Board of Aldermen — 01/09/18 Page 10
know that if they don’t like the speakers, to make sure that they don’t make faces, because they see it on the
other side of the television.
REMARKS BY THE MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN
Alderman O’Brien
Although | deeply respect the comments from the former Alderman, but | look at these storms that we had at
hand, and you’ve got to take into somewhat of the context what we were dealing with, for all intents and
purposes. It’s not coming from me, but from the meteorological people; we had a blizzard. And | do know the
people that do tend to our streets are the same people who pick up our trash and do other duties besides. So,
basically, | would imagine a day in the life of a Public Works employee: In the morning, they’re picking up the
trash, and then they’re doing the hours of duty that are on the yeoman’s duty of being on a snow plow and
doing it. | think they did, under the conditions of a blizzard, a fair job. And | guess, to respect the comments,
but looking at it, | think it’s all relevant to each one of us on the quality work that is done; it’s a perception, and
look at it. But |! do respect the work that the people did, and | echo the Mayor’s comments. It was a tough
storm. We had very tough conditions which is tough on the equipment, and below zero weather. And that’s to
keep in mind other divisions that work for our city. | would like to mention there was a fire on Lock Street, to
which a person was trapped in the building, and due to the combined efforts of the Nashua Police Department
and the Fire Department, that person was evacuated from the building, rescued, and med-flighted out. | do not
know the condition at this particular time, but they’re fighting a fire in single-digit conditions.
So, in looking in general, at the work that’s done by all of our city employees, particularly in the storm and
blizzard conditions like this, | would just like to say, from the snow plowing to the good rescue that they did, the
Police and Fire, the actions and everything, great job. | appreciate the work that they do.
Alderman Tencza
| would like to take this opportunity to thank Alderman Caron, who was the chair of the inauguration on
Sunday, as well as Alderman Schmidt and Alderman Clemons who formed the committee, as well as the Clerk
and her staff, who also put together a great event, along with the Master of Ceremonies, Mayor Donchess. |
know it received great feedback from a lot of people; friends and family who got to experience some of that for
the first time who were impressed with how smooth everything went, how interesting the ceremony was, and
they were very happy to attend. | just want to say thank you for all your efforts in that.
Alderwoman Melizzi-Golja
| would like to echo Alderman Tencza’s thank you to the Inauguration Committee. | also had many positive
comments made about the event. So, nice job.
| think to follow-up on what Alderman O’Brien had to say, it certainly was a very difficult time the whole week in
the city, in terms of the timing of the storms and the holiday. | think, again, many divisions across the city need
to be commended. | know in Ward 8, they did their best to keep those hills clean and safe, and we had the
luxury of having trash pick-up. | want to thank the residents of Ward 8 for trying to keep their recycling and
trash barrels in until the morning of trash pick-up, because as we all know, the streets have gotten more
narrow, and on the hills we have the lack of visibility, just because of the angles and the piling of snow. So,
thank you to people who were considerate of that and making it easier to navigate the neighborhoods.
As Alderman O’Brien mentioned, for our Fire Department, in all of these fires the weather posed an additional
challenge for them. We think about all of the things the fire fighters are doing, but we need to remember the
people behind the scenes who are working very hard to maintain the equipment. So, thank you to them.
Regarding the Fire Commission, Monday night they elected a new Chair; Commissioner Garant will be the
Chair, and Commissioner Gage will be the Vice Chair. At that same meeting, Deputy Chief George Walker
was promoted to Assistant Fire Chief as of April 1, and the mechanic, Stepney, was promoted to
Superintendent of Fleet. And | see Mr. Joseph here. | just would like to thank you for your service on the
