Board of Aldermen 11-13-2018 Page 20
Alderman Laws
| just wanted to thank Trish again, she is amazing. And | want to echo kind of the sentiment here; it is
an amazing thing that so many people went out and voted — 50%, we can obviously do a lot better. But
| just wanted to throw a joyful high five to every person who registered to vote for the first time and
made it out to the polls. It is a beautiful thing and this only works if people participate. So thank you.
Alderman Lopez
So when you put the dollar in the vending machine and it keeps coming back out, that is really
frustrating. So doing that several thousand times is what the ballot workers went through. So if you are
listening, Blue Wave, if you guys can fix the ballot machines.
| also wanted to remark on the passing on another leader in our communities, Frank Chimento the
coach at the PAL Gym passed away this week too. While he was definitely a lower key leader as
compared to Alderman McCarthy, he touched a lot of lives, he trained a lot of boxers. He turned a lot of
people around who were trying to express themselves physically and just needed a way to do it
positively and in a way that was empowering and that’s what boxing is in a lot of communities. That’s
what it is on Ash Street and for the PAL community. Frank was the guy, he was the guy who oversaw
and coached and he made sure everybody signed in. For me personally it was nightmare, because |
did boxing for about a summer because | was trying to train for my blackbelt and | figured | would get a
little leg up. It turns out that running marathons is fine, training for your black belt is fine, boxing is
where | had to draw the line. So Frank is tough, he was always energetic, he was always positive, he
was the nicest guy I’ve ever met. I’ve never seen him angry, but I’ve never tried to push those buttons.
He will be very much missed. His service will be this Friday.
Then | wanted to express gratitude to Alderman McCarthy for his leadership, because they say leaders
create leaders not followers. | think that is what he did. He took it very seriously, his role as a mentor,
and | think a lot of us have been touched by that and have been encouraged by it. So | would
encourage everybody as Alderman Gidge did, do the research, learn the Mason’s Rules and the
Robert’s Rules so you can compare the two. Learn the City history, read your packets, get involved
and inspire others and don’t just come in and attend the meetings. Prepare for them, learn about them
and be part of it and | think that is the best way we can continue Brian’s legacy. So thank you Brian.
And then in Thanksgiving | just wanted to announce that the Boys & Girls Club Thanksgiving Dinner is
going to be tomorrow night at 8:00. Then the Harbor Homes Thanksgiving is going to be next Tuesday,
all are welcome.
Alderman Caron
| took would like to give my condolences to the McCarthy family. | not only knew Brian in the circle but
as an employee of the City and he was very giving timewise, especially when we were putting together
the Stellar Stadium Complex. So we can take a little lesson from him too to use civility in this chamber.
It works, compromise works, and Brian will be greatly missed.
The other thing is the election not only Trisha but the whole staff, the moderators, and Selectmen and
all those people that work at the polls from 6:00 in the morning until way past closing time, they deserve
a lot of congratulations. | know that in Ward 7, because of the problems they were having with the
yellow sheet voting sheet, they decided to throw them in the box and then put them through the
machine later so that they weren’t jamming up. | know that they had just called your office and you were
off somewhere else dealing with another machine. We need better paper | guess.
The other thing is if you have not been to the Senior Outing, like | have, it is a wonderful thing. We
have a lot of fun, we are going to the Marriott for the first time. | will give you a history, when we started
this we were at Alpine Grove and we would 600 people there. Now we have about 300 to 400, we give
