Board of Aldermen 6-09-2020 Page 23
And the second reason that | am proposing this amendment is because from what | understand from the
restaurants and businesses is that they would like to be able to have, they get these umbrellas for free
essentially from various liquor distributors and different things. So it is a financial burden for them to go
out and buy these umbrellas. So the idea is that if they get one or they get a couple of them and they put
them up, they can use them for a couple of seasons. If we put a sunset clause on this, it defeats the
purpose of them going out and getting them. It’s something we should do and | think we should just do it
as opposed to doing a trial period. Thank you.
Alderman Laws
I’m all set, thank you.
Alderman Dowd
| have had a couple discussions with Director Marchant on this and | know there was some concern, but
these umbrellas, if you get a good umbrella, they are very expensive, up to $400.00 apiece. And some of
the establishments downtown have already gone out and bought their own, but many haven't. I’ve also
had a lot of people talk to me, which kind of surprised me, but want to know if we can do this every
summer, because they like it. The public likes it. And it may not be exactly the same scale, but | am in
accordance with Alderman Clemons on this and take the sunset clause out. If it becomes a burden later
on, we can always change it again, but right now, | think we need to give as much leeway to our
restaurants and businesses as we can to make them whole.
Alderman Laws
| was mistaken. The reason | didn’t say anything is because | was going to wait for this to go to
Committee and then talk about it there. Corporation Counsel is there any way that we could do a second
reading because this is something, it was brought to my attention by business owners. Not only is it
important to them because of the reasons the other Aldermen just mentioned, but now the distributors on
the other side of the coin have gone out and spent a ton of money on new umbrellas that they can give to
the business owners in Nashua. They are just going to be sitting on this inventory until we get this
passed. Therein lies the rub, you know. So if there’s any way we can get this expedited, | would be fully
in support of that. Thank you.
President Wilshire
We can’t have a second reading because we still need to have a Public Hearing.
Attorney Bolton
And you need a recommendation from the Planning Board. If the Planning Board recommends against it,
it will take ten votes. If the Planning Board recommends in favor, a simple majority.
Alderman Laws
Thank you for clarifying.
Alderman Lopez
Yeah, | am hugely in support of this. | think the umbrellas are important both from an amenity’s
perspective. Last Saturday after the Black Lives Matter, | tried to go to Peddlers and got completely
rained on. So it’s interesting having banners and masks in like a typhoon. So it’s definitely going to affect
the customer experience, but it is also getting into the hot season, like there’s going to be a lot of sun out.
