A regular meeting of the Board of Aldermen was held Tuesday, January 24, 2017, at 7:30 p.m. in the
Aldermanic Chamber.
President Brian S. McCarthy presided; Deputy City Clerk Judith Boileau recorded.
Prayer was offered by Deputy City Clerk Judith Boileau; Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire led in the Pledge to
the Flag.
The roll call was taken with 15 members of the Board of Aldermen present.
Mayor James W. Donchess and Corporation Counsel Steven A. Bolton were also in attendance.
REMARKS BY THE MAYOR
Mayor Donchess
On tonight’s agenda are a number of appointments to various Boards and Commissions in the city. Many of
the people are here to be sworn in. We are fortunate in Nashua to have many people who voluntarily agree to
use their time and talents and creativity. We are looking for people with intelligence and imagination that are
committed to Nashua and we have a whole group of them on the agenda tonight. | want to thank each of them
for agreeing to serve on the various Boards and Commissions. | think you will find that they are people with a
variety of different backgrounds and talents, all of whom will serve the city very well.
The second thing is that we went up to testify on the three pension bills today, one bill would extend the
deadline by which the state pension system must reach the 100%, another to address the so-called assumed
rate of return and another to recommit that state to part of the promise that it originally made which was to pay
for a part of the pension cost for municipal employees. The original promise that was kept for a number of
decades was to pay 35% and now that is zero and the bill proposes 15%; that part of that promise be restored.
| went up, Alderman McCarthy, Alderman O’Brien, Alderman LeBrun and both Aldermen O’Brien and LeBrun
are state reps and State Representative Mariellen MacKay, Fred Teeboom and others were there who were
very helpful and we all testified in favor of the bills and | think the committee at least listened to what we had to
say but we will have to see what happens. | think we made a strong case that the state should help us
address these pension issues.
Coming up | wanted to remind you that we’ve got a few community events. First of all, the Town Halls that |
am holding, there are two next week; one on Tuesday for Ward 2 and is at the Charlotte Avenue School, one
on Thursday for Ward 4 which is at Ledge Street and tomorrow there will be one at the Senior Center at 10:00
a.m. A group of Aldermen have come to these and | find them always interesting and informative, each one
kind of takes on a separate turn in the discussion. Anyone who would like to come is extremely welcome and
we would love to get your input at any of those meetings. Also this week we have a couple of meetings that
we are holding here and right outside of City Hall. We have a Rail Trail lighting ceremony scheduled for 5:00
p.m. on Thursday. This is a project that we’ve all been working on to improve the walkability and livability for
people who use the rail trail. That evening we also have the Snow Plowing Presentation which is going to be
presented by the Director of Public Works, Lisa Fauteux and others to again, go over this years’ snow plowing
plan and answer any questions you or members of the public may have.
Finally | wanted to briefly mention that the Safe Stations Program has really picked up in 2017. As of today
there are about 97 reports and things seem to be going well even though we don’t know if this trend will hold.
The OD trend is lower in 2017 than it was in the last part of 2016 and in most of 2016. We hope this program
can make an impact on the opioid crisis that we are all very concerned about.
Alderman Lopez
