Board of Aldermen 10-23-2018 Page 9
REMARKS BY THE MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN
Alderman Klee
| would just like to address something that the Mayor had mentioned about the Safe Station Program on
Thursday. | am going to be attending that, the all day program from morning until early evening.
Alderman Lopez
With regard to the first public comment | wasn’t there and | didn’t observe it and | know first-hand that
when escalation happens people see differently, say things they regret. But | will say as somebody
who is legally blind, | do not like it when people say, “Oh so you can see”. It is something that | struggle
with every day to try to overcome and to make sure that | am living my life the best life that | can. |
don’t make a huge fuss out of it and | don’t demand everybody bow down and recognize my disability
as though it is something that they are obligated to fix.
But it can be deeply felt when you tell somebody, “Oh well what you’ve been saying to me before isn’t
true, you are able to do things and you are just faking it”. | would just advise everybody to be a little bit
more sensitive to how that can be interpreted. Because that hurt particularly can color a lot of issues
and cause a lot of hurt feelings.
On a more positive note, | participated in the Awareness is Healing Walk this weekend and | have to
say it was a great time. There were a lot of people coming together to acknowledge people that we
have lost to the opioid crisis but also to really share this strength that comes from the shared
experience of that loss. In my mind, it reaffirmed my own opinion that the recovery community is our
way forward. | think if we are going to look at Safe Station as an intervention, we need to be looking at
recovery as a pathway forward, | think programs like Revive, Rise Above Hearts, they offer peer
support and community networking that people in recovery that are trying to overcome tremendous
setbacks, really benefit from.
| think the process of trying to build your life to be a more positive one and consciously self-assessing is
when we all do and we all benefit from. But to be able to take an honest look at yourself and
acknowledge something like substance use disorder, it will make you a tremendous person if you are
supported and you get the resources that you need. These are people that we can really benefit from
having in the community and not suffering from addiction or substance abuse disorder.
| definitely appreciated the Awareness is Healing Walk and there’s another walk coming up this Sunday
because it seems like my whole life is just a big long walk. The Crop Walk is an annual event that is
very nice here in Nashua and it supports Church World Service but it is to recognize people the world
around who have trouble meeting their basic needs, getting clean water, getting food, providing for their
families and the distance they have to walk in a non-industrial world. | think that is particularly relevant
this week where we are hearing so much in the news cycle about how there is a caravan of people
coming from Central America looking for hope, walking. | think it is something we can all pay attention
to that there are needy people here and there are needy people elsewhere and they are not as
unconnected as you would think. What happens in the world happens here too.
Alderwoman Melizzi-Golja
Yes | just actually have a question for you Alderman McCarthy. | had sent an e-mail regarding the
presentations for the Performing Arts Center scheduled on November 7" and November 14! around
the financial pieces, | believe the one on the 7" is with the consultant and the one on the 14" is with the
person who is going to be talking about tax credits. And when we had the meeting with Director
Cummings presentation, at the end of that meeting, | requested that those be joint BOA/PAC meetings
and the response was that would be worked on.
