Board of Aldermen 03-08-2022 Page 26
You see this dark overgrown littered mess that seems to welcome only vagrants these days. Instead of creating an
unneeded pedestrian mall by closing off traffic lanes on our historic Main Street, maybe our Mayor or this Board of Alderman
can focus your efforts on cleaning up the dilapidated grounds around our Public Library and restoring the publics’ interest in
the grand institution of its own very public library. Thank you very much.
President Wilshire
Thank you.
REMARKS BY THE MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN
Alderman Thibeault
Yes, | have afew. I’m going to start with the comments that were made in the public session. For Mrs. Ortolano, | was
shaking my head and she can speak right through that, | didn’t interrupt her. The reason that | was shaking my head was
because of what she said about surveys, and data, and then the Mayor’s letter. On the data and surveys, the Telegraph
took a survey of 3,000 people out of 90,000 and came up with an 80% against barriers. What was it based on? Was it
based on the new proposal? Who is the segment? I’m hoping to hear all this tomorrow. Who is the segment? Was it north,
south, Main Street, was it business owners? Say the Paul Shea’s survey, right, so people may think | support Paul Shea’s
survey because | like Paul Shea. But it’s the same thing. | don’t know where that data is coming from. | don’t know where
Facebook poll data is coming from, but | tell you right now, the amount of e-mails we got and everybody here we’re all getting
the same emails. We're getting more for expanded dining and you can say that’s the Mayor’s e-mail, but I'll tell you these
Aldermen here, and | guarantee you there’s Aldermen here, that are posting their own stuff to their Facebook to their groups
or sending e-mail letters. | mean | sent one to my group, but | didn’t say | was for or again it. | said “here is what’s going to
happen next week whether you are for it or against it come out. If you’re a business owner on Main Street come out, if you
work on Main Street come out, if you live in the north and you hate the going down Main Street come out. If love going out
and having dinner on a beautiful summer night, come out. | don’t care what your opinion is | want you here to tell us your
opinion and then I'll think about it and make a decision.” But to say the Mayor’s letter influenced more of the City, or to come
up with a 3,000 survey, or a petition that was done on the old proposal, or to say the police or fire are against it on the old
proposal is nonsense. That’s why | was shaking my head. | want to hear from the police, and fire, and AMR now on the new
proposal that we will hear tomorrow night from Director Cummings. That’s what | want to hear and that is how I'll make my
decision and I'll listen to all the people that come tomorrow night that’s how | make decisions. | don’t make decisions on
faulty nonsense and | don’t care what political party the poll is done on. If you can’t tell me where the data is coming from,
I’m not going to believe it I’m sorry.
So as far as Miss Bill, if you’re in my Ward I'll respond to you but | expect wherever you live that person will respond to you.
I’m not going to respond to you unless you’re in my Ward or unless you talk to me directly.
Two other things — Miss Saige thank you for coming. This is why | got into this. She was maligned at that meeting and | did
speak out at that meeting. | don’t Know if anyone else did, there wasn’t many of us. That was uncalled for and what has
been happening to her is uncalled for. It’s just not cool and she sounds like she’s smarter than most adults and maybe
smarter than some of us. Probably certainly smarter than me and it takes a lot of courage to come here after that and speak
in front of us all. | applaud her and thank you. Even some of the Aldermen who spoke to what she said last week called her
“Saige”. Her last name is Saige. Miss Saige, right? Let’s get this right and | thought we did a bad job there.
And the last thing is we referred the Court Street to the Budget Committee after the first reading. So | hear people saying
well | want to know more about it. It went to the Budget Committee. Why didn’t we have more information then? Why didn’t
we ask the questions then? What has come up now that we didn’t know about then? So that’s why | was going to say let’s
vote for it now, let’s not refer it back to Committee to go through it all again. It doesn’t make sense. If we’re not prepared
when we come to this, then why are we doing this? That's it.
Alderman Cathey
I'll start off by responding to Alderman Thibeault since | was on the Budget Committee. | did recommend it primarily
because | thought, full disclosure that we still have to put money into the account anyway. If | felt like that account was
useless, | could vote “no”. Now granted that gives a chance for money to go into the account because the trust exists.
However after that meeting like we stated (I’m sure you guys have the email from Director Kleiner about revenues and
expenses) that was something that | didn’t know. | didn’t Know about the original resolution. | didn’t know about the roof
going under capital improvements. There were a lot of things that revolve around Court Street that were not immediately
known and | don’t even know if | would have been able to know to look them up like the original resolution. So knowing
that now, | don’t think further discussion really harms anyone when we're trying to talk about how to spend money and
