Board of Aldermen 5-21-2020 Page 40
President Wilshire
Alderman Klee.
Alderman Klee
Madam President, both Alderman Lopez and Alderman Schmidt said much of what | wanted to say and the
bottom line is masks is to prevent any spreading. Because you can be so asymptomatic and not even
know whether or not you have it, you could test tomorrow, | mean I’m sorry, you could’ve tested today and
tomorrow you could have contracted it. And unlike what Alderman Tencza has experienced, | have not
experienced the majority of people wearing masks. | am in the grocery store and | actually spoke to
Director Bagley because | had concerns about people going the wrong way in the grocery store and
anyone doing a little bit of a cough. And today | spoke to Mr. Roland about that very thing and was told,
“you’re ok as long as you didn’t have a conversation with them, just passing them is ok”. And I’m not as
anxious as many people. We have so many vulnerable people that want to get out also. They don’t want to
be quarantined; they don’t want to stay at home. But they want to know that when they go into the store
that it’s not just the employees that are wearing the mask but it’s that their fellow shoppers that are wearing
masks and they are protected.
| think we do this for the vulnerable. | don’t think we are hurting anybody’s rights; | don’t believe for one
second that $1,000.00 fine would be implemented because of this. | do think possibly a fine or whatever
because of the disorderly conduct that someone wants to make a stand. Any Legislation can have
unintended consequences. | don’t think that’s going to be the case here. | think that if there are unintended
consequences, | think it will be intended because | think these people will possibly come and try to fight and
try to argue and try to make their point. | think we have to stay strong and we have to fight for those people
who don’t have their voices, those vulnerable people. We need to say to them, “You are Welcome.
Everybody here is Welcome here in Nashua. But we do have laws”. And | appreciate what Attorney Bolton
said about having to wear a hairnet and having to wear gloves and having to put up screens to keep
rodents and insects and so on. There’s just common-sense health laws that we have put into place. | think
that’s basically what | need to say.
President Wilshire
Ok. Alderman O’Brien.
Alderman O’Brien
Thank you, Madam President. Boy this is a tough one for me personally. | was on the Fire Department,
when | first started on the job. They never gave us any gloves. We never had to wear the latex type of
gloves. If somebody was actively bleeding you stuck your hands right in it, it was your job. Then along
came these other things, AIDS, | was around during the Bird Flu. Now | agree with everything as far as the
health reason that they expressed with the COVID-19 and the dangers of it. But the thing is my personal
mantra is to educate not to incarcerate. And | think the objective should have been, | wish we went with the
compromise, should have been, “you should wear a mask”. If you gave a verbal warning to somebody, |
wasn’t looking for the penalty. The objective was here to provide a safe environment to the people. But
now we are back to square one where we have up to a $1,000.00 fine on this. | would much rather stay
with the educational part of it because | agree with everything Alderman Lopez says and what the Board of
Health has and the professionals. | am concerned about personal family members who are on the Fire
Department that are exposed on a daily basis to the potential of this. But the thing is it is education and
again not the incarceration nor the fear of penalty without fear or favor of a fine. And so therefore | am
going to join my colleagues of Alderman Clemons and Alderman Tencza and | am going to join with them
and vote against this. Thank you.
