Board of Aldermen 5-26-2020 Page 21
| appreciate BG’s idea but maybe if they had known about this a little bit earlier, we could have vetted this a
little bit more. But | really do have some concerns as Corporation Counsel about all of these people who are
going to come out and be looking to shoot fireworks. And | know, | get plenty of calls, especially at 4"" of
July of close quarters of people shooting fireworks. So | appreciate what they are trying to do but | really am
hesitating approving this. Thank you.
President Wilshire
Alderman Dowd?
Alderman Dowd
Yes, acouple things. One, | work with the Fire Marshall on a number of occasions and trust me when | say
that they will ensure any time that they grant a permit for fireworks, that all safety measures will have to be
met including space, distance, type of fireworks, having a truck standing by and all of that. Also, they
probably could have just gone out and bought fireworks and in this kind of display and lit them; off because
they are the Class C, they are the ones you can buy up on Amherst Street if you want to go by them. But
they wanted to do it right and they wanted to have the Fire Marshall there and the Fire Department there and
make sure everything was done safely. | would like to see us let them have this occasion and if want to bring
back into a Committee and discuss it further and put more t’s and c’s in it, we can do that, but again, | think if
tomorrow they decided to do a graduation at Holman Stadium for Nashua High which | don’t think they can
do because they are still a larger class, you know, an 8 minutes display or 6 minute display is pretty short. |
can tell you on the 4" of July I’ve seen displays going on at Charlotte Avenue School that are probably 45
minutes to an hour with no permit. So | think we would be, let’s give these kids something.
President Wilshire
Alderman Klee and then Alderman O’Brien.
Alderman Klee
Thank you, Madam President. | have to say | do have a concern that we are opening a Pandora’s Box and |
know for a fact that many people are constantly wanting to celebrate this and celebrating that and while |
don’t blame them, currently they do it without Fire Marshall approval. | hear them going off constantly, | see
them on the Civic Sounding Board. | just don’t want to open it up that you can say yes to this and the Fire
Marshall can say yes to this but there is no saying no. We look into, ok well you said it as Attorney Bolton
said, you said it for this Catholic Organization, why aren’t you saying it for this Muslim Group or these other
groups and so on. While | want them to have this special celebration, | am not feeling comfortable, | feel like
we are just opening up a Pandora’s Box and | don’t want to go there.
President Wilshire
Alderman O’Brien and then Alderman Tencza?
Alderman O’Brien
Thank you, Madam President and if | cut out, | don’t know what’s wrong with the bandwidth but | had to re-
sign on. As most of you know, I’ve had a lot of experience with this particular subject matter. | don’t know if
many of you know it, but many of our citizens enjoy a campfire in the backyard. In order to have that
campfire, whether you are Catholic, Protestant, Muslim or whatever, you have to petition to have a permit
and it is by State Guidelines. The State has directed the State Fire Marshall and the State has appointed all
the Lieutenants and Captains and Deputy Chiefs as Fire Wardens and they are able to go out and give the
permits. Now they have to go out and physically come out and look at the facility that is going to have that
particular bonfire to make sure that certain criteria such as that the fire has to be 25 feet from any one
structure and everything else.
