Board of Aldermen 05-25-2021 Page 54
Alecia Houston Sorry | didn’t know if | was over speaking. So my name is Alecia Houston, Westwood Drive,
Nashua, NH. | wanted to and | believe that this may be like the first time that I’ve ever said this. | actually
wanted to applaud Alderwoman Jan Schmidt for having the vote of her constituents at her heart. | truly
appreciate that show of support as a Nashua resident. | wanted to take a moment just to discuss some
constructive criticism, even though we are on virtual meetings, | do believe that we should have and hold
ourselves accountable to having the cameras on. As representatives of this City, as Aldermen and women, it is
really important that you remain engaged and it is good optics for the citizenry that you guys are available and
in person.
Additionally, those who had their cameras on | appreciate it, however, | would definitely caution you guys that
some of the things that the public is seeing a not necessarily things that you would be doing during a public
meeting had it been in person. And finally | wanted to ask that the Board of Aldermen just as the Board of
Education and other Committees within the City have done, we need to see you guys back in person and it
would really eliminate some of these (inaudible) with virtual meetings if you guys were back into City Hall. And
| again appreciate and applaud you. | know that brevity is key and | think that in voting in the future you should
always remember that the more that you cloud it, the harder it gets to interpret, especially for the people.
Thank you.
President Wilshire
Is there anyone else? Mayor | know you had wanted to speak.
Mayor Donchess
Well just a brief — | wanted to mention the Veteran’s Day Parade. The Veteran’s Counsel decides on how to
run the parade and the decision had to be made months in advance because we needed the high school
bands and they were telling the Veteran’s Counsel that they weren’t available, they couldn’t organize it. So |
think the decision was a reasonable one at the time and everybody in the Veteran’s Counsel said that we were
confident we could hold a Veteran’s Day Parade in November, but several months ago when the decision was
made it didn’t seem like it would be practical to hold the Veteran’s Day Parade. So | don’t want to second
guess them. Maybe now we could, but we can’t do that on a few days’ notice. Anyway that’s all | wanted to
offer, Madam President.
President Wilshire
Thank you. Is there anyone else? Last call for public comment. Marilyn Todd? Marilyn? Marilyn Todd? OK |
don’t know if she just can’t hear me but she has her hand raised. OK I'll call one more time, Marilyn Todd. No
response, | will contact Christopher Weier.
Christopher Weier — Excellent. This is Christopher Weier, East Hollis Street in Nashua. | appreciate everyone
working so hard to get this thing figured out tonight. | know it is a late night and | don’t want to keep anyone
later than they need to be. | do think it is important that rather than look back at the nightmare that was last
year and this entire process that all of us went through that we really look forward to the next occasion in which
we will need to rely on the Aldermen, the Mayor and the Health Department. We can’t foresee what that would
be but | would say if we were to analyze what happened over the past year, as far as politically, as far as
getting recommendations from the Health Department, it was a complete disaster. Everything was very slow
moving, nothing that should have been an emergency oriented thing was treated as such. And | think people
kind of gauged their feelings and their behavior based on that. So | think there’s a lot that could be looked at
over what happened this past time to kind of better prepare everyone the next time something happens. That
is all, thank you.
