Board of Aldermen 05-25-2021 Page 3
Alderman Harriott-Gathright
| am present, | am in this room alone and | can hear everyone.
President Wilshire
| am here, | am alone and | can hear everyone.
Susan Lovering, City Clerk
You have 15 in attendance.
President Wilshire
Thank you. Also in attendance this evening is Mayor Jim Donchess and Corporation Counsel Steve Bolton. Mayor,
did you wish to address the Board this evening?
REMARKS BY THE MAYOR
Mayor Donchess
Yes, Madam President. Thank you very much. First | wanted to mention some good news on the COVID-19
pandemic. Of course our Public Health Department and Director Bagley is on the call as well but has been working
very hard with respect to trying to eradicate this pandemic. The numbers are definitely down. Recently within the
last couple of days the count of active cases is 27 down from somewhere in the 80’s a month or so ago. Over the
winter that number was almost 600. So we definitely have seen some progress there. In addition, the positivity
rate, this is the number of people who are tested for COVID-19 who come up with a so-called positive test
indicating that they have the virus is 2.7% down from 5% within the last couple of weeks, down from 10% or 12%
earlier in the year. So those are definitely good news.
In addition, as of about a week ago, the number of adults, the percentage of the adult population in Nashua who
have been fully vaccinated is 35% and this is of a week ago, the number of people including the 35% who have had
either one does or are fully vaccinated is around 48%. Now we think those numbers are a little higher now just
because one more week has gone by. But we still need to get more people vaccinated. Public Health is still active
getting people vaccinated, holding clinics and we need to encourage all of our family, friends and neighbors to get
vaccinated to protect themselves, their families, friends and our community.
While we are on the subject of Public Health Madam President, | wanted to congratulate Director Bagley for having
been recognized by the NH Women’s Foundation. They recognize women from around New Hampshire who have
contributed to the COVID-19 fight and have contributed during the pandemic. Five of the nominees were picked
out for special recognition as honorees statewide. Ms. Bagley was one of those five from the entire State of New
Hampshire so | wanted to congratulate her and again say she’s done a very good job and the recognition was well-
deserved.
Madam President, of course one of the items we have on tonight’s Agenda is R-21-136 which is the Developer
Agreement with the Nashua Housing Authority for the improvement of the Bronstein site. Right now there are 48
affordable units there and the proposal that has been worked out and negotiated between the City and the Housing
Authority would enable 216 units. So we would improve the number of affordable housing units in the City by over
160 units. As everyone knows, we have a housing crisis here in the City, particularly for those who are in the lower
end of the economic spectrum, the number of homeless people has definitely climbed, people who are struggling to
pay the rent, people who are having trouble with the rents that have escalated, have gone up significantly over the
last few years. And so the supply of housing in general, with a vacancy of less than 1% as well as the supply of
affordable housing is definitely too low. This project would be a big step forward.
