A regular meeting of the Board of Aldermen was held Tuesday, March 22, 2016, at 7:30 p.m. in the Aldermanic
Chamber.
President Brian S. McCarthy presided; City Clerk Patricia D. Piecuch recorded.
Prayer was offered by City Clerk Patricia D. Piecuch; Alderman David Schoneman led in the Pledge to the
Flag.
The roll call was taken with 14 members of the Board of Aldermen present; Alderwoman Melizzi-Golja was
recorded absent.
Mayor James W. Donchess and Corporation Counsel Steven A. Bolton were also present.
REMARKS BY THE MAYOR
Mayor Donchess
First | wanted to update you on the event that happened over the weekend which is Awareness is Healing, the
Walk against Heroin. Some of you may have been there, but there was so many people, 800 or so, started at
Greeley Park, walked all the way to City Hal and then back to Greeley Park. There was so many people there
I’m not sure | would have seen you. It was a great event. It was organized by Darlene Pena. The turnout was
fantastic, and | think it was something that will help support the families that are deeply affected by the problem
of opioid addiction and also provide some comfort to those who have suffered a personal loss as the result of
that public health epidemic. In any event, it was a great event.
Last night we held the Fight for Rail meeting at city hall. We wanted to schedule that on short notice. Maybe
we could have done a better job in terms of coordinating it with the aldermanic schedule. We set it up on short
notice after the House voted to delete that $4 million from the transportation plan submitted by the Governor.
The Rail meeting, many of you came after meeting here at city hall, and | really appreciate that. As you saw
there’s a lot of support and interest in the rail initiative in Nashua. We had a number of members of the Board
of Aldermen, a hundred and some people, as well as the DOT Commissioner, Victoria Sheehan, who is a
Nashua resident. That went very well.
On tonight's agenda we have four appointments that | think are significant. There are three people for the
Cultural Connections Committee. | think they are all here, but | am not positive. Rafael Calderon, Sylvia Gale
and Deepa Mangalat all have been very active in Nashua for a long, long time. Those people, | am sure, will
do a very good job on the Cultural Connections Committee. | hope you all will, and I’m sure you will, endorse
the committee’s recommendation and confirm them for the cultural affairs committee. Also we have Simon
Sarris, for the Downtown Improvement Committee. Simon is a young man in Nashua who lives downtown,
grew up in Nashua, went to BG, works downtown and lives downtown just north of the river. | think he will
provide a very unique perspective, his own and unique perspective to the Downtown Improvements
Committee. | thought he provided some rather interesting insights when he testified before the Personnel
Committee. | hope you will also agree with the Personnel Committee there.
There were two items that | was hoping you would suspend the rules to consider. One is the recognizing and
congratulating Dody Eid, who is a high school student and who has accomplished something very significant
which is that he was selected for the US Senate Youth Program, one of only two people in New Hampshire.
We have a resolution which | believe has been endorsed by everyone. Dody is a resident of Ward 9, so | think
when we give that to Dody Alderman Siegel may be reading the resolution.
Finally there are a couple of appointments which we hope you will bring in under suspension. One is my
designee on the Planning Board. The timing is such that if we wait until the next meeting in April to introduce
those they wouldn’t get considered until late May. | was hoping you would consider accepting those under a
suspension of the rules. With that, that’s all | have, Mr. President.
