A regular meeting of the Board of Aldermen was held Tuesday, January 25, 2022, at 7:30 p.m. in the aldermanic chamber
and via Zoom teleconference which meeting link can be found on the agenda and on the City’s website calendar.
President Lori Wilshire presided; City Clerk Susan Lovering recorded.
Prayer was offered by City Clerk Susan Lovering; Alderwoman-at-Large Gloria Timmons led in the Pledge to the Flag.
Let’s start the meeting by taking a roll call attendance.
The roll call was taken with 15 members of the Board of Aldermen present: Alderman O’Brien, Alderman Sullivan,
Alderman Klee, Alderman Moran, Alderman Lopez, Alderman Jette, Alderman Clemons, Alderwoman Kelly, Alderman
Comeau, Alderman Dowd, Alderman Gouveia, Alderman Cathey, Alderman Thibeault, Alderwoman Timmons, Alderman
Wilshire.
Mayor James W. Donchess, Corporation Counsel Steve Bolton, were also in attendance.
President Wilshire
I'd just like to take a second to send my condolences and I’m sure that of the Board to Donna Graham who lost her father
this past week. Donna’s really done a terrific job for us. She’s a great person and my condolences to her and her family.
REMARKS BY THE MAYOR
Mayor Donchess
First | wanted to update you, again, on the COVID situation. Currently there are two basic measurements that are used to
determine the amount of transmission within the community. First, the number of new cases that have arisen per
100,000...
President Wilshire
Mayor can | interject. Gentlemen in the back you need to keep your masks on or leave the chamber please. Thank you.
Sorry Mayor.
Mayor Donchess
So the measurements 1) the number of new cases per 100,000 people over the last 14 days — for Nashua that number is
3,237. Significantly higher than we met two weeks ago. The (inaudible) cases right now is 1,092 and the positivity rate
that is the number of people who test who come up with the virus. It’s actually gone down a little bit since the last time we
met. It’s now 24.8 percent but still that is a very high number. Again, the projections seem to be bearing out. The
projections from the University of Washington where a lot of expertise of the projections come from said that we would be
rising in January and we'd each a peak in February. The good news is hopefully they're correct in projecting that the
number of cases would rapidly decline sometime after February by spring time. | know that the Board of Health and | see
members here tonight have recommended we continue the mask requirement in public places that was adopted for one
month. The Board of Heath has recommended for one more month. | believe that’s necessary given the public health,
problems, crisis that we face although there is some talk that the Omicron is not as serious. Ten people have died in
Nashua since the last time we met for a total of 130 people. As of yesterday, there were 60 people in the two hospitals
with COVID. Still they are very stressed in terms of their ability to meet the health needs of those with COVID and all their
other patients with the typical serious health conditions — heart, cancer, strokes, and all the other things that hospitals see
on a routine basis.
| wanted to turn to something else Madam President. There are two projects that | hope you will drive by and take a look
at that have gotten a good start. The School Street housing 150 units on School Street between School and High has
begun in earnest now. That represents about a $40 million investment of private capital. The first time that we’ve had
from the ground up construction of apartments in the downtown in more than a century. So that is a very significant
investment. The Monahan Manor — the redevelopment of Bronstein which will transform 48 units of affordable housing
into over 200. That has also begun in earnest. | just wanted to stress that on that project the Housing Authority has
worked with the tenants to ensure that all tenants who wish to return to that location — they've all been placed elsewhere
but if they wish to return, they will be guaranteed an apartment of equal or better size. It seems that the Housing Authority
did a very good job of making sure that everybody was taken care of. So that was an important step in terms of trying to
make sure that we treat the people, the tenants properly, fairly, and in a way that we would hope to be treated ourselves.
