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Special Board of Aldermen 12-21-2020 Page 3

President Wilshire

| am here, | am alone and | can hear everyone.
Susan Loving, City Clerk

You have 14 in attendance.

President Wilshire

Thank you. Also in attendance this evening is Mayor Donchess and Deputy Corporation Counsel Dorothy
Clarke.

COMMUNICATIONS

From: President Lori Wilshire
Re: Calling a Special Board of Aldermen meeting to discuss O-20-044 Relative to a ban on certain
outdoor activities for certain businesses starting at 9:30 PM

There being no objection, President Wilshire accepted the communication and placed it on file.
PERIOD FOR PUBLIC COMMENT
President Wilshire

So for those of you in attendance this evening, we are going to allow for Public Comment. We will allow
each person three minutes and please, if you don’t have to repeat something that has already been
said, if you have something new to offer, we are glad to hear you. But! am going to have to keep
everyone to three minutes because it looks like we have 98 people on the call this evening. So Period
for Public Comment; is there anyone wishing to give Public Comment? Ms. Colquhoun, name and
address for the record please?

Laura Colquhoun My name is Laura Colquhoun and | live at 30 Greenwood Drive. | am asking the
Board Members to vote no on this. First of all, | think it’s been put together, I’m going to say half-assed
only because if you look at the Agenda, number one they put the meeting ID for the people to join by
phone incorrectly. Also the Communication says for certain outdoor activities and then the Ordinance
says for indoor activities. So really we don’t even know what you people want to do except to restrict
our movement after 9:30. | think this is ridiculous and if you have Walmart, Target and all these other
stores open and if you go to their parking lot, you have a lot of Massachusetts people. And to put a
restriction on us, we are not children, we are adults. Thank you.

President Wilshire
Anyone else wishing to give comment? Beth?

Beth Scaer_ Hi, my name is Beth Scaer, 111 East Hobart Street. | sent an email to the Board of
Aldermen which was a Memo from Tim Cummings to Bobbie Bagley and | am asking all the Aldermen to
please read it if you haven't already. And | also, you know, | just would like you to vote against it. | don’t
even think it was properly drafted. | don’t know if Steve Bolton has had a look at it. It seems rather
tenuous. So please vote against it; please save our businesses. | really think they deserve better.
Thank you. Bye.

Special Board of Aldermen 12-21-2020 Page 4
President Wilshire
Anyone else? Kurt, you’re up.

Kurt Mathias Boston Billiard Club Thank you Chairman, Chairwoman, | apologize. | want to vote against
this, want you to vote against this simply because it is not going to help the spread of COVID-19. | don’t
believe it is going to spread COVID-19. We have 171 employees that work at Boston Billiard Club. If
this goes through, when you vote yes tomorrow, there is over 100 people that are going to go out of
work tomorrow. We have no work for them if that happens. Please, use common sense and do what
you can to vote to make this work. That’s all | have to say. Thank you.

President Wilshire
Who is next? OK, name and address for the record, please.

Lyle Kent My name is Lyle Kent, | live in Connecticut but | work at Boston Billiards for Kurt. So |
understand the need for doing it at 9:30 cause that’s when people start to drink and they start to not
listen or not use common sense, which is what | am assuming why they are doing it at 9:30 etc. But
think it’s important to take things on a case by case basis. | live right next to Foxwoods and Mohegan
Sun and they are doing a horrible job at keeping people in line. If you’ve ever been to Boston Billiards,
the employees are doing an incredible job of making sure everything is wiped down before anybody else
sits, wiping down the tables all the time and making sure people where masks to the point of — you
know, you'll get customers that berate some of the employees and they just take it with a grain of salt. |
think they are doing an amazing job especially considering other places. | think it should be focused
more on punishing the places that aren’t taking this seriously.

Kurt has already shut it down twice, you know, to keep us healthy. We all want to make money, we all
want to keep our economy going, but at the same time it’s useless if you don’t have your health. But
he’s taken that twice, two times he’s done that and there are other places that don’t. And | think you
should focus more on punishing the places that don’t take it seriously as opposed to making everybody
take aloss. That was my two cents.

President Wilshire
OK, thank you. | have Jim Rafferty?

Jim Rafferty Yes, | didn’t want to cut off the other gentleman. Thank you for the time, | appreciate
everything everybody does. Kurt and Boston Billiards is correct, it’s going to hurt the charities and the
two charity gaming facilities; it is going to hurt the workers. | have workers come to me every day and
say, | can’t buy the food for my family without this and it is going to hurt the businesses. | think the
science, I’ve been talking to many of you, and telling you about the science. | am passing around a
New York Times Article that questions the science of whether this is going to hurt not that | — | believe
the Board of Health but there’s real questions of whether the science is correct on this matter. And we,
at the River, we really are taking this seriously, take everybody's temperature, added all sorts of
expense to make sure the place is safe, cleaning every day. Everything is going full speed to try to
make this environment as safe as possible and it would be a shame if the Aldermanic Group turned that
off.

Now the other thing is if you just shut down Nashua, there are other choices for Charity Gaming
Facilities around the State and other people will go to other places. It would extremely, | think, unfair just
to close down this City. | know it’s well intentioned. But | would close with saying | don’t think this
Aldermanic Group and | appreciate what all you guys do; you should not confuse activity with
accomplishment on this one. Just doing something might have a negative affect that overwhelms the
positive effect that you’re doing. Please don’t confuse activity with accomplishment. Thank you very
much for the time.

Special Board of Aldermen 12-21-2020 Page 5

President Wilshire

Thank you. Heather Haddad?

Eric Roberts. Eric Roberts?

President Wilshire

OK you'll be next Eric.

Eric Roberts Thank you. Daniel Webster Highway in Nashua, | own Lui Lui. Not yet?
President Wilshire

Not yet, | called on Heather Haddad. You can speak after Heather.

Heather Haddad That is me. My name is Heather Haddad, | have worked at the Boston Billiard Club &
Casino for Kurt for the last 10 years. | am a single mother in Nashua so as many of you know, the
school districts are currently fully remote. | am home home-schooling my daughter, Monday through
Friday from 9:00 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. If we do implement the curfew in Nashua then most likely Kurt will
have to minimize the shifts to one shift a day, as we will be closing at 9:30 and there really isn’t going to
be a need for more than one bartender on during the day as business already has naturally declined
because of COVID and people taking the precautions and not feeling comfortable going out which | think
is fine.

But with that being said, if | am expected to be home, home-schooling my child and | know | am not the
only one in this position, that means that it is going to drastically limit, if not completely eliminate my
ability to go into work and earn my income to then be able to pay my bills. If | also during the day am
supposed to be home, home-schooling my child, the appeal and the ability of working at night.

Unidentified Speaker Interrupts

Heather Haddad _... has been able to allow me the availability to then work after my child is out of
school or whatever and | am home during the day with her. As | said, business has already steadily
declined because of the COVID currently. The first time of outbreaks with employees, Kurt took the
measures to, out of good conscious, close down, have the Health Board come in, go through the
building, find out where the roots of the issues were. Upon going into work, | have to take a survey
about my health and answer all the questions. | then can be allowed access into the building. Once |
then do so, | get my temperature taken. After | get my temperature taken, masks are required the entire
time throughout my shift. We can’t eat our food and take our breaks within the building, we are asked to
go to our cars just so that we aren’t unmasked while we are in the building.

| mean realistically at this point | really think it comes down, like other people have spoken about, to
personal accountability of the businesses. | think the businesses should be responsible for, you know,
independent responsibility of their employees and ensuring the safety of their patrons. If the curfew is
implemented it is genuinely going to make it nearly impossible for me to earn my own income. | am not
going to be able to pay my bills. And if that happens, | don’t know what | am supposed to be able to do
after that point. It’s going to be absolutely devastating. Where after we shut down this spring, the
savings that | did have, have slowly but surely completely been depleted. The Holiday Season is
normally where we would make a majority of the money that | would then be able to reup my savings.
But if we then, again, have to face another closing or face a curfew, | am not going to be able to make
ends meet, I’m not going to be able to pay my bills. It’s going to be absolutely detrimental. So | just
hope that we can find other options, | hope that we can come up with another conversation to implement
other guidelines and restrictions.

Deepa Mangalat (New Appointment) For a Term to Expire: February 28, 2019

18 Wild Rose Drive
Nashua, NH 03063

Downtown Improvement Committee

Simon Sarris (New Appointment) For a Term to Expire: December 13, 2016

23 Auburn Street
Nashua, NH 03064

UNFINISHED BUSINESS —- RESOLUTIONS

R-16-007
Endorsers: Mayor Jim Donchess
Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire
Alderman June M. Caron
Alderwoman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja
Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr.
Alderman Tom Lopez
RELATIVE TO THE ACCEPTANCE AND APPROPRIATION OF $40,000 FROM THE STATE
OF NEW HAMPSHIRE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES INTO PUBLIC
HEALTH AND COMMUNITY SERVICES GRANT ACTIVITY “FY2016 AND FY2017 CLIMATE

AND HEALTH ADAPTATION PLAN (CHAP)”
e Human Affairs Committee Recommends: Final Passage

R-16-010
Endorsers: Mayor Jim Donchess
Alderman Richard A. Dowd
AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR AND CITY TREASURER TO INCREASE THE BOND
AUTHORIZATION FOR ROAD AND TRAFFIC IMPROVEMENTS ON AMHERST STREET
BETWEEN CHARRON AVENUE AND DIESEL ROAD AND ISSUE BONDS NOT TO EXCEED
THE AMOUNT OF ONE MILLION FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS ($1,004,000)

e Anticipated Recommendation from Budget Review Committee Mtg of 3/21/16

R-16-011
Endorsers: Mayor Jim Donchess
Alderman Richard A. Dowd
Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr.
Alderman Don LeBrun

Alderman Sean M. McGuinness
RELATIVE TO THE ACCEPTANCE AND APPROPRIATION OF UP TO AN ADDITIONAL $62,000

FROM THREE PROPERTY OWNERS AS CONTRIBUTIONS TOWARD THE ROAD AND
TRAFFIC IMPROVEMENTS ON AMHERST STREET BETWEEN CHARRON AVENUE AND

DIESEL ROAD
e Anticipated Recommendation from Budget Review Committee Mtg of 3/21/16

R-16-016
Endorsers: Mayor Jim Donchess
Alderman Ken Siegel
Alderman-at-Large Brian S. McCarthy
Alderwoman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja
AUTHORIZING THE CITY OF NASHUA TO ENTER INTO A FIRST AMENDMENT TO
LEASE AGREEMENT WITH MAKEIT LABS FOR A PORTION OF 25 CROWN STREET

e Finance Committee Recommends: Final Passage

Special Board of Aldermen 12-21-2020 Page 6

But if the businesses are currently implementing the guidelines the best that they can and we are going
above and beyond and we are trying to keep everyone safe, | really, | think the curfew is just going to do
more damage than good to myself and a majority of others in the industries that are going to be
impacted as well. Thank you.

President Wilshire
Thank you.

Gia Sorry, | muted for a minute, Heather | just appreciate you so much and speaking the truth it means
a lot and it’s a good point to make.

President Wilshire
Name and address for the record, please.

Gia Bonnila | live at 5 Hopey Drive. | am Director of Events & Partnerships at Boston Billiard Club &
Casino in Nashua. So a couple points | want to make, a lot of people are going to speak on the fact that
this could shutter businesses and | don’t want to shy away from that. The fact that there’s been some
people toying with the idea that after 9:30 as a Charitable Gaming Facility we could survive without food
and beverage sales is naive and I’ve crunched numbers, I’ve done spread sheets, I’ve looked at the
numbers, we’ve looked at them. It won’t happen, not for us, we couldn’t do it. It’s unrealistic, | mean |
know charities get 35% of our charitable gaming revenue and I’ve heard people say they should get
more. They do get more because we handle the overhead and the overhead and the payroll and
everything is very, very deep. So without food and beverage it would be impossible, never mind the
risks that, | mean anybody in the industry will tell you that if you want to stay open as a dry business
where people can’t drink, right now we don’t allow people to go their cars. They would go to their cars,
we would have zero control over them. And we can’t say you can’t have a water, you can’t have a
coffee, they are going to have to be allowed at that point to go to their cars and we don’t know what they
are doing.

So that’s important to think about, Charitable Gaming will not survive and many, many, many people in
the community rely on us and | pride myself on that. We want to be there for them, it is one of the most
rewarding parts of the job. We do employ 170 people and frankly | am Director of Events &
Partnerships, if this happens, | would not have a job. And to be honest, if me having to find another
career, another job meant that we saved lives and | actually believed that, then | would entertain it, |
absolutely would. | am not a monster, | care about lives more than | care about even me making a living
or having a roof over my head. But there’s no science that anyone can give me that is behind it. And
never mind that, we were severely let down by the community if they want to pull the rug out from
underneath us because nobody has implemented a back up plan. No one has any resources to keep us
alive or my staff alive or surviving. It’s kind of like we are going to do this and you’re going to have to
figure it out on your own. And that’s not fair. And | will stick up for my team, we do everything we can, |
want people to be held accountable and I'll stand behind that all day. | mean | don’t want to be put with
the same batch of bad apples, | don’t. And we are prepared to make concessions but doing a 9:30
curfew, | don’t want anybody to be confused about what it means. You will be closing businesses and
livelihoods will be lost and people would be put out and they will rely on organizations that don’t have
the means to supplement it.

President Wilshire
You are going to have to wrap up. Can you wrap up, please?

Gia_| appreciate all the Aldermen and | appreciate the time. And | have to say you guys all give us
time and | appreciate it. | just — that’s all | have to say.

Special Board of Aldermen 12-21-2020 Page 7
President Wilshire
Thank you. | think | skipped Eric?

Eric Roberts Yes, thank you, Lui Lui in Nashua, DW Highway thank you for giving us the time to speak.
We’ve spent over $60,000.00 in barriers and increased air filtration, extra labor to have things cleaned
properly. And if this 9:30 curfew goes into effect, you are really saying that we can’t see guests after
8:00 p.m. So that significantly cuts down on the time that we could serve guests. And with over 60
employees and many of them have children at home that have to do remote learning during the day so
the only time they can work is at night. So now you are really cutting into the hours that we can generate
revenue. And with sales already down, and we are trying to do everything we can to stay within the
guidelines, to serve guests safely it’s just, you know, talk about science, the real impact is even greater.
And doing everything that we can do while all the other stores don’t have to follow those types of
guidelines; | just think it is a bad idea to institute this. Thank you.

President Wilshire

Thank you, Eric. Next | have Seth? Seth are you still there wanting to speak?
Seth Simonian. Yes please.

President Wilshire

OK name and address for the record.

Seth Simonian 25 Old Reynolds Bridge Road in Hollis, New Hampshire. | own the Flight Center in
downtown Nashua. | want to point out that regardless if it is known or not, the City has controlled the
narrative through the whole level of COVID that has painted the hospitality industry to be a negative
driving force around COVID. And we are an industry that has been held to the highest standards above
and beyond the high standards we are already held to. As most have indicated, we have made
significant investments in staffing, in supplies, in cleaning products and barriers and being able to
ensure we can protect our patrons to not only our full most potential, but above the guidelines that are
being set for us. The City of Nashua has gone a step above and placed additional guidelines and
ordinances; whether it is the mask ordinance and asked us as small business owners to enforce which
is fine.

What you are looking to do with the curfew is not only detrimental but also controlling this narrative of
letting out that a curfew is being viewed to potentially put down a rise of COVID amongst restaurants in
Nashua is interesting because the data doesn’t really pinpoint a rise of COVID incidents of the City are
coming from our hospitality industries. Per your guys’ reports, 13% of Known cases came out of
restaurants. We are looking to take away up to 60% of the business that our restaurants are getting
right now by putting this curfew in place. The number of employees that could potentially be out of work
is huge. By you guys even putting out there that there could be a potential curfew, a lot of people
already assume that it is in place and our business, since this announcement, has significantly
decreased after the hours of 8:00. Being a downtown restaurant, we rely on those late night hours to
stay open, to stay profitable, to stay in business.

It is wildly inefficient if you guys are operating on an assumption of data sets that seem to not be true.
Massachusetts rolled a curfew out, 6 to 8 weeks ago, their numbers have not decreased one week since
they’ve rolled out a curfew. So you cannot say that there’s been a positive intake from a curfew being
laid out. And if you are fearful of individuals from Massachusetts coming into our bars because a curfew
exists in their State, we are tracing every individual that walks through our door and we check every ID
that walks through our door. | can tell you the number of individuals coming in from Massachusetts at
the 8:00 hour is not high. It’s not a percentage number that we should even be functioning and worried
about it.

Special Board of Aldermen 12-21-2020 Page 8

It’s not like half of my business or three-quarters of my business is coming from out of state, if that is our
true fear when we are not looking to take into account what is going on at the Pheasant Lane Mall
during the Holiday Season and how many individuals from the State of Massachusetts may be shopping
at those retail outlets or whether there’s a thousand people walking around a big box retail store, we are
still yet pinpointing a focus in on the hospitality industry that’s — your own data shows is not proving an
impact in the rising numbers of COVID. | implore you to vote against this measure and to make sure that
you publicly announce that this measure did fail if it is to fail so that our community understands that this
curfew is not in effect and they are able to come back out and be in our businesses. It really is
disappointing after the City did such an amazing job this summer to help reinforce our business
structure in a really struggling time, yet this is where we have landed in moments that we are still having
to space every other table and seat minimally 6 people at a table and again following some of the
highest guidelines and restrictions that both the Federal and State Governments and local Governments
have placed on any industry, being one of the cleanest industries in this environment, | feel like we
seem to still be made out to be the evil force driving what is going on in the world today. | appreciate
your guys’ time, | appreciate you listening and please, when you decide to vote, please vote no to this
measure.

President Wilshire
Thank you. Mike Somers?
(Music playing in the backgroundq)

Mike Somers. Yes, good evening. My name is Mike Somers, | live in Hooksett, but | am the President
and CEO of the New Hampshire Lodging and Restaurant Association. We have more than 40 member
restaurants in the Greater Nashua or Nashua area.

President Wilshire

Mike, can | interrupt you for one second?
Mike Summers Certainly.

President Wilshire

Everyone needs to put their phones and computers on mute except for the speaker please. Thank you, |
am sorry to interrupt but it was very loud background noise.

Mike Somers Oh that’s quite a lot, | think was an episode of Friends or something. But again, | am
speaking to you this evening and appreciate the opportunity to do on behalf of our 40 plus restaurants in
the Nashua area. | want to give a little bit of a broader perspective if | may? | just want you to
understand that the restaurant industry in New Hampshire and across this country is an industry in crisis
right now, you know. I’ve talk to restaurants from all over the State, Nashua specifically in the last few
weeks and they are telling me that they are down anywhere between 40% and 60% in business just
since Halloween. So this is a really dangerous time for a lot of our industry members.

Now | will touch on it briefly, as these have already been mentioned. Obviously if we go to a 9:30 curfew
we will see layoffs, that’s absolutely going to happen and | think some numbers have been shared with
you, just as to what those will be. Some of the science and the data that | think | shared with you all ina
letter over the weekend, you know, 75% or more of the community transmission is taking place in
private homes. And one thing | want you to consider is this, if you have a 9:30 curfew, folks are not
going to go out after 8:30 at the latest, but they are still going to get together.

Special Board of Aldermen 12-21-2020 Page 9

And where are they going to do that? They are likely going to do that within their homes, visiting with
family, with friends, whomever it might be and we are essentially going to have the opposite effect, we
are actually going to compound the situation that is the problem to begin with. So | certainly urge you
not to adopt this.

The other point I’d like to make and ask you to consider is enforcement. You know, if you roll out a
curfew at 9:30 | would assume that there is going to be some enforcement action that would have to be
taken. | think | would make the case that if you are going to make roll out enforcement and take that
action, why not take that time and enforce the guidelines that are in place right now? As a couple of
people have mentioned, let’s focus on the bad apples that are really making it hard for the rest of the
industry to operate. Let’s hold them accountable and let’s reward those who are doing all the right
things, that have made the investments, that are going above and beyond and let’s reward them by
allowing them to stay open. They are going to continue to do the right things as with all the situations
like this, those who are going to follow the rules are already following the rules. Those who are not
going to follow the rules, are never going to follow the rules. So | would just encourage you to oppose
this regulation and, again, not being a resident | am certainly going to yield my time, but! thank you for
the opportunity to speak with you and | certainly hope that you vote no tomorrow as you deliberate.
Thank you.

President Wilshire
Thank you. Maryse Wirbal.

Maryse Wirbal Hi, thanks for having me tonight, good evening. |’d like to just take a moment to touch
upon what Heather had mentioned before. | am Maryse Wirbal with the Front Door Agencies, 7 Concord
Street in Nashua. And one of the things that | am really concerned about if this ordinance goes through
is the demand on the social services network that we are already going to see. We have seen a
significant increase already in the number of requests for people looking for housing assistance with
rent and utilities. And a lot of that has come from the hospitality network already. So | am afraid that we
are going to see a significant increase in the demand for public support through our City Welfare
Department, through our Non-Profit Partners, if this ordinance goes through as many of our families are
already working the evening shifts. So be reducing the number of hours, as mentioned before, and the
number of employees that would then get laid off, that would tax certainly our social service system. So |
would hope and encourage that you think about that as well and vote no for this ordinance. Thank you.

President Wilshire
Thank you. Barbara Harding?

Barbara Harding Hi there, my name is Barbara Harding, | live at 9 Echo Ave. in Nashua. | have two jobs
in the community; | work for Greenbriar as their clinical liaison and | work for Billiards for Kurt and the
rest of the team. Thank you guys for speaking. So | can tell you that as the liaison for Greenbriar, | see
a lot of referrals from the hospitals and a lot of people with COVID. And those people with COVID are
not the people that are coming in at night. It’s a completely different generation, a completely different
group of people. There has been no change in the numbers from Massachusetts. | previously was an
infection control nurse so | have been following this pretty closely.

Making this curfew, all that’s going to happen is people are going to move to the next town or the next
home. They are going to go Manchester, they are going to go to Salem. It is not going to change what
people do, all it is going to do for the people in Nashua, for all the people that work for these
businesses, is put them out of work and cause struggle, depression, suicide. What | have seen go up is
the depression rate and the amount of people that don’t have enough money anymore, that don’t have a
job to go to, that they can’t afford to take care of their own children. If you cut these hours, businesses
are Sure to close.

Special Board of Aldermen 12-21-2020 Page 10

And | can’t see how it would be possible to do it when | look at those numbers every day and | see the
clientele that are positive with COVID, | see it on a daily basis and | can tell you it is not the same at all.
And | get referrals from here, all the way, you know, | take every referral for New Hampshire for
Greenbriar Health Care, so | see them.

So yeah, | have two jobs but the people | work with at Billiards, where does that leave them? Where
does that leave anybody with a small business? It leaves them broke and struggling for help. So | really
implore you to vote no.

President Wilshire

Thank you. Tanya Chevez?

Tanya Chevez Hi.

President Wilshire
Your name and address for the record please?

Tanya Chevez Ok, my name is Tanya Chevez and | live at 28 Prescott Street. And | just would like to
show support and stand by the job | work at which is at Boston Billiard Club. And | would like to stand
by them because we have taken precautions so seriously and | just want to vote no, because | will be
one of the people you know like will be like affected and stuff and | don’t want to see my friends getting
affected, you know, my family, they are like my family. And you know it is going to suck, it’s going to
suck, you know. And Nashua is so great but this curfew is going to mess a lot of people up and | just
want to show my support with that. Thank you.

President Wilshire
Thank you, Tanya. Charles Cappetta?

Charles Cappetta Yes, good evening, President Wilshire, | am a member of the Board of Health at 2300
Southwood Drive. | wanted to know if | — | am going to read a part of my letter | wanted to send to you
later, if | could do so tonight to send after the meeting, with your permission.

President Wilshire
Sure, you can.

Charles Cappetta Yes, thank you. Well good evening everyone, my name is Chuck Cappetta and | am
honored to serve as a Member of the Nashua Board of Health for the past 6 years and a full time
pediatrician here in Nashua for the past 27. | just want to state a few things, I’m not going to read my
whole speech because everyone has been so wonderful in your talking tonight and | love the candor
and the honesty.

So | am going to begin my remarks by stating for the record this has not been an easy discussion for the
Board of Health. And to frame our efforts for those who haven't been part of the past discussion, we are
not the Board of Labor, we are not the Board of Commerce or Trade. So where we started this
education/prevention message emanated from our roles as Board of Health Members. As medical
professionals are mission is straight forward and our only agenda is short and sweet; how can we
maintain the best possible outcomes of good health for all those around us in our collective community,
both young and old, while advocating for strategies or solutions that may be able to minimize sickness
and maximize disease prevention. That’s the definition of public health.

Special Board of Aldermen 12-21-2020 Page 11

This proposed short-term emergency ordinance was one such example of us trying to do our best to
preserve and protect the health and wellbeing of the citizens in Nashua. Short and sweet. And | had
some data that | will share later that everyone knows with the Aldermen, but locally our numbers reflect
the same scary statistics and other members of the Department who might be on-line tonight might be
able to direct their attention to that. But this virus, like all viruses, doesn’t pay attention to the rules or
stop signs. The train has left the station. And again, it is a short-term emergency measure to see if we
can try to decrease the rate of viral infectivity soread and lessen the speed that the COVID virus gathers
each and every day on its path to increasing morbidity, illness and mortality death.

It has never been nor will be the activity of the Board of Health to attempt to interfere with and to
purposely disrupt or disregard the heroic efforts put forth by all of you in your wonderful comments
tonight of the hardworking Nashua business leaders with regards to trying to come to grips with the best
way to control, combat this deadly virus. | am daily amazed by all your efforts and | thank you in
advance. For those asking for evidence around show me the science and the data, | heard that tonight,
you are right, we have limited if any data at the present time to outline how these curfews could work or
what we want them to do. But when, not if, we climb out of this scary hole we find ourselves in, those
smarter than me may be able to look at this and see if these actions that we are proposing make any
difference.

There are a few other points. Am | hopeful that by implementing the curfew the virus will suddenly shrink
away and run for the hills? Of course not. But for me the act of medically doing nothing is just not an
option. What we do know relative to this ordinance are four key prevention methods that have been
shown to be effective and universally accepted and all of you on line have worked hard to maintain
these and they are indisputable in their 24/7 attempt to combat this; social distancing of 6 feet or more,
wearing appropriate face mask, hand washing and proper ventilation methods. And specifically tonight |
wanted to address the question about why does it appear that restaurants, bars and other
establishments that serve food and drink seem to be the sole focus of this ordinance, versus the big box
stores who have more people perhaps going through them than these apparent (inaudible).

Unidentified Speaker Over time.

President Wilshire
No that was another audience member who should not have spoken up, | apologize for the interruption.

Charles Cappetta Oh no, sorry, | included a Boston Globe link that came out to start to address this
because the science is coming, it isn’t here yet. But the answer to the question about why is this
restaurant or other activity locations, our starting point is simple. One, people take their masks off to eat
and drink and it is this activity that leads to a higher spread of virus infectivity potential. Two, alcohol
decreases inhibitions and potential for louder talking, shouting across the tables and therefore more
spread. And it is a fact that we now know that aerosolized droplets from just speaking or talking can
travel up to 3 to 9 feet. Three, physical barriers on tables between patrons do not stop the spread of the
virus when the mask is off but often simply act like a fly swatter where the virus can hit the wall and be
pushed off in different directions depending on the make up of the barrier, aka, plexiglass, wood, plastic.
Four, barriers are hard to clean and though they maybe look clean to the naked eye are not sterile for
the next patron despite the best attempt to clean them between sittings and through no fault of all the
wonderful staff members who attempt to clean them, viruses can be very resistant to being decimated.

And lastly, most importantly, people are congregating in these establishments in tight spaces, even
though upholding the 6 feet of social distancing for an extended period of time, up to 90 minutes in
some locations, situated next to other patrons who are not usually in the same person bubble space as
themselves or their family members at home, versus the stream of people with masks walking with
usually limited respiratory contact through the aisles of the big box stores or grocery stores. And from
the beginning our Public Health Department has been effusive to all the businesses that have played by
the rules.