | got to know working through many
different Democratic Presidential campaigns, and different races for Congress, and things like that. Most recently, it was
the Pete Buttigieg campaign. Kenny always had no problem giving you what his opinion was on something but he was a
hard worker, a good Democrat, and | would be remiss if | didn't mention him here and give him his due.

With that, | also want to just wish everybody a Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and we will see you sometime between
Christmas and New Year's

Alderman Lopez

| am reserving my happy holiday wishes for everybody here because next Tuesday, we have the longest night vigil. It’s a
vigil recognizing homeless memorial day. There are people who will spend tonight and future nights unsheltered in the
cold and they will be celebrating those holidays as well in unsheltered. So, | think it's important that we come together at
least to acknowledge them. The vigil includes a reading of names that are submitted by the community and I've already
received several. If anybody listening to this would like to submit a name, you can email them to me and | will make sure
that they are read. That will be 6 p.m. this upcoming Tuesday on City Hall steps. Thank you.

Alderman Tencza

Thank you, Madam President. Just briefly to my colleagues here on the Board and everyone in the community, | just want
to wish you happy holidays, happy, safe holidays coming up. Hope everyone has a nice time with family and friends and
stays healthy for the rest of the year. Thank you.

Alderman Schmidt

Thank you. First, I'd like to thank Carolyn Choate for coming in and giving us a little look at how she sees beautification
for Nashua. | think what she's asking for is for good neighbors and | think that's a really important thing to remember. It
goes with the stop sign that | requested the added because of the speeding that | can't seem to control in Ward 1 and |

understand it’s everywhere. People need to be good neighbors. It really matters. It makes the city roll along just nicely.

| also wanted to say, | just was reading the news today. We've had 20 more deaths today, recorded yesterday on today's
response from COVID. So please mask, please get your vaccine and your booster, please wear your mask, and distance.
This is so important. We need to get through this and the next couple of months we don't know how bad it's gonna get.
So please pay attention. Thank you.

Alderman Harriott-Gathright

Just want to say to all of Nashua, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy Kwanzaa as well as to my colleagues
here tonight.

President Wilshire

| would like to also send my condolences to the family of Bernie Streeter. Bernie was a public servant who spent many,
many years giving back and my condolences to his family.