Board of Aldermen 09-22-2020 Page 57
Alderman Dowd
Yes, just a few points. This is not anew or a second mask Ordinance. We are amending, if you will, the
existing mask Ordinance of O-20-018 to clarify the Ordinance and assist in enforcement. The majority of
people | talk to in Nashua are strongly in favor of this Ordinance. People have written us saying they are
taking away their right to choose about wearing a mask. Choice of which laws they want to adhere to,
cannot go into restaurants or stores not wearing a shirt or shoes for healthreasons, those laws come from
our Health experts, as does this mask Ordinance. Wearing masks during this pandemic is requested by
the vast majority of scientists and doctors, including the President's own medical experts.
This morning Dr. Fauci reiterated again that we need to wear masks especially with the number of cases
growing in the majority of states including New Hampshire. Also, we are not asking store employees nor
manager to get into arguments or fights with patrons. They simply point out to the patron that just entered
that they passed a sign saying that they should come into their establishment and cannot be served without
wearing a mask. If they give them a hard time for the person or persons involved, they need to get the
store manager involved and if the patrons won’t comply, the manager can call the Police.
| just came back from upper New York where the State of New York has done a fantastic job fighting this
pandemic. All stores and all restaurants have signs on the doors saying they will not serve you if you come
in without amask. They offer the patron a mask and if they will not wear one they are asked to leave. |
must say that over 98%+ of the people | saw were complying with the law and those that were not, | believe
medical reasons for not wearing them which were fairly obvious. So without masks in Nashua right now, it
is the law. We are only clarifying the lawwith this O-20-029. When the Board of Health says its time to
rescind the mask Ordinance, we certainly will. Thank you.
President Wilshire
Thank you. Alderman Klee?
Alderman Klee
Thank you, Madam President and again | echo everything that Alderman Dowd has said. When we first
put this supplemental out, | started looking at the ADA Laws and wnat can and cannot be done and it was
hard actually to find information as to whether or not this fell within the ADA Regulations and Laws. It’s
even hard to get people like from the ACLU or so on to say “yea” or “nay” because they will be representing
those people. So | can understand where they were coming from. But! was able to find on the ADA
Southeast.org a web site wnere they talk about and say that this does not really fall within the ADA Laws.
They went further to say is the best practice is to make sure you have some kind of — and! am scrolling
here trying to find the exact — “reasonable modifications’ is the way they said it.
So for instance, if someone wanted to go shopping to the grocery store and they couldn't wear a mask,
we’ve made reasonable modifications, it said if you have a doctor's note than you could do it. A
reasonable modification could be that you can order on-line and the store will deliver it to your call. That
would be reasonable modification. The problem here people keep talking about, they lose their choice.
Well the flip side of that are those people that are more vulnerable, that may have a pre-existing condition
without having this kind of a mandate, they can’t go shopping. So if there’s anybody’s rights that are being
stomped on are those that are probably a little bit more fragile. And | want to protect those people and |
want to make sure that they can go to the grocery store. And | want to make sure that we do look at
everybody because the bottom line is, yes some people can’t wear masks. I’ve read studies of people who
say that your oxygen level drops and you’re taking in CO2. And they’ve done studies were people have
the ox-meter | think is what it’s called, oximeter on their finger and they walk around for 15, they walk
around for 30 minutes and there’s almost no drop in their oxygen level. So | find that very difficult to
believe. ButI’m sure that someone will come up with as many studies as | say one way, they are going to
come up with the other way.
