Board of Aldermen 6-10-2020 Page 14
Testimony in Opposition- None
Chairman O’Brien
Before we adjourn, is there anybody from the Board of Aldermen that has a question for Attorney Clarke or
Treasurer Fredette on either one of the items that we just had the Public Hearing on as they will probably
be stepping off of the meeting? Alderman Lopez.
Alderman Lopez
| have a question. Is Chief Rhodes still on?
Chairman Dowd
It looks like he’s still on, there he goes.
Chief Rhodes
Sorry about that.
Alderman Lopez
So | got kind of an ambiguous answer when | was asking about plans for Safe Station, as it was continually
referenced. | know that the Fire Station did a huge roll with accepting people who were walking up and
they were talking about a greater partnership where Harbor Homes, AMR and other partners were also
working — but what are the plans for that moving forward. Because my understanding from some of the
Mayor's previous public comments that that program was being downsized and | know that the Governor
has altered the model.
Chief Rhodes
Well thank you for that question, Alderman. You are correct, things are changing. | think things are
changing as far as Harbor Homes involvement and | think Harbor Homes was the linchpin to the successes
we had. But first and foremost, we all have to understand that we are an emergency services organization.
We are not a social services organization. We have taxpayers who fund us and who expect us and
rightfully so to respond in a timely and efficient manner to their emergency. Many Safe Station clients are
from out of the City of Nashua. One of the things that we made crystal clear form Day 1, was the need to
have Nashua Fire Companies available in 15 minutes or less.
Unfortunately for the City of Nashua, the Governor decided he had a better plan and the Governor never
came to us and asked us about our program and basically said, this is the program. | can tell you with
100% certainty and 8:00 to 5:00 program will not work for Nashua Fire & Rescue. We cannot, excuse me
one minutes, sorry about that. Nashua Fire & Rescue is not in the business of making phone calls to find
an open program and open bed, call 211, that’s not our role. The role your Fire Fighters have played for
the last 4 years was to be caring and compassionate and to welcome everyone into our Fire Stations and
made ano judgement zone. Those were why the Safe Station Program was so very successful. It was the
collaboration of the City of Nashua, the leadership of Mayor Donchess, the leadership of Chief Steve
Galipeau, at the time, the Union Leadership of John McAllister, and his Executive Board. That’s why this
worked.
Unfortunately going forward, all of these things have been taken out of our control. | cannot put any more
burden on our Fire Fighters because, again, they are not clinically trained as social workers. They are not
trained to go through a call and make 4, 5, 6, 7 calls to try to find a spot for someone to land. So the short
answer is, the future of Safe Station is very dim and | think that light is dimming by the day.
