A regular meeting of the Board of Aldermen was held Tuesday, December 13, 2016, at 7:30 p.m. in the
Aldermanic Chamber.
President Brian S. McCarthy presided; Deputy City Clerk Judy Boileau recorded.
Prayer was offered by Deputy City Clerk Judy Boileau; Alderman Ben Clemons led in the Pledge to the Flag.
The roll call was taken with 15 members of the Board of Aldermen present.
Mayor James W. Donchess and Corporation Counsel Steven A. Bolton were also present.
REMARKS BY THE MAYOR
Mayor Donchess
| know that you are all interested in the Safe Stations Program. That's been operating for not quite 4 weeks
and it’s been quite successful. We've had incredible dedication from the fire department, Harbor Homes and
the Health Department, all of who have been involved in making this possible. In the first 26 days 29 people
have reported to a fire station, principally at Amherst Street or East Hollis Street and they have all been picked
up very quickly by Harbor Homes and have been referred into various treatment and other types of programs.
In addition to that, about that same number have called seeking information about treatment programs. Now
we have adopted in essence a two-pronged approach. First, the police department has arrested 700+ drug
dealers this year. Chief Lavoie says that the word on the street is that Nashua is not a place to deal or buy or
sell heroin so people are going elsewhere to get it. It’s less available and more expensive in Nashua than
elsewhere as a result of the activities of the police department. On the other side in terms of treatment and
recovery the fire department, through Safe Stations, Harbor Homes, through Safe Stations is giving people
who want to get out of a very bad situation a place to go so | think by using both of these tools we can make
progress with respect to the opioid epidemic in Nashua.
On the agenda tonight is the teacher’s contract which is a one-year contract for 1.3%. This was recommended
by the Budget Review Committee and | hope you will approve it. | think it is a fair contract. The teachers have
undertaken many challenges over the last few years, they have acclimated themselves and the school district
to the Common Core. They have implemented a new grading system through competency grading and faces
many new challenges related to some of the social problems that exist today, kids coming to school without
food, who aren’t properly fed or clothed, It’s very challenging to try to help children whose families are not
taking proper care of them or are unable to for a variety of reasons. | think they have shown great dedication
and our district pays about 50" in terms of average pay for school teachers in the state. Our average pay is
about $59,000. | think the 1.3% increase under all of those circumstances is very reasonable.
Tomorrow we have a legislative breakfast and if some of you could come that would be great. We are going to
be talking about some of the major issues facing the city including the downshift in the pension cost, the opioid
epidemic, school aid and other subjects. We do have 3 bills pending now to address the pension problem.
The first one is sponsored by a representative on the sea coast to restore part of the state’s subsidy or the
original commitment that the state had for the municipal pensions. Second and third bills proposed by
Representative and Alderman LeBrun and Representative McKay that would fix the assumed rate of return at
7 % as opposed to 7 % and the other would extend the deadline by which the state pension system must reach
100%. | want to thank Alderman LeBrun and Representative McKay for their help with those bills. We met last
week and there were a few other participants there, Tim Twombly, David Cote and Carl Siedel. | think we are
working together as a delegation and a community to try to take care of the downshifting that will have a
negative effect on Nashua services and Nashua taxpayers.
Also on the agenda we have the holiday parking ordinance and | hope you will pass that because | think that’s
worked well over the past couple of years.
We have the ordinance sponsored by Alderman Schoneman to make permanent the overnight parking
program and to add a few more streets. That’s been on a one year at a time trial basis up to now and has
