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Special Board of Aldermen 03-15-2021 Page 6

weigh in on this amendment. The amendment basically made it explicit which | think everyone understood
to be implicit from the 2019 document which was to consolidate all the hazardous waste material that was
in and along the various sites into the Mohawk Tannery Site. Because of the way the EPA is organized,
they were only looking at the site very specifically at the “Mohawk Tannery Site” and environmental
remediation that would be necessary. So this made it explicit that it would actually be more than just the
Mohawk Tannery Site as the current plan suggests.

To move this project forward, the private sector developer, Blaylock Holdings, has represented that they
would take on the remediation. They have entered into an agreement with the EPA where the EPA is
provided something like $6 million dollars in assistance so they can do the environmental remediation. My
understanding and some recent communication has just come into my office. On Friday we got an update
from Blaylock Holdings, | haven’t had a change yet to review it. But it has always been discussed
previously that there would be something like 50,000 square feet of commercial activity on the site, in terms
of retail or other type of uses and then somewhere around 250 to 300 units of apartments. That was
essentially the broad stroke uses that they would like to envision on the 30-ish acres. My understanding is
that is still the current thought process or something to that degree or in that realm. And then the question
has always come up because, just the idea of the cost for the cleanup being somewhere between $8 to $10
million dollars and | question whether that is even a truly flushed out figure. But going with that number and
understanding the EPA is willing to commit somewhere around $6 million dollars, there’s a gap and using
the high end, and just saying $10; there’s a gap that needs to be filled.

We had always previously represented that the City would be interested in some sort of small participation
through a TIF and | am looking just to get some direction tonight to make sure that | am still in good stead
to continue to represent that. There are more questions than probably answers at this point; | want to make
that really clear for everyone. This is an on-going conversation, when | originally started down this path
most recently with the Memo just a couple of weeks ago, it was really just to get the ball started to let this
Board know that coming over the next months or even a year, somewhere in '21, somewhere in '22 this
conversation was going to progress and get more substantial and substantive. | thought that that this would
just be a good time to start the conversation so | could continue representing what the wishes may be of
the Board of Aldermen and the Administration and try to progress the project if that was still something that
this body desired. So I'll leave my comments there. | am hoping to open it up to a little bit of a Q&A and,
again, just remind folks that there may be a lot of questions that | don’t have answers to yet but we are
working through that.

| guess one other comment | would like to make is | Know some members of this body have reached out to
me and asked me specific questions. | have held off on responding to some of those questions because |
don’t have those answers. Particularly, | just want to just say Alderwoman Elizabeth Lu reached out to me
to ask me specifically who would be responsible for the difference in the cleanup costs and that’s the exact
question that | want to have tonight, | want to have a discussion on tonight is how do we want to frame that
conversation? What is the expectations? Who is going to be the responsible parties? And | think that’s a
bigger conversation than any 1, 2 or 3 people and it is predicated on this body providing some feedback to
me. So, thank you, Madam Chair.

President Wilshire
Thank you. Alderman Lopez?

Alderman Lopez

Yeah, earlier you said that you were trying to do this briefing so that we would be able to participate in
public comment. | believe that is closed as of Saturday, not that the Alderman can’t comment whenever
they want, but | just figured | would share that with everybody.

Special Board of Aldermen 03-15-2021 Page 7

President Wilshire
OK, anyone have any questions for Director Cummings? Alderman Clemons?
Alderman Clemons

OK, thank you, Madam President. That Mohawk Tannery Site has been unfortunately linked to my family
for years. And | suspect that it has to do with some of the negative health effects that a lot of my family has
had over the years just by the fact that a lot of them grew up there, lived in that neighborhood in either little
Florida or Fairmount Heights. Just being around that, | think, there’s a lot of people in that neighborhood
that have issues with their health; cancer, different things like that. So | definitely want to see the site
cleaned up. | am hesitant, however, to use — it’s one of those things where you want to have the site
cleaned up but you also regret the fact that the people that made the mess aren't the ones paying,
especially where it hits a lot of people right at home.

The other thing that | question is whether or not it would make sense to actually build more homes in that
area given the fact that there is such a significant, in my opinion, there are significant health risks to just
living there. And | don’t know that we could guarantee and these are the things that | would want to see, is
what kind of guarantees are in place that stuff, whatever they bury there, is going to remain buried and
what is the action plan if in the future it starts to leak or something like that. What are the measures 100
years from now when it starts to leak and then what is built around there? Do people have to move in order
for us to be able to go into a site like that and prevent it from leaking in the future? These are answers that
| don’t think that we can truly answer and unfortunately until we can get some solid answers on stuff like
that, | would certainly not be in favor of putting more houses in an area like that. To me, | am all for
cleaning it up but we have to be responsible in the way that we do it and we have to make sure that we
have a plan for the future and | mean years and years and years down the road that there is money set
aside, you know, that there’s a clear defined plan of what to do if something was to go wrong with the site
after it has been capped. So | would need to see those types of details in order to support anything really
to that site.

Director Cummings

Thank you for that feedback. | think that those are really good points.

Mayor Donchess

And Alderman Clemons, that’s one thing that we have been talking with the EPA about and DES from the
State. Who is going to monitor this? Who is responsible if there is the type of situation you described, of
some leakage. It’s downhill to the river and uphill to the neighborhood so if there is leakage it is very likely
it would be not towards the neighborhood but towards the river. They say that this is all pretty dormant and
maybe they are right but still there needs to be a monitoring and plan. We’ve made it clear that the City
does not wish to take over that responsibility and that it needs to be either DES or the EPA.

President Wilshire
Is there something they can do when they cap these lagoons like they do when the cap asbestos? | mean

they have monitoring wells and stuff like that. Is there something they can do there with that; the same kind
of process?

Director Cummings

That’s my understanding is there would be active monitoring occurring and annual inspections and my
understanding is an active management plan. My understanding is part of the EPA and DES regulations
will make that explicitly clear; the maintenance of it and the ongoing assurance that we are getting what is

Special Board of Aldermen 03-15-2021 Page 8

outlined in the regulations is still something that | want to learn more about so | don’t misrepresent anything
to this body. | have my concerns, no doubt but it is definitely something that | know the EPA, DES and
Blaylock is very well aware of.

President Wilshire
Thank you. Alderman Tencza?
Alderman Tencza

Thank you, Madam President. Director Cummings, just asking a question about the TIF. | assume that the
idea is to establish a TIF to support a bond to make up for the City’s contribution to this project. Is that how
it works similar to the Performing Arts Center.

Director Cummings

Yes, if may? Yes, in theory that’s how it would work. No negotiations have occurred, nothing like that has
happened it’s been all very high level in terms of what tools would be available at the Federal Level, even
at the State Level, the question was asked and then at the local level. And obviously the readily tool that
we have available is the TIF and | think that is something that we had 2 or 3 years ago suggested would be
something we would be willing to entertain and that’s something we had a small appetite for. But we also
made it very clear that this was a public/private partnership where we had every expectation that it would
be the Federal Government, the EPA, the Developer and the City itself participating if we were to go this
route. That is what was represented to me and to the Mayor and to others on City staff when this
conversation started some 36 months ago or thereabouts.

| can’t begin to speak to how big the TIF will be. | can’t begin to speak to how we would structure it. Those
are all things that we would need to figure out. | am just looking to find out is this something we want to
actually continue talking about and have on the table for discussion. What | know is | need to ask for a lot
of additional information from Blaylock Holdings. | have asked for some of this information previously but for
me to able to make a recommendation to you and to the Mayor, | need some due diligence and some data
to provide that. For instance, sources and uses, how is this deal actually going to be structured financially?
What is the return on equity that one would be projecting? What’s the RR? These standard real estate
type of calculations | think | have a responsibility to do so that | can represent to you but for this type of tool,
this project wouldn’t move forward. And that’s really what | need to make sure | can do so everyone has a
comfort level in providing the type of financial support that may be necessary.

Alderman Tencza

Just as a follow-up Madam President, if | may. And | think you understand it is tough for us to take a
position on a TIF without really knowing what level of bonding would be necessary and what the, well |
guess what the return to the City would be. My feelings on the issue, and | appreciate you bringing this
forward to us and having this conversation, | think that’s an important piece of property for the City to make
active again. | think they are called the secant walls that the EPA is proposing, actually does a better job of
containing the sludge then is being contained right now. So | am optimistic about this project and | am
hoping we can have more information before we make any final decisions on it. Thanks.

Director Cummings
Agree.
Alderman O’Brien

Thank you, Madam President. Director Cummings, you mentioned that they are going to remove the
lagoons and try to make it into one. We are talking about two different sites. | don’t want to say

Special Board of Aldermen 03-15-2021 Page 9

“unfortunately” but | had many dealings with that area over in my previous career, traversed it. As you
know, the topography in some places there’s some pretty good valleys going down to the river and stuff like
that. Would removal of the top soil that is contaminated, would that be used to smooth out the topography
that is currently, naturally there right now? Would that be in turn, in such a way, become a buildable area
with that base underneath.

Director Cummings

| don’t know Alderman O’Brien whether the top soil or not, or where that top soil is that you’re talking about.
| think anything that has contaminated soil has been represented to be part of the encapsulated area. So |
think everything, as | understand it, everything in the site is “contaminated” and again | am going to define
the site, the project site is Mohawk Tannery, Fimbel Door and partially some of the City’s right-of-way which
has asbestos on it, would all get consolidated into a certain area and get capped. My understanding is this
capped area is significant, 2 to 2 ’ acres would all get consolidated in one area with the theory being you’d
have some usable land to develop.

Alderman O’Brien
Follow-up if | may Madam President?
President Wilshire
Alderman O’Brien.
Alderman O’Brien

| don’t know, someday if you want we’ll go for a walk through it. But from what | remember there are a
couple of valley and stuff like that. But | would like to share Alderman Tencza’s anticipation. Right now if
we don’t do anything with this, it is not going to go away. The thing is we have a good history with the old
Sylvester Facility that is off of Gilson Road. That was something that we did receive the Superfund help
with. But there’s been no leakage, as a matter of fact, the area is greatly improved and so | think the EPA
does have a way in dealing with a lot of this. It would be probably great to see this area come back,
particularly for the health of the neighborhood as mentioned by Alderman Clemons. Thank you.

President Wilshire
Alderman Dowd?
Alderman Dowd

Yes. A couple of things. A few of us attended the EPA briefings back in the day and they provided how
they would encapsulate all of this material. They've done it several places and it was a fairly safe way of
encapsulating it. They basically build a damn around the area and pour the material in and it can’t leak out.
| understand that the EPA would be monitoring it and it would become their responsibility. And then they
cap it. | think that perhaps it might be a good idea to get that briefing one more time because we have a lot
of new people who haven't seen it.

The other thing is that this whole project won’t go anywhere if we don’t allow the developer to develop the
property after they encapsulate the material because otherwise why would he spend that money? My other
concern is, and | don’t know if we have ever considered it, | know we keep talking about it is going to tie
into the Broad Street Parkway or Veteran’s Parkway if we get that far. But have we thought about is it
going to be a stop sign, a traffic light? Have we done a traffic study as to what we think the number of cars
would be? That will have to be done at some point, probably not right this minute, that would have to be
done at some point because | think from the discussions we had, including the Tamposi piece that there
could be a lot of traffic coming out that area and it might have to be a traffic light. Well, who is paying for it?

Special Board of Aldermen 03-15-2021 Page 10

Who is paying for the enhanced intersection? | am guessing that if it is not part of the project it is going to
become part of a budget item so | just wonder if that’s been covered or not?

President Wilshire

Director Cummings?

Director Cummings

Yes, thank you. So no that hasn’t been covered yet but | think it is a good point that | want to just kind of hit
upon. Right now on the Broad Street Parkway there is only one access point. It is what is referred to as a
limited access roadway. It has always been planned that “curb cut” would happen in one designated area
which just so happens to be right along where the Fimbel Door and the City’s right-of-way is. And | know it
is the intention of Blaylock to construct a roadway that could accommodate the development that they are
talking about and they are anticipating. We, as a City, have also from a long-term planning perspective told
them that we need to make sure that we also anticipate other type of development happing at the site so
we don’t preclude ourselves from any type of future development that might not be done by Blaylock itself.

Studies to get us that far and what type of infrastructure, how much cost has not been done yet. | do think
that Blaylock will represent to us that they want us, the City, to entertain all that type of infrastructure
investment. So that’s going to be a conversation to be had for sure as the conversation moves on. And |
suspect it will be a negotiating point as we continue, if we continue. And that is something that we should
be thinking about and should be in the back of our mind.

Madam President, | do want to just touch upon one comment that Alderman Dowd made when he first
started his comments which he mentioned that the EPA is going to “do the monitoring”. | just want to clarify
for the record, the EPA cannot do the monitoring. My understanding is the DES has the responsibility of
doing the monitoring or other entities not the EPA. And in this instance, my understanding is they actually
have the onus of the “monitoring” happening with Blaylock itself. So Blaylock has, as | understand it,
agreed to do the monitoring and the operations and the on-going oversight of that area which | think is a
little bit of a concern and | have raised this with everyone so far. And | think it is something that that we are
going to need to continue to talk about moving forward. But DES has indicated that they are not going to
take on the onus of it. EPA is precluded from doing it; and the City has also said that we are not interested
in taking on the O&M.

Alderman Dowd
Quick follow-up?
President Wilshire
Alderman Dowd?
Alderman Dowd

| guess that would be one thing we need to nail down is who is going to do the monitoring. Based on what |
had seen from those presentations | don’t know if we have the local expertise to do that. So that would
either be a cost to the City if it’s not being picked up by somebody else. The other thing is the newer
members of the Board may not realize the Tamposi’s have a piece of land that they haven’t been able to
develop because they haven't had street access. But if this is opened up to the Broad Street Parkway, they
would have access and there would be that development as well, which from a tax standpoint would be
good because there’s a lot of tax on property there that add to our tax base. These are a lot of things that
were in presentation previously that perhaps we ought to resurrect.

Special Board of Aldermen 03-15-2021 Page 11

Director Cummings

And if | may, Madam President, | just want to clarify, so there is money as | understand it, set aside to do
the ongoing O&M, it is just who will do it and access that (audio cuts out) is | think the question to be had.
And, of course, one of my concerns is enforcement. If we see the O&M is with the EPA or the DES and the
City of Nashua doesn’t have the ability to enforce it, we are the ones that have to live with it. So if
something happens we want to make sure that we have some strong oversight on that front. So, again, this
is a subject area that is going to need more conversation so everyone gets to a comfort level. But it is one
that | want everyone to be aware of.

President Wilshire

Thank you. Alderwoman Kelly.

Alderwoman Kelly

Thank you Alderman Wilshire. Actually Alderman Dowd beat me to it but | was going to ask if there was a
possibility for either the EPA or Blaylock to give us a similar presentation that they did to the neighborhood,
there was a neighborhood discussion maybe a year ago. Does that sound about right? | know Alderman
Tencza was there. But they got into a lot of specifics and it sounds like it would be nice for some of us to
get a refresher on sort of what the plan is. | kind of echo a lot of what has been said in terms of wanting a
refresher on what the plan is, sort of a little bit more detail around what that difference between what the
EPA is bringing forward and what the City would have to cover before really committing to any sort of
funding tax incremental finance district or anything like that.

Director Cummings

Thank you, Alderwoman Kelly. So just to be clear, the plan — so there’s a couple different plans. The one |
think you were just referencing is the plan that the EPA put out their EE/CA and their preferred alternative
in which they have, they have provided 3 or 4 scenarios and alternatives and then one rose to the top. And
that is the alternative that Blaylock Holdings would have to execute on. Now my understand is Blaylock
Holdings has represented that he can do it cheaper and that company can do it cheaper than the EPA so
there’s a cost savings there. And so we definitely need to have, | think, multiple conversations; one with
the EPA as suggested and | can ask them to come in and give a briefing similar to what they did with the
neighborhood and then that’s one plan. And then the question is, is do we want to move forward with the
Blaylock proposal or plan with the development to be able to execute on it.

| think the only way you are going to see movement if it is through this public/private type partnership
because the EPA has represented that if this goes the traditional route, this site would be lower on the list

compared to all of the other contaminated sites across the country. So that is one of the reasons why they
have this interest in pursuing this type of alternative.

Alderwoman Kelly
If | could follow-up, Alderman Wilshire?
President Wilshire

Alderwoman Kelly.

Special Board of Aldermen 03-15-2021 Page 12

Alderwoman Kelly

Yes, thank you. | mean | think it would be appropriate to hear from them again especially | wasn’t aware
that there was an alternative to the EPA doing it. | would like to know sort of what are the risks and again
the monitoring piece if the EPA isn’t the one executing their plan. So | definitely think more information is
key here. But! do believe that this neighborhood has waited a very long time to have this cleaned up and
we have quite a few community members who have been very vocal on this and | think we should prioritize
cleaning this up but making sure we are being safe about how we do it and fair about how we do it.
Because as one of the Aldermen before me said, ideally the company that made the mess would clean it
up but that company is no longer there and this is still a piece of our City.

President Wilshire
Next | have Alderman Schmidt?
Alderman Schmidt

Thank you, Madam President. This is such a complicated issue, all the puzzle pieces have to come
together at the right time and the right place that that piece of land is so valuable to this City. If we could
clean it, that’s a real benefit. If we could business in there, that’s another good benefit. | just have a
specific ask for Director Cummings. Could you gather all the data that we have on this project and put it in
one place where we can go and do our own research on it? | Know there’s some maps that were out there,
there were some plans that we could see. But | don’t have them all and | am not one of the newer people,
so the newer people don’t have any of them. It would be really, really nice to have access to them. Thank
you.

President Wilshire

Director Cummings?

Director Cummings

Yes so | am happy to try to put up what | have. What | want to make sure you are aware of though, the
EPA has a project for this specific site which in my Memo to the Board of Aldermen | included a link, which
if you were to click on that link, it has all the EPA-related documents consolidated on to one site. So | guess
| can look at trying to get City of Nashua and more specifically the Blaylock Representations out on the site.
Now as a reminder | haven’t been given a lot of this information that | have been asking for. So some just
came in recently on Friday to me. But this is live-time type stuff, hot off the press, as in | absolutely agree
with you. All the puzzle pieces need to fit together to make this work.

President Wilshire
Alderman Clemons?
Alderman Clemons

Thank you very much. As far as the monitoring, | wanted to make this point because I, and in regards to
the TIF and things like that, | don’t mind a TIF if we are going to do this correctly and we are going to do it
safely and the neighborhood is going to be protected and there is a clear, defined plan in place, not only for
how to encapsulate this, but how to monitor it, what we are looking for, and a remediation plan for the future
as well. In other words to set money aside for the future as sort of an insurance and in-case of and a set of
money that can’t be touched unless there is an issue that needs to be remediated and then that way that
money is there in the future so that we can quickly go and fix whatever problem may arise. Because it’s not
.... |do believe that there won't be an issue in the future, it’s just the way things work, right?

Special Board of Aldermen 03-15-2021 Page 13

The difference here is that you encapsulate asbestos and the asbestos starts to leak and it is granule stuff,
you can go dig down and re-capsulate it. This stuff is heavy metal, real bad stuff that if this starts to leak
out is going to really and has wreaked havoc. So | guess to reiterate my point is I’d like to see more of a
plan.

But also in regards to the private company being the one to monitor that, no way. Under no circumstances
would | agree to that. | don’t mind if they, in fact, | do agree that they should probably have to pay for the
monitoring but the City of Nashua should do that. Either the City of Nashua or the State of New Hampshire
should do that because we want to make sure that it is being done with the public interest in mind. And it is
no bad reputation on the company but we all know that corporations have their interests and the
Government has its interests. And our interest is to protect the environment and to protect the people that
are going to be living there and in that neighborhood. And under no circumstances should a non-
government agency be in charge of monitoring. So that to me is ... if that’s the only way forward then to me
that’s a non-starter. So | just wanted that on the record as well.

President Wilshire

Alderman Lopez?

Alderman Lopez

So similar to what Alderman Clemons had said, earlier it was stated that we were going to have to live with
this. We are not going to live with this, the people who are living there are going to have to live with this
and the people who are living on the site do. So | echo what Alderman Clemons is saying and | understand
where he is coming from because of his personal history. And those are the concerns that | am hearing
from the neighbors where we can’t have miscommunication, we can’t cut any corners, we need to make
sure that we aren’t just burying something and then hoping that it never rears its head, because of the
nature of it and because these neighborhoods have been burned before, literally burned. Like there has
been a fire which has deposited contaminants all over the site. So going back to what Alderman O’Brien
was probably referencing, even the surface level is going to have to be looked at and confirmed to be safe
if we start disturbing it and moving it around.

So this is a project where we need to be very, very conscious of public attention and public engagement
because there’s going to be a lot of questions and there is going to be a lot of concerns. And it’s not local,
neighborhood people who are coming out because they want to be involved. It is because they are
concerned about their homes and their family’s safety and how this is going to affect them. So | think it’s
very important that we improve our transparency and our communication, particularly. This project began
under somewhat of an inauspicious foot because there was miscommunication on the parts of the City as
to who the developers were, who even knew who the developers were, whether there were meetings or
whether there were parking lot encounters or whatever.

| think moving forward, especially if the Aldermen are going to have to be put in the situation of making
decisions about this, and now is our time. We need to have very clear communication on what is being
negotiated and what those terms are. Because | think in the past, it hasn’t been clear. | was actually under
the impression that several times it was stated that the City wouldn’t be using the TIF for clean-up costs at
all, we would be using it for infrastructure and that type of thing. And that’s important for the Aldermen to
consider because if we TIF the development for the tannery’s clean up and all that kind of stuff, it extends
the time in which we are not collecting any tax revenue. And we want to be conscious of that particularly if
we do start other development projects that are nearby that would give us tax revenue in order to offset the
expenses and really see that benefit.

All that being said, and again, in communication with the residents in the area, they really do want to see
this cleaned up. There’s going to be no development or tax revenue to be had if we don’t figure out a
solution out of 36 year old dilemma. So it is important for us to make this work. And that’s why | think

Special Board of Aldermen 03-15-2021 Page 14

communication is necessary because that will bring all of the players in alignment and all those puzzle
pieces — because you can’t put a puzzle together when you are blindfolded. So we need to be very clear
about what the communications are. | think Alderman Clemons made a great point about our own public
health, environmental health, being involved because | am not really confident that the State even, a 2-year
changing policy group of people is going to provide the kind of long-lasting, consistent attention to this that
our neighbors deserve. So | would like when we do get to any negotiations or discussions, to have it
discussed that our environment health department be either in charge of or involved in that process and
that that be funded by the property holders or taxes or whatever.

Another thing | wanted to bring to attention is the actual construction process. Those neighborhoods had a
very difficult time with other construction projects in the immediate area. They are very concerned about
heavy vehicle traffic on Fairmount Street or the increase of vehicle traffic should that street ever be used for
either the Tamposi Project or the developer's project. So those are things we need to be very conscious of
and mindful of. We should have explicit planning, possibly maps, you know, if Alderman Jette is going to
help us make this decision we should have maps clearly showing how things are going to be done there
and who it is going to affect so that we don’t run into years of unintended consequences coloring a project
which ultimately should be about cleaning up a neighborhood and providing access to an area of the City
that right now is not benefiting our residents. So | think there’s a lot of potential in this project for greatness,
but | think we are stakeholders to it as Aldermen, we need a very detailed understanding of what we are
actually being involved in and what is at stake. Thank you.

President Wilshire
Thank you. Alderman O’Brien?
Alderman O’Brien

Thank you, Madam President. Director Cummings and perhaps maybe the Mayor if you want to chime in. |
know it is way, way, way too early so let’s kind of talk about in a hypothetical. Right now, the City of
Nashua really is doing quite well with some of the bonding that we have done like in the past and
everything. We have paid off some of them and everything so we have a pretty good deal. And as the
current financing is sitting right now the bonding is looking pretty good and | just wonder if this is like one of
those projects where it would be a hand in glove to go with the bonding? And if that is the case, and it
looks like if we can get the principals of everybody involved kind of nailed down on this, can we get some
form of scheduling so that maybe we can look at the bonding? Because my greatest fear is | don’t have the
financial crystal ball, Mr. Mayor | don’t think you do and | know Mr. Cummings doesn’t. But in working with
Mr. Fredette, right now the current climate isn’t really that bad. So could we use that as a chip Mr.
Cummings in talking with the principals and everything to say that bring up the bonding issue, the
affordability of the bonding issues and different things like that to start to get some of the dates and
everything nailed down to make us a partner in this while the going is, right now would be considered
financially feasible?

Director Cummings

Thank you for the question Alderman O’Brien. | think you raise a really good point, you use the term
“partner” and that’s exactly what is being asked of us, is to become a financial partner. And | think like any
good financial partner, you need to do due diligence and understand how to underwrite the deal. At this
time, | can’t even begin to do that. Yes | do think we have the bonding capability but we also have a lot of
demands and we have a lot of needs as well. And so it is going to be a balancing act moving forward. And
| think we need to go slow on our end and really understand what it is that we are talking about and what it
is that we are committing to. So that’s my recommendation at this time. We need more information but |
really wanted to talk to you all tonight to just kind of get a sense of whether we really still wanted to have a
TIF on the table. It sounds as though yes, there’s a small appetite for a TIF still which | can continue to
represent. That’s what | am hearing and please, if | am hearing wrong, let me know. But Alderman Lopez
raised a really point and he’s correct. When this conversation first started 3 years ago, the idea is we

Special Board of Aldermen 03-15-2021 Page 15

wouldn’t even use a TIF for the environmental remediation. Now all deals change as time goes on and |
can tell you right now the thought process would be that some of those TIF dollars would go to the
environmental remediation. So if anyone has a concern about that, | would like to know that, because it’s
going to be important for us to be able to structure this deal to make forward.

Alderman O’Brien

Madam President, just an additional comment. If you are looking for support on the TIF, at this particular
time as presented to me, | will support a TIF. Thank you.

Mayor Donchess

The biggest demand we have in terms of bonding right now is, of course, the Middle School Project which
is $110 million plus is very significant. So | think that has to be our priority.

President Wilshire
Alderman Jette?
Alderman Jette

Thank you, Madam President. There have been a lot of good points made by my fellow Aldermen. Director
Cummings, on the one hand you tell us that there are a lot of unanswered questions and a lot of answers
that you have asked for that you haven’t received yet. On the other hand, you are asking for some kind of
sense of the Board as to what we would be in favor of. | think Alderman Tencza said it and that is that right
now there are just too many unanswered questions for us to give, at least for me, to give you any kind of
sense as to what | would be in favor of, you know, a TIF or anything else. | think we need more information.
| think the questions have to be answered, | think the questions you’ve asked have to be answered.

| know that some of the Aldermen have expressed concern about this property, the people who are
responsible for contaminating the property are not the ones being asked to pay for it. | am not sure what the
status of Chester Realty is; | think they went into bankruptcy but | am not sure. Is the Purchase & Sale
Agreement that the developer has, is it with Chester Realty, are they going to be getting any money out of
this? | think those are legitimate questions. The other thing is we have got a bad situation and it is not
going to get any better just by letting it sit there. | think remediation has to occur and what we have to
figure out is how do we best accomplish that? | think the EPA has told us that removing the contaminants
from the property which | think some of the neighbors would like is not something that they are going to
support because of the expense and the fact that when we move it from here it is going to go somewhere
else, as you pointed out.

| think the EPA’s seemed to have as many safeguards as is possible, nothing is 100% guaranteed. | am
concerned as the Mayor pointed out, the neighbors are uphill from this site if it migrates, it is going to
migrate down to the river, into the river. And then where is it going to go from there, downriver. So this
could be a very disastrous turn of events unless we do something about it. It sounds like we’ve got an
opportunity to do something about it. And | think working with this developer seems to be a reasonable
solution, but | want to make it clear to you that | am not ready to support anything until we have all the
information we need to make the best decision that we can. So thank you.

President Wilshire

Alderwoman Kelly?