OUR ENVIRONMENT NEEDS MORE LOCAL REPORTING
The Concord Monitor is launching its Environmental Reporting Lab, a long-term effort to better inform the community about the New Hampshire environment. To launch phase 1 of this effort, we need your help. The money raised will go toward hiring a full-time environmental reporter.
Please consider donating to this effort.
The City of Concord has no plans to require its employees to wear masks inside city buildings, as other New Hampshire municipalities approve mask ordinances this month.
Citing rising rates of COVID and increased strain on hospital capacity, governments in Keene, Nashua and Exeter have voted in the last few weeks to renew mask mandates for all indoor public spaces. Meanwhile, the state’s courts have suspended all jury trials for the next month due to the spread of the virus.
Manchester alderman passed a resolution on Tuesday requiring masks in all city buildings, the Union Leader reported.
Concord’s City Council will consider a mask ordinance that would apply to retail businesses at a council meeting on Jan. 3, following a public comment period.
Concord City Manager Tom Aspell said he will wait for the council to make a decision before taking action to require masks in city buildings, in order to keep messaging consistent.
Ward 10 Councilor Zandra Rice Hawkins said it was important the City Council approve a mask ordinance in January to lower community transmission and allow residents to safely move around the city.
“We know that universal masking is a simple, effective way to reduce the spread of COVID. Especially as we deal with crisis-level hospital shortages and medical community burnout amid the latest COVID surge, we all need to do our part,” Rice Hawkins said in a statement to the Monitor. She noted that during the previous mask ordinance, masks were required in municipal buildings as well.
In August, signs were posted outside buildings like City Hall and the Concord Public Library recommending that masks be worn inside, regardless of vaccination status.
“It’s been the same since August,” said Aspell. “We tried to get out in front of it, to just make it natural.” He said masks were encouraged in late summer to get ahead of the new cases that could be expected to emerge in the fall and winter.
Across the state, COVID hospitalizations have reached record heights in the last week, with 11.6% of hospital beds and 4.7% of ICU beds available.
“We’re in the peak of what we’ve been warning folks about since last August,” Gov. Chris Sununu said last week as part of a weekly press briefing on COVID-19. “We always knew this would be very challenging.”
New Hampshire Superior Court Justice Tina Nadeau announced Wednesday that Superior Court jury trials and grand juries would be paused through January because of rising COVID-19 cases.
Throughout Concord public schools, masks are required to be worn by teachers and students except during lunch times.
Aspell said he sees most city employees and visitors wearing masks, especially staff in public-facing roles. In offices like the Assessing Department and the Planning Division, city workers sit behind sheets of plexiglass. Aspell said that the city has good ventilation systems in place.
“When I walk into the hallways, for the most part, I see people wearing masks,” he said. “In terms of enforcement of something like that, I just don’t think that we’re at that point.”
In City Hall on Wednesday, mask-wearing was inconsistent among the few staff in the building on a wet, icy morning.
“It’s still a personal preference right now,” one unmasked city employee said from behind a plastic shield.
The city does not require its staff to be vaccinated against COVID, nor is it tracking how many have received shots.
Kimberly Kirkland, a Concord resident who wrote to the council in support of a mask ordinance for local businesses, believes the city should require masks inside its own buildings.
“For a bare minimum, if I have to do business with my city government, I don’t want to take risks to do that,” Kirkland said.
Kirkland and her husband own a law firm together. They required their employees to be vaccinated and get booster shots if they wanted to return to the office in person.
“I think the places where the citizenry are most protected are the places where the city government is the most proactive,” Kirkland said. “We’ve witnessed what happened when the state government hasn’t been proactive.”
It remains up to Concord’s 600 or so public employees to make decisions about masks and vaccines for themselves, even when they are on the clock.
“I think when people act in a responsible manner, which I believe they are, then I believe we’re doing a good job,” Aspell said. “I don’t think there’s a need to require mandatory vaccinations or boosters.”
Cassidy Jensen has been a reporter at the Monitor, covering the city of Concord and criminal justice, since July 2021. Previously, she was a fellow at the Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia University, where she earned a master's degree. Her work has been published in Documented, THE CITY, Washington City Paper and Street Sense Media. When she's not at City Council meetings, you can find her hiking in the White Mountains.
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — In 2008, when the Right Rev. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire was excluded from a global Anglican gathering because of his...
Grace Kirkpatrick isn’t like most her age, especially when it comes to free time.Most high schoolers would rather hang out with friends, play video...
The City of Concord has no plans to require its employees to wear masks inside city buildings, as other New Hampshire municipalities approve mask...
Keke’s Dream LGBTQ+ sits in a corner of the Mall of New Hampshire next to Gamestop, among a variety of clothing, food, and memorabilia outlets. It...