Board of Aldermen 02-08-2022 Page 17
Relative to Public Works, | think they've been doing a great job. Yes, | get the same comments about my street hasn’t
been done, or a sidewalk hasn’t been taken care of, and so on. Today I’m driving down Manchester Street on my way to
an 8 o'clock meeting this morning. | did see some kids trying to avoid the sidewalks on Manchester Street because they
were still a little slippery and icy but there’s limitations that our Public Works people have. They're doing the best job that
they possibly can and they do get out there, especially these heavy...for citizens if they go on to Public Works, they can
see which sidewalks do in fact get plowed what are part of the sidewalks that are plowed. Most of them are like right
around schools and so on for the safety of children that are walking. | can tell you in French Hill we have — pardon my
language here — but sidewalks from hell where we have people steps that go into the sidewalks. We have fire hydrants,
we have — so they can’t use the snow plow type things. They can’t get in there so they have to do them by hand. By the
time they can get to them, most of the time they’re icy and so on. | do ask people to be patient and if you are able body
and you do have a sidewalk in front of you, consider helping out and doing it. There is no requirement. I’m not telling
anybody to do it but if you’re able body and you can do it, perhaps you could just extend at least in front of your sidewalk
that’s much less and a little bit safer for the children.
Lastly, I’d like to thank my wonderful Ward 3. They have been sending me dinners and extending some very kind words
and so on for some of the things that I’ve been going through. You all may think you have the best Ward but you don't.
It's Ward 3. Just want to put it out there. Thank you so much.
Alderman Sullivan
Thank you Madam President. | wanted to speak about just the form and the flow of the meeting tonight. Being new and |
still understand that I’m learning a lot and | still consider myself very much an outsider to the rules in how we do things
and how we build agendas. | think a common misconception in life is that people like surprise parties. Personally | don't
like surprise parties, especially how they happen sometimes. Being an outsider as | still feel as though | am, there seems
to be an us versus them to tone to what happened. | understand that there are rules and procedures that | will learn about
but | was just wondering and | would like to request that should we be faced with something like that again that we handle
it differently. That’s all my ask. | appreciate it. Thank you.
Alderman O’Brien
Thank you Madam President. First I’d like to thank Alderman Clemons mentioning Paul Shea. I'll tell you something, that
guy — | think when he was interviewed for the job or in that particular process, | remember our old friend Alderman
McCarthy he was out throwing snowballs and stuff like that they said. Here’s the perfect guy for the job. He has done
well and thank you for mentioning him, although | look forward to working with him as a liaison and a Board of Public
Works Committee. | think he'll fit in nicely there too.
The other thing I’d just like to mention is like the BPW, | think they did a pretty good job. The people have got to
understand. Coming from the Fire Department, people used to say geez you know what the heck. We used to look at it
and say well you know right now we have too many firemen, then the building catches fire, and we don’t have enough.
The same thing is true with snowfall. We never ask in the summer how much rain we’re going to get. We just want to
know if it rains. Unfortunately in the wintertime we make meteorologists put how many inches it is. BPW you take the ice.
If anyone wants to complain, come look at my driveway. | didn’t even bother touching it. | can’t. | think they did a good
job the best that they can, and the long hours, and you’ve got to take into account there are DOT standards that can only
be in the truck so long. So you have to take the whole mix together. They do get to it and they do a fair job.
The last thing Madam President if | may. Just a little bit of house cleaning. | see there is issues coming up before the
Infrastructure Committee. We're very happy to have them. When it comes to different types of traffic stops signs, right
turns, left turns, all those different things, | consider it the responsibility of the author of the legislation to contact
Engineering. Come see me. I'll direct you to the right thing but do the homework So we can get it started so when it
comes to the Board, we know already — we read the reports and everything else. Case in point, the stop sign might sound
good to one particular person but then there’s 30 people in the neighborhood that hate it. To avoid all that, this is why we
do that. If you could do that and if there’s any questions in the future, please come see me and we'll help you direct
through it. Thank you.
President Wilshire
Thank you. I, too, would like to take a moment to thank Paul Shea for the vibrancy he’s brought to our downtown. Paul is
a dynamic person. He did a really good job downtown bringing in all kinds of different activities for people. | really think
he did a great job for us. I’m also happy for him and for everyone else that he is going into the field that he’s been trained
in and that’s being a nurse. Don’t we need nurses now more than ever? It’s kind of bitter sweet. We're losing him but
we’re not really losing him. He’s going off to do a job that we all need at some point.
