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UR EAN DESIGN assocrates Nashua Downtown Master Plan

Iv Railroad Square

RAILROAD SQUARE 18 AN urban design landmark located at the 50
confluence of four regional arterials. With four high-volume
arterials converging into a small area bound on one side by

water, Railroad Square performs admirably, as it delicately bal-
ances the heavy impacts of regional through-traffic on all four
arterials with an environment that is surprisingly pedestrian-
friendly. The challenge of Railroad Square will be to establish

it as Main Street’s northernmost retail node, while maintaining

its status as an historic pedestrian-friendly place.

a ' WA Railroad Square

DESIGN ASSOCIATES

Development Opportunities
Most of the buildings on Railroad
Square are worthy of preservation. While
several buildings may be renovated, one
site is identified for new construction. It
is important that new construction as
well as renovation adhere to strict archi-
tectural design guidelines, based on
Nashua’s historic architectural traditions.

The most important renovation proj-
ect will be the Laton Hotel. Specifically,
the striking double-level porch should be
restored

In order for Railroad Square to real-
ize its potential as Main Street’s north-
ernmost retail node, additional parking
resources will be required. The Master
Plan identifies four possible locations for
parking structures that could serve the
businesses at Railroad Square, as well as

other uses.

Nashua Downtown Master Plan

Veterans Park 51
Ifa new parking structure is built for

Railroad Square businesses, the parking

lot defining the north edge of Deschene’s

should be rebuilt as a through lane with

on-street parking. It should be built as

narrow as possible to discourage cut-

through traffic, yet define the park more

clearly and publicly.

Laton Hotel

The full front porch of
the Laton Hotel should
be restored to its

original elegance.

Riverfront West
and Railroad
Square Parking
Four potential sites for
a parking structure are
identified (as dotted
bowes}.. The structure
must serve both the
redevelopment of the
Nashua Corporation
buildings, as well as

Railroad Square.

UR EAN DESIGN assocrates Nashua Downtown Master Plan

v. Main Street North

MAIN STREET NORTH 18 healthy. Also referred to as “walking 52
Main Street”, there are almost no retail vacancies, sidewalks are
active, and there is a vibrant mix of retail, offices and restau-

rants. Behind Main Street on both sides, however, significant
attention is required. The seam between the neighborhoods

and Main Street North is ragged. Spring Street and Elm Street

are characterized by disinvestment, surface parking lots, and

unpaired and confusing one-way streets.

7 Main Street North

UREAN

DESIGN ASSOCIATES

Streetscaping

Maintenance and upgrades to the
streetscape of Main Street is critical.
Begun in the early 1980's, the streetscape
program has been a great success. The
comfortably wide sidewalks, warm red
bricks, and the canopy of street trees cre-
ate a pedestrian environment that has
been instrumental in Main Street’s resur-

gence over the past 15 years. However,

Nashua Downtown Master Plan

some sidewalk bricks have been dis-

lodged and many of the street furnish-
ings are either historically inappropriate,
poorly located, or in general disrepair.

Basic upkeep and selective improve-
ments to the streetscape on Main Street
North are as critical today as the intro-
duction of these standards 20 years ago.
If the public sector falls behind in its

responsibility, the private sector will not

Main Street North 53
A Main Street North
Streetscaping

B Relocation of Joanne’
Kitchen

C Spring Street
Institutional Spine

D Citizen's Bank site

E New Nashua
Commons

F SENHMC
expansion

G Redevelopment of
existing buildings

Main Street North

URBAN DESIGN ASSOCIATES

Benches

Several benches along
Main Street are poorly
located. Benches that
face traffic or are located
in the middle of
sidewalks are rarely
used, Where possible,
benches should either be
paired, facing each
other, or they should be
located with their backs
to storefronts.

Diagrams
Inappropriate bench
location (below left}

Appropriate bench
location (below right}

re-invest. The Master Plan therefore rec-
ommends pursuing a responsible mainte-
nance and upgrade program for

streetscaping on Main Street North as an
early action item for the City. At a mini-

mum, “responsible maintenance” should

include annual inspection of sidewalk

Nashua Downtown Master Plan

conditions following the spring thaw and 54
immediate replacement of damaged

pavers. In addition, the City should con-

sider utilizing a more delicate sidewalk

sweeper, one that does not damage the

pavers as it cleans them.

Pavers and grates on
Main Street in need of

replacement

DESIGN ASSOCIATES

Pedestrian Connectivity
The Library Walk is a great success. It
provides pedestrian access through
Nashua's long blocks to destinations
located one block behind Main Street.
More such connections are required in
order to connect and stimulate invest-
ment along Spring and Elm Streets.
The Master Plan recommends creat-
ing five additional through-block pedes-
trian connections: two on the interior of
buildings, and three exterior. The exterior
pedestrian paths should be public, well-
lit, and modeled after the successful
Library Walk. The interior paths require
partnerships with private building own-
ers. They should be integrated with the
interior circulation through a lobby or

public corridor.

Hollis and Main Street Intersection:
The Region’s 100% Corner

‘There is no more important intersection
to redevelop in Nashua than the intersec-
tion of Hollis and Main Streets. The
intersection is the region's “100% corner,”
as it creates gateways to Main Street
from the east and west and south.

All four corners of this intersection
are currently underutilized and under-
performing. In a City with limited avail-
able land and relatively low-scale
buildings, three of the four corners pres-
ent opportunities to add significant
square footage to the Downtown inven-
tory of office, retail, institutional, and
cultural space without creating an inap-
propriately sized building. Downtown's
largest new buildings should be sited at

Nashua Downtown Master Plan

A Through an existing 55
building

B In place of the
relocated Joanne’s
Kitchen

CA new lane beside
relocated parking

D Along side of the
church

E Through new
Downtown common
F An extension of the
rail trail

New Pedestrian
Connections
Several new pedestrian
connections (similar to
Library Walk and
shown in red) should be
created to improve the
permeability of Main
Street’ long blocks,

Board of Aldermen 3-10-2020 Page 30
Alderman Tencza

I’m all set thank you.

Alderman Lopez

| want to express my condolences to Selectman Laughton. Lisa was a very strong presence in the
community, she was well-liked. There were many, many community events where she was parked there
with her wheelchair, she had the little dog, she’s going to be greatly missed.

| also want to say | appreciate the courage that it took to come forward. | know for some of us politicians
you might be like “what” all of these things just got thrown at us at once. But it takes a lot to open yourself
up in that particular way. It takes a huge amount of courage to admit publicly that you did some things you
aren’t proud of and | respect that. | respect that you did apologize and | admire the strength that you are
demonstrating here and your commitment to moving forward. | also appreciate your advocacy for people
who are struggling with mental health issues because sometimes it is difficult, especially wnen we are
dealing with a sudden loss or we don’t know exactly what is going on around us, to act the way that the
public expects us to. | think you are a very good champion for that; you are wearing my heart on your
sleeve. | don’t think this Board appreciates that.

Alderman Clemons

My colleague Alderman Lopez said it probably better than | could. But let me give you my deepest
condolences and | accept your apology.

Alderwoman Kelly

| also wanted to thank you for your comments, it definitely is a lot of courage to get up share what is going
on and that you are hopeful for the future. | am sorry for the loss of your wife. But | also appreciated your
comments in the beginning around the title change it’s a small victory (inaudible).

Alderman Klee

| am sorry for your loss. | know it’s not easy to lose someone. | also just want to make a comment about
the budget and everything that the Mayor shared with us. | know that the Administrative Director has been
working very hard on the health care issues, and trying to do everything she can to get that cost down. |
look forward to the Budget Hearings and | look forward and to see what changes we need to make and |
know everybody is trying to cut their budget as much as possible and it'll be our job to kind of look at it.
Thank you so much.

Alderman O’Brien

| would just like to again express my condolences. | knew Lisa as you know over the years from the
O’Brien Family, our deepest condolences.

Alderman Harriott-Gathright

Same here Stacie, you’ve got my deepest condolences. | knew Lisa as well and | remember sitting in the
car together and making it up to Portsmouth and other places that we’ve been. | wasn’t aware that she had
passed so | just heard this tonight, so | am truly sorry.

Alderman Schmidt

A loss is hard, thank you for sharing it with us.

Board of Aldermen 3-10-2020 Page 31
Alderman Jette

| know that some people will be celebrating the Feast Day of a Minor Saint. But also next week we will be
celebrating the Feast Day of a giant of the Church, a patron of the Church, of course | am speaking of St.

Joseph. So to all of the people who will be celebrating the Feast Day of the Minor Saint and for the Great
Patron Saint, St. Joseph my best wishes.

Alderwoman Lu
Stacie | am very sorry for your loss. | didn’t know your wife but | am sorry.

| just want to share with you just that the Arts Commission met today and they are, a couple thing things,
they are sponsoring a workshop at Nashua Public Library April 1° and it is being run by Ginnie Lupi who is
the Director of the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts. It is how to advocate for arts in your
community. They are re-doing their arts (inaudible) plan. And Community Music School is also holding a
great concert with their staff and students. And also Oasis meets at Alpine Grove on April 18".

President Wilshire

Without objection, | would like to apologize to Alderman Lopez. Thank you Alderman Lopez, I'll try harder
next time. Stacie, | too extend my condolences to you. | know that it was a terrible loss for you but you
know we are proud of you getting up here and speaking about your future and | wish you well.

Committee announcements:
Alderman Dowd

Ok we have received the bible or the holy grail on the budget. You all should have received with a cover
memo the schedule for the Budget Review so the different departments. We will also be having other
Budget Meetings to discuss things referred to Budget, because these tend to be complete evenings. Also,
we are changing a few things this year. One thing is John Griffin, he and | put together some notes on,
especially for the new people on how to interpret the different colored pages in the book. The other thing
that is going to be done is Mr. Griffin and Mr. Fredette are going to discuss all the revenues at one time.

As you recall in the past, when we came to a Department we would talk to the appropriations and the
revenue separately on each Department. We are not doing that this year; we are only going to be talking
about the appropriations. There will be more coming out at the first Budget Meeting. Also, there should be
a date, because these change, you know? The City keeps moving and things happen and things change.
So always be sure that you have the latest version and it is fine to study the book. The other more
important thing is if you have a question that you want to ask one of the Department Heads from many of
the Departments in the City, please ask that question through Donna. When the answer comes back to
Donna, she will share it not only with Budget Committee but everybody on the Board. | would prefer and
sort of insist that you don’t go directly to those Departments individually because everyone should have the
same information as we go through the Budget, alright? And if you have any questions, just let me know.

ADJOURNMENT

MOTION BY ALDERMAN O’BRIEN THAT THE MARCH 10, 2020, MEETING OF THE BOARD OF
ALDERMEN BE ADJOURNED

MOTION CARRIED

The meeting was declared adjourned at 9:28 p.m.

Attest: Susan K. Lovering, City Clerk

City of Nashua

Human Resources Department
229 Main Street - Nashua, NH 03060

MEMORANDUM
To: Board of Aldermen
From: Larry Budreau, Human Resources Director
Ce: Mayor Donchess

Kim Kleiner, Administrative Services Director
Subject: UAW Professional Work Schedule & Pay Practices

Date: March 9, 2020

Nashua resident Laurie Ortolano addressed the Personnel / Administrative Affairs Committee on
Monday March 2. She expressed interest in a segment of the Police Department’s
intradepartmental Communication regarding the Nashua Assessing Department Investigation.

“As a salaried employee Turgiss is entitled to his salary regardless of the actual hours he works as
long as he works at some point during a pay period.”

Ms. Ortolano read a section of the UAW Professional Unit collective bargaining agreement.
Focusing on “the nermal work schedule shall consist of five (5) consecutive eight (8) hour work
days,” she questioned apparently conflicting information. Why does the union contract describe a
40-hour workweek and the Police memo state that “as a salaried employee Turgiss is entitled to his
salary regardless of the actual hours he works as long as he works at some point during a pay
period?”

Discussion

At the March 2 Committee meeting Alderman Tencza correctly cited the New Hampshire statute
that is the basis for the remark in the PD memo. Please note the first sentence of the statute.

275:43-b Payment of Salaried Employees. -
{. Asalaried employee shall receive full salary for any pay period in which such employee performs
any work without regard to the number of days or hours Worked ........:.sesceseceeeeeeeeees

Source. 1994, 290:4. 2004, 145:1, eff. Jan. 1, 2005.

-Mr-Furgiss-confirmed Ms: Ortolano’s-allegation that he frequently took a lunch break for more than

an hour in April 2019. Correspondingly, he generally arrived at work 45 minutes to an hour early

and sometimes worked beyond 5:00 PM. Neither the City’s administrative investigation nor the
Police Department's investigation concluded that Mr. Turgiss’s schedule constituted theft of wages.

Ms. Ortolano’s implied allegation or speculation that Nashua’s salaried employees don’t work a full
work week is not valid in general nor for Mr. Turgiss. The normal schedule for most of the City’s
administrative functions is comprised of five 8-hour days that coincide with the hours that City Hall
is open for business. (8 to 5, Monday through Friday.) That is generally, at minimum, when
Nashua’s salaried employees work. The City would not allow employees to routinely work less. In
fact, had either investigation concluded that Mr. Turgiss’ work performance or attendance was
inadequate, he may have been subject to disciplinary action.