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All steamed up over smoke shop

By Dean Shalhoup - Senior Staff Writer | Jan 22, 2022

(Telegraph photo by DEAN SHALHOUP) The Planning Board has approved the proposal to turn the former Poor Pierre's diner into a smoke shop, but leaders of the Adult Learning Center, at left, have expressed concerns over the close proximity of the shop to the agency's children's playgrounds

NASHUA – For going on 40 years now, the Nashua Adult Learning Center has made a point of being a good neighbor, amicably coexisting with longtime downtown landmark Poor Pierre’s diner on one side, residential property on the other, and the Shell gas station across the street.

Care was taken in selecting the most appropriate type of fencing, an obvious necessity for an agency that serves clients ranging in age from toddlers on up who utilize the center’s playground every day.

Now, however, the center’s leadership is concerned, for the first time anyone can remember, that their newest neighbor may not be an ideal fit for the neighborhood.

Nonetheless, the city Planning Board earlier this month approved, on a 4-2 vote, businessman Zafar Chaudhary’s change-of-use application that allows him to move forward with his plan to turn the Poor Pierre’s building into a so-called smoke shop, a use that has worried not only Adult Learning Center personnel, but child wellness advocates and substance use disorder professionals as well.

Voting in favor were board chairman Scott Leclair, vice chairman Adam Varley, and members Larry Hirsch and Bob Bollinger. Members Mark Meehan and Maggie Harper case no votes.

Central to the opponents’ concerns is the proposed smoke shop’s close proximity to the

center’s playground, which puts the store and its customers coming and going in view of children as young as 2-5 years old.

Secondary concerns include the visibility of the shop to the scores of middle school age kids who walk right by the store on their way to and from Elm Street Middle School, and increased traffic they say will be compounded by customers making left-hand turns out of the shop’s parking lot just yards from the already busy intersection of Main and Lake streets.

While the applicant, who was joined at the meeting by the project manager, Katherine Weiss, of Bedford Design Consultants, agreed to some stipulations, such as opening no earlier than 9 a.m., working with ALC officials to upgrade fencing, and improving the portions of the parking lot by creating some green space, several opponents of the project still raised concerns.

Among them was ALC director Carol Baldwin, who noted that many of the agency’s teenage clients are “coping with other challenges, such as poverty or homelessness, and many lack a strong parent, making them more susceptible to the lure of advertising — particularly for tobacco products,” she said.

Baldwin cited studies that she said show accessibility and advertising are primary factors associated with youth tobacco use. Vaping, she added, is fast becoming a problem in New Hampshire, where “electronic vaping by teens is among the highest rate in the nation.”

The approval, Baldwin said later, “felt like a step backward … it was very discouraging.”

She said she and a number of other stakeholders are working with city officials hoping to come up with some type of city legislation that would tighten the application process for smoke shops and similar businesses.

“We’re trying to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” Baldwin said. “I never wanted to become the poster child for ‘don’t let this happen to you.’ “

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.

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