Board of Aldermen 04-12-2022 Page 7
and having to try to avoid pandemic. This is a big night to really do something civic and something almost profound for the
City of Nashua with the of course a lot of the talk of a lot of discussion this evening on downtown the heart of the city like it
is in many towns and cities across the country. You're seeing a lot of effort trying to be put into these downtown's and one
of the ways to do it is to make them as was said before more pedestrian friendly, more walkable, more livable, more
commerce, and for a variety of commercial endeavors, as well as for a variety of living situations, and people's personal
enjoyment. Let’s not take people's fun away, please. You've got a few short months during these times in the good
weather and people seem to enjoy it. Just think, with the new teachers’ contract, we may have a few more instructors
going down there during the evenings or whenever they want to blow off a little steam after a long couple of years and
certainly in a safe way being outside.
So there's a lot on the docket tonight and we can really, we can really, you Know, make this happen, make this happen for
the city, and for the region around us, and to keep in mind that we are in a competitive situation with the other towns and
cities. This is going to keep us at least in the game or ahead of the game so we can come out of here as winners. So
please do please do the effort tonight and let's approve these matters and let's move on to the next chapter.
Donna Graham, Legislative Affairs Manger
Mr. Juris can | have your address, please?
Lou Juris
If you don’t know it by - yeah, it’s 56 Haines Street.
Donna Graham, Legislative Affairs Manger
Thank you.
Lou Juris
Thank you.
Sonia Prince
Thank you for having me - 49. Tufts, Drive. Sonia Prince. I'm excited. That was one of the positive things if you can
count many positive things out of the COVID is the downtown. | thoroughly enjoyed it. I've been living here for 25 years
and my husband and | and my friends have met up downtown more than ever before. | enjoy Peddlers, Tostados,
Martha’s, JaJa Belles, San Francisco Kitchen. | can go on and on of how wonderful it was. | do agree some of them - the
barriers don't look that great so maybe there's some kind of decorative thing we could put a barrier and then maybe a little
metal gate, or a flowerpot, or something to make it look a little more appealing. Overall, it was enjoyable. | didn’t have to
think about each restaurant probably employs anywhere from 5 to 10 people. So we need to keep those people working
and they're taxpayers so we want to keep them here.
Also, |am concerned because of COVID. Another reason why we should keep it in place. There's another wave right
now - 172% jump in new cases within one month in New Hampshire. So yeah, we may not have as many deaths but we
still have long haulers, sick people, and teachers out and right now I'm talking to a lot of teachers and they're telling me a
lot of their students are out. So it's just a matter of time before the teachers become sick and they have to stay out until
they test negative. That would be a nightmare like we had this winter. A lot of kids were left unsupervised. There was
more bullying. We had a locker room awful event that happened at one of the high schools. It was absolutely terrifying.
So | hope that that doesn't happen and if it be that you will consider putting the masks back on for indoors, maybe in
public buildings or schools.
And finally for the contract for the teachers, | spoke about that last night - 1.5 years. | know COVID had a little to do with
the timeline, but really compared to the firefighters who didn't make any concessions of $2.5 million a year on the health
plan. You know treating teachers like that is just embarrassing for a city sexist. I'm sorry. It is what itis. The Fire
Department or Police Department never get treated that way. So | hope that this all goes smoothly and we do get repairs
for our storage and everything else that we need. | think you guys are doing a great job.
Donna Graham, Legislative Affairs Manager
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