Gardner Mayor Nicholson spoke about when he took office during the pandemic in July 2020. Listen on any device, CLICK PLAY.
Question: Can you describe briefly what the circumstances were when you took over as mayor in July 2020?
Answer: That’s a trip down memory lane right there. I had been serving as a town administrator for the town of Rutland and then transitioned over here to be mayor on July 14, 2020. We were in the middle still of the COVID shutdown. Things had just started to open up a little bit at the time and I remember us trying to figure out how to set up chairs for the inauguration while still meeting the COVID restrictions that we had and what was going to be allowed and what was not going to be allowed. I remember on election night we had people in my garage because we couldn’t have people inside. It was just an interesting time. We were still, everyone had to wear masks inside. We could be outside social distance. It was just one of those times that all of the information was still new and I remember the day that I took office. I came in and I sat with you know then council president Elizabeth Kazinskas who was the acting mayor at the time in the office and just for the first two, two and a half hours went through everything. We went department by department and issue by issue and press release after press release that came about the pandemic and the restrictions and the upcoming regulations and everything like that and just went through everything from the last six months that you know that previous former city council and then previous acting mayor Jim Walsh had and then when Councilor Kazinskas just took over as acting mayor what the two of them had dealt with even in terms of how things are running in city hall and the hours that our offices were open. So it was very different than what we have now for sure and then the next question was is we don’t know when, we didn’t know when at the time the COVID vaccines were going to be released but we know that they were coming so let’s start drilling our mass vaccination events now and figuring out the plans for those now so that when they happen it’s just let’s execute not think through it and it was one of those things that we really had to just think outside the box a lot because we didn’t know what was happening next but looking back now and what doesn’t feel like five years later some days and what feels like it’s 10 years later other days I’m really happy that I got to start out my time as mayor at a time that I had to think critically think so often and think outside the box so often and really you know find that way to creatively come up with the solutions for the ideas that we the problems we’re dealing with and not just the solution for plan a but all the way through plan z because I feel like I’ve carried that with me over the last five years even after the pandemic situation that we were in with a lot of the different projects and proposals that have come across the desk.
Question: Is the word proactive accurate?
Answer: I think it definitely set us up to be proactive for the rest of the time for sure.
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