Board of Aldermen 8-11-2020 Page 33
accident there. This is right around the corner from where | live and a young gentleman lost his life who
was on a motorcycle there. That intersection has been a problem for quite a while. And it really was
heartbreaking driving by the other night; there was a group of friends and family that gathered there and to
see that, was really heartbreaking and not something | had expected. | am going, | spoke with Alderman
Lu earlier, | meant to reach out to Alderman Lopez but what | want to do is ask the Traffic Department to
look at that intersection and see what we can do to make that a safer place. | myself have seen many
accidents there and this one, unfortunately, was fatal. So | think we need to do something, so | am going to
be asking the Traffic Department to look at that.
On much happier notes, we of course were, | am very excited that Kamala Harris was chosen by vice
president to be the nominee being a lifelong Democrat | think it’s great that our — the Democratic Party — is
the party of progression and is the party that represents all of America, not only by saying it but by showing
it.
The last thing | want to talk about is that we have — | talked to the oh my goodness — | talked to Sue
Lovering today, the City Clerk about absentee ballots and | have some good news. The details are to come
but the good news is that with regard to an absentee ballot we are able to get a drop off location at City
Hall. So that would be a secured location where folks can take their absentee ballot and drop it off. And
this is important because as people have noticed on the news, we have been having back ups nationwide
with the Postal Service and people are afraid of mail-in voting because of issues with the mail getting there
on time. So what this option will allow Nashua residents to do is to be able to vote absentee and drop their
ballot off directly to City Hall in a secure manner, 24/7 and basically eliminate the Postal Service out of the
equation.
It is tremendous news, it is really, really good news for those who are affected by the COVID-19 and don’t
feel that they want to vote in person. We are doing everything that we can here in the City to make sure
that people have the right to go out and vote and they can exercise that right and know in addition to that,
that their vote is going to be counted and it is going to be counted fairly. | think that is extremely important.
Our City Clerk does a tremendous job and we here in Nashua truly do the best job of any jurisdiction in the
United States, I’d put us up against anyone. | know we are number 1. So thank you to the Clerk for
everything you do and let’s hope for a smooth election process. Thank you.
Alderman Schmidt
I'll be quick. Here’s my good wishes for Alderman O’Brien, my favorite Alderman, to get well soon. And the
City Clerk has done a tremendous job; | am getting messages constantly from constituents saying,
everything is running so smoothly, | know their busy but they are taking care of us. And to the family,
friends and everybody in the State, the passing of Sylvia Gale was a very sad, sad event and I’d like to
send my condolences as well to Alderman Harriott-Gathright who has lost family members. It seems like a
really difficult time and a good time to be kind. Thank you.
Alderman Caron
Oh thank you so much. First of all my get well wishes to Alderman O’Brien and my condolences to the
Barry Family, I’ve known Bill Barry for 30 years. The other thing, some happy news normally Alderman
Melizza-Golja gives this out, but back-to-school event will be taking place although we are doing it a little bit
differently. So the event is set for next Thursday, August 20", from 4:30 to 6:30 at the following schools:
Fairgrounds Elementary, Elm Street Middle School and Amherst Street School. We could not have the
large crowds at the Library so we decided that we would pick a central school. Unfortunately Fairgrounds
Middle School and Pennichuck are being repaired so we chose Amherst Street and Fairgrounds
Elementary for those areas. Every principal will be there at a table and the high schools will be there, and
United Way and the Board of Health will be there handing out supplies and notices as well as the Library
and the backpacking will take place next Monday at Amherst Street School. Unfortunately because of the
COVID problem, RSVP was not invited because that it is a very vulnerable population within the
community. But we have about 20 people that are willing to spread out and help us get those 2,000 bags
