Board of Aldermen — 01/09/18 Page 9
you shouldn’t get paid. If there is a medical problem, that was different. But | wrote that and | think I’m pretty
proud of writing that.
| also wrote the legislation that if you park in a handicapped spot, there’s a $200.00 fine. People have to be
respectful of people who have a disability, and unfortunately, they’re not. | think there was some pretty good
legislation that | wrote that took care of the needs of the people of this city.
Talking about the needs of the people of this city, we had some pretty horrible storms, other than this last one.
But on the 23 of December, | had a conversation with Director Fauteux, it wasn’t a pretty conversation. | had
called your office, Mayor. | spoke with Pedro, who saw that | seemed to be a little bit upset. So, Kim Kleiner
called me and she and | had no problems. She sent me information because | was told by Director Fauteux
that you only sand and salt streets on an as-needed basis, and that this hasn’t been done for nine years; going
through the neighborhoods and salting and sanding, which is not true because my street has always been. |
don’t think it was because the previous Mayor lived there either because | don’t live on the same street as her;
she lives on a different street than me. But what condition, because | know it couldn’t have been because on
Facebook — and | took pictures of the conversations on Facebook on the Nashua Civic Sounding Board, until
Mr. Shea shut it down, because | guess he didn’t want to hear all the complaints that were going on in the city,
because there was a lot of complaints. And the former Aldermen from Ward 6, Ben Clemons, sent you a
message on Facebook saying “Can we get some sand and salt in Ward 6?” So the city was in horrible
condition, especially when you live in a development that has a hill or slight incline. | guess people forget that
there’s no traction on ice; you just keep sliding. And | know it wasn’t the workers that made this decision; it had
to come from Administration, because the workers wouldn’t just not put down the trucks and dump the salt and
sand throughout the neighborhoods. It had to come from higher up.
So | hope we’re not skimping on salt and sand in the winter, because that’s a safety issue. Considering, like |
said, our taxes went up 2.88%. The quality of services in these storms has gone down. So maybe we should
get a refund on this part of our taxes, because we’re not doing what we’re supposed to be doing. And even on
the main roads, on Daniel Webster Highway, | would get out of work 10:00 or 11:00 or 12:00 at night with some
of these storms and there would be big ice ruts in the road. We're not doing what we need to do. When you
have the warmer days and you put the salt and sand down, the sun and the warmer days are going to melt it,
like we’re getting now. It’s going to start melting.
But | called and | told Kim about what was going on, not only in my neighborhood, off of W. Hollis Street, up by
Gendron and White Plains, because | go through there when | go down to Main Dunstable. | just think it was
horrible. But yet the downtown got their sidewalks cleaned and the snow removed from the downtown, and the
neighborhood didn’t have it. We can talk about the city 30 years prior to and 30 years now; the taxes back then
were a lot different than they are now, and the Performing Arts Center; that if people don’t live in the city, you
know? If other communities would like to give some money towards our endeavor, that’s great. But the fact that
we’re not cleaning, we’re not salting. This is New England and we just went through a rough two weeks of
subzero temperatures, and now it’s feeling like summer out there, 30 degrees. It’s beautiful out. But what’s
going to happen when the next storm comes, and the next storm comes? Are we going to be skimping on the
salt and sand? It’s in the budget; maybe because we haven’t changed the amount of what we need every year.
We live in New England; it’s basically been the same. That’s according to Kim Kleiner; she said things haven't
changed. | know we’re putting out new communities, more streets. Maybe we need to look at the salt budget.
Maybe that needs to be a little bit more, because we live in New England. We have to be prepared for the
worst, and yet we need to make sure that the roads are clean and safe.
Also — and I’m going to be talking about this when | get to the Board of Public Works — because on one side of
W. Hollis Street — my Ward 5 Alderman maybe should listen to this — from Ledgewood Hills down, that’s where
the sidewalks are; almost all the way down. They didn’t plow that. They plowed it on the other side where the
old Matthew Thornton is, and some of that is grass. They plowed some of the grass area is where the sidewalk
is, and all the sidewalk is mostly on the other side. And again, who’s making up these routes here, because |
don’t know.
| just wanted to let everybody know that the quality of services in these storms has gone down. And also, | just
got a text message from a friend of mine who is watching this meeting and she said to please let everybody
