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Board of Aldermen Page 10
May 10, 2016

O-16-011
Endorsers: Alderman Don LeBrun
Alderman Ken Siegel
Alderman David Schoneman
Alderman Tom Lopez
ADOPTING PROVISIONS FOR REDUCED TAXATION FOR CERTAIN CHARTERED
PUBLIC SCHOOL FACILITIES
Given its second reading;

MOTION BY ALDERMAN LEBRUN FOR FINAL PASSAGE OF O-16-011
ON THE QUESTION
Alderman Schoneman

| supported this before and | will support it here too. | think that even though, there was a point made during
public comment about where the money comes from, | think that it’s clear that the charter schools operate at
about half of the income per pupil than the public schools do no matter what the source is. | think that they
provide a service to those students and the taxpayers. | also think that as a publicly funded educational
institution, they should have the same kind of treatment that others are and that is not paying property taxes.
Our public schools do not pay property tax. Charter schools do pay property tax and | think that giving them
the benefit of a discount under property tax would go directly towards the benefit of education for those
students and for the taxpayers.

Alderman Lopez

It sounds like there are not equivalent funding sources so | am not entirely convinced that it is exactly halfway
split, although personally | am in favor of the way we have school choice in Nashua because we don’t have a
lot of charter schools. We focus on our public schools and make sure that quality education is accessible to
everyone but | am concerned at how the revenue...Alderman McCarthy brought up that the revenue couldn't
necessarily be guaranteed to go to the schools; the landlord could potentially make a different deal. Alderman
Siegel pointed out that most of the charter schools do have a separate arrangement in their lease so that they
pay their taxes for the landlords. If that’s the case then the revenue saved by this for the schools would go
straight to the schools. | am concerned that it’s not so easy for a charter school to negotiate after they have
invested physically properties in the school and making sure that it’s renovated to meet specifications of the
education department. My concern is basically that we could be removing tax revenue from the City of Nashua
and we know the next few years are going to be challenging fiscally. | think if we remove revenue then we are
just putting ourselves into another series of difficult decisions moving forward.

Alderwoman Melizzi-Golja

| am all for parents given a choice and when my child was in school we exercised our opportunity to have
choice and go beyond the public schools but there are two things; Representative Gorman talked about how
the amount of money that is coming back to the Nashua City schools is less than what those to charter schools
and when we heard from the Mayor this evening about the Department of Education’s budget, it’s $400,000
less than what they requested and it’s also funded at a level to just allow them to provide their current level of
service. That current level of service includes, at that time it was over $80,000 of transportation costs for
Nashua students to attend charter schools located in the city. The other service that is included in the school
district's budget that is provided to students who reside in the city but are enrolled in charter schools is special
education services. That service is different than the way we do the rest of the special education services in
the city. If you are a charter school student and your parent chooses to place you in a charter school in
Concord, the Nashua City School District is responsible for arranging for you to have your services. Our
special education budget is also providing services to students enrolled in charter schools and my
understanding is that the number of students who are being provided services has increased to a level that the

Board of Aldermen Page 11
May 10, 2016

budget coming forward from the Department of Education is actually looking at possibly adding another
position to service those students because of the amount of travel that is required. My other concern and this
is to Alderman Lopez’s point, is that my understanding is that the state statute provides no more than 10% of
the market value to be taxed. That means we are losing 90% of the market value on these business
properties. We have had conversations about it being important to increase the business property tax revenue
to provide some relief to the citizens of this city. For those reasons | am not going to support this.

Alderman Siegel

Representative Gorman was discussing the amount of state aid which has nothing to do with how much money
we spend on our schools because most of the school money comes from local property taxes, in fact, it’s over
half of our budget. With regard to facilities and whether or not we will be losing a tremendous amount of tax
dollars, there are very few charter schools and the value of the property that they are sitting on even reduced
by 90% is not a significant amount of tax loss compared to the value of the choice and the lessening of the
strain on our existing school system. I’d also like to point out that one of the things that we don’t do for charter
schools is take tremendous amounts of bonding debt. How many bonds do we have outstanding which are
school bonds, a tremendous amount. We have to maintain our schools and that’s one of the things that we do.
We don’t have to do it with this. This is really about widening the amount of choices that people have for their
students to have an education. It’s very clear that the charter schools in and around the city do an excellent
job because of where they are ranked. We also give people an opportunity to have concentrations who have
excellence in certain areas. | certainly wish there was a charter school for the arts when my oldest daughter
was in school because she is graphic artist rignt now. She never had that opportunity; she was just thrown in
with the general population. | don’t see that this is a gigantic cost to the city at all and | see it’s a huge
incentive. Now with regard to whether or not the savings flows through to the landlord, every one of the charter
schools has a lease that is set up such that they pay the taxes separate from the landlord so this does go
directly to them and any on-going new charter schools that may or may not locate here would have this
provision in place and certainly one would guess that they would smart enough to negotiate in their lease that
they would pay the taxes. The sacrifice in actual revenue | don’t see as a big problem, the issue of whether or
not the money will be directed property | don’t see as an issue either. The upside of having these charter
schools is tremendous; it gives people choices and good ones.

Alderman Dowd

| don’t necessarily have a conflict with charter schools but a couple of things that | haven’t heard: | keep
hearing vague numbers about taxes, does anybody know approximately what tax revenue we lose? Another
point is as being the liaison to the Board of Education, as a courtesy, can we ask the Board of Education to
weigh in on this particular bill since they are struggling with their budget and may have a better feel for whether
we should adopt this? The other thing is that we are sort of making the assumption that if we pass then the
tuition per student for the charter school is going to go down. | haven’t heard anything that relates that that is
necessarily going to happen. The only thing that could happen is whoever owns the building is going to be
paying less taxes to the city. | might feel better about this if | knew that the actual school itself was paying the
taxes and we were taking the burden of the taxes away from the school and not the owner the building. | think
there are still some questions and I’m not quite resolved to support this yet.

Alderman Siegel

| don’t Know if Alderman Dowd heard what | said but none of the leases have the landlord responsible for the
taxes, that’s what we found out so all of the charter schools would benefit directly from this tax relief and that
tax relief is not a question of lessening tuition as much as it is providing for a better educational environment |
suppose. | think those questions have been addressed. As far as whether or not the Board of Education
could weigh in, | think the Board of Education has plenty to do with just managing our existing school system
and it would be hard for me to imagine the Board of Education saying sure, that’s great we definitely support
you helping charter schools. It would be unusual to expect that they would do that.

Board of Aldermen Page 12
May 10, 2016

Alderman Clemons

In committee | was on the fence about this legislation. | ended up voting for it; to recommend final passage but
| have real reservations about charter schools in general. | think that they syphon money off of the district for
the benefit of the few and then the rest of the population that is left behind has fewer resources to invest in the
school. One of the things that | have been thinking about this is if we do create this tax incentive, does that
mean that Nashua then becomes a place where people want to set up future charter schools because they
have the tax advantage. To me, | don’t want to see us become a magnet for charter schools which | think are
a drain to public education. For those reasons, | am not going to support this legislation.

Alderman Wilshire

l’ve been supportive of charter schools, however, | feel if the parents want to make that choice and put their
kids in charter school then there should be a cost to them for that. The person that owns the building pays the
taxes but that doesn’t mean that they don’t pass that cost along in another way. | think taking anything away
from our public schools is just not right. At this time | can’t support this legislation.

Alderman Lopez

| think Alderman Siegel said a couple of times that the landlords wouldn’t take the tax revenue and that it would
go to the schools, that doesn’t clarify whether or not it would lower tuition; it sounded more like it might go
towards administrative or facility improvements which again, that kind of does go back to the landlord
depending. | think Alderman Clemons made a good point about the possibility of us opening an all you can eat
buffet for charter schools and while | like the balance that Nashua has right now | wouldn’t want to see us
become a market place for education in that particular way. Alderwoman Melizzi-Golja made a good point
about our school district paying for the special needs of our Nashua residents that are attending charter
schools in other cities. Do we actually know if all of our three charter schools are exclusively for Nashua and if
not, is that something that we could attach to this? Like if you want to qualify for this program then you need to
serve 80% of your students from Nashua.

Alderman LeBrun

| do not know the percentage. | do know that the percentage is greater than 50%.

Alderman Lopez

Attorney Bolton, can we actually make that amendment?

Attorney Bolton

My opinion is that this is a take it or leave it proposition. The enabling legislation from the state says you can
do it or you don’t have to do it but imposing conditions upon it is not an option granted to the city.

Alderman O’Brien

| Know that we as a city have compassion. We have reduced taxation in the example of elderly exemptions.
However, when we have that exemption we have a whole host of rules that seems to go hand and hand. |
don’t see any rules here, | see an idea but it’s open ended. | also don’t see a sunset clause so this will be a
drain on the tax dollars in perpetual. We just received the budget and | see looking over the shoulder of the
Board of Education and | see the custodians possibly losing their livelihood and | hear the Mayor tonight saying
that there are questions about feeding children with the lunch program. With these things dangling out there
and this is one of the worst budgets that | have seen; to make an exemption in taxes, that’s almost as grieves
as going over the spending cap. | don’t think this is the time in this economic climate to reduce any taxation for
anybody.

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May 10, 2016

Alderman LeBrun

| would like to point out to Alderman Clemons that people who send their children to charter schools also pay
taxes to the traditional public schools.

Alderman Schoneman

| would also add that there is no tuition. These are kids that are going to these schools who perhaps cannot
afford a private school but need something a little bit different. As far as what the city contributes, we are
looking at an education budget for the city that is over $100 million. | can tell you that the Academy for Science
& Design pays $80,000 in property taxes in FY ’16.

Alderman Siegel

| would also like to point out that a very popular metric is classroom size in the public schools. To the extent
that we provide alternatives we end up reducing that size. These schools are not set up for some elite class. |
would encourage more charter schools. It’s more school capacity that we are getting at a low cost and
providing an incentive to do so which is a very low cost of entry with a high return on investment.

Alderman Dowd
| was just shown an estimate of the tax burden to the city if we pass this and it was approximately $145,000.

Right now we have the Mayor’s budget that’s $100,000 under the spending cap, to me that doesn’t add up. We
are going to start in the hole.

Alderman Siegel

Very quickly, that number that you gave is 1/10" of 1% of the school budget approximately. Look at the value
add, it looks like a good investment.

Alderman Dowd

| think you are mixing apples and oranges. You are talking about 13,000 students in 18+ school buildings and
millions of dollars in infrastructure in the public school system against these charter schools. | don’t see that
$145,000 If we lose that tax revenue coming off of the school budget. | can’t support this with the discrepancy
right now, maybe later if next year is a better tax year but not this year.

Alderman Clemons

The basic thing for me is that we have public schools and the charter schools that we have. My question is do
they do a great job at the detriment to everyone else? If 200 kids apply and only 100 get in, where the other
100 goes, it’s an unfair system. | don’t want to create a market place that favors charter schools.

Alderman Schoneman

The charter schools do an excellent and there are waiting lists to get in these schools. | would point out that
the waiting list is for kids who want options that they can’t find in the public schools. If we had more charter
schools the size of the waiting list would probably diminish. The Academy for Science & Design is limited to
500 students. The state limits that.

Alderman LeBrun

To Alderman Clemons, if you really want more bang for your buck you would support charter schools.

Board of Aldermen Page 14
May 10, 2016

A Viva Voce Roll Call was taken, which resulted as follows:

Yea: Alderman Deane, Alderman Cookson, Alderman Siegel, 7
Alderman Schoneman, Alderman McGuinness, Alderman LeBrun,
Alderman Moriarty

Nay: Alderman Wilshire, Alderman Clemons, Alderman Dowd, 8
Alderman Caron, Alderwoman Melizzi-Golja, Alderman O’Brien,
Alderman Lopez, Alderman McCarthy

MOTION FAILS
MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS TO INDEFINITELY POSTPONE O-16-011

ON THE QUESTION

Alderman Lopez

| just want to point out that I’m not opposed to the idea, | would just personally prefer a direct link between how
it would benefit our schools. Something along the lines of a percentage of...at least knowing how much the
charter schools currently serve Nashua would help me make the decision. I’m not really in favor of indefinitely
postponing it.

MOTION BY ALDERMAN DEANE TO TABLE
MOTION CARRIED

NEW BUSINESS — RESOLUTIONS

R-16-033
Endorser: Mayor Jim Donchess
AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR AND CITY TREASURER TO ISSUE BONDS NOT TO
EXCEED THE AMOUNT OF TWO MILLION TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS ($2,200,000) FOR
THE PURCHASE AND INSTALLATION OF A CITYWIDE TELECOM
SYSTEM
Given its first reading;

MOTION BY ALDERMAN DOWD TO ACCEPT THE FIRST READING OF R-16-033 BY ROLL CALL,
ASSIGN IT TO THE BUDGET REVIEW COMMITTEE AND THAT A PUBLIC HEARING BE SCHEDULED
FOR MONDAY, MAY 23, 2016, AT 7:00 PM IN THE ALDERMANIC CHAMBER

A Viva Voce Roll Call was taken, which resulted as follows:
Yea: Alderman Wilshire, Alderman Clemons, Alderman Deane, 15
Alderman Cookson, Alderman Dowd, Alderman Caron,
Alderman Siegel, Alderman Schoneman, Alderwoman Melizzi-Golja,
Alderman McGuinness, Alderman LeBrun, Alderman Moriarty,
Alderman O’Brien, Alderman Lopez, Alderman McCarthy
Nay: 0

MOTION CARRIED

Board of Aldermen Page 15
May 10, 2016

R-16-034
Endorser: Mayor Jim Donchess
RELATIVE TO THE ADOPTION OF THE FISCAL YEAR 2017 PROPOSED BUDGET FOR
THE CITY OF NASHUA GENERAL, ENTERPRISE, AND SPECIAL REVENUE FUNDS
Given its first reading;

MOTION BY ALDERMAN DOWD TO ACCEPT THE FIRST READING OF R-16-034 BY ROLL CALL,
ASSIGN IT TO THE BUDGET REVIEW COMMITTEE AND THAT A PUBLIC HEARING BE SCHEDULED
FOR THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2016, AT 7:00 PM AT THE NASHUA HIGH SCHOOL NORTH AUDITORIUM

A Viva Voce Roll Call was taken, which resulted as follows:
Yea: Alderman Wilshire, Alderman Clemons, Alderman Deane, 15
Alderman Cookson, Alderman Dowd, Alderman Caron,
Alderman Siegel, Alderman Schoneman, Alderwoman Melizzi-Golja,
Alderman McGuinness, Alderman LeBrun, Alderman Moriarty,
Alderman O’Brien, Alderman Lopez, Alderman McCarthy
Nay: 0
MOTION CARRIED

NEW BUSINESS — ORDINANCES

O-16-012
Endorser: Mayor Jim Donchess
MOVING PARKING OVERSIGHT AND MANAGEMENT FROM THE TRANSPORTATION
DEPARTMENT IN THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIVISION TO THE OFFICE OF ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT IN THE MAYOR’S OFFICE
Given its first reading; assigned to the PERSONNEL/ADMINISTRATIVE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE by President
McCarthy

PERIOD FOR GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT

Ms. Teresa Barr, 26 Sagamore Road

Some of you may recognize me as one of the commissioners on the Review & Comment Commission.
Recently you received a letter from the streets of Sagamore and MacDonald addressing concerns over the
property of Main Dunstable Road. | am here tonight to publicly go on record and address some of the concerns
to you, the aldermen, about the property at 396 Main Dunstable which abuts my backyard. This property is
being listed and, | quote “attention builders, 2.61 acres, Nashua, available for small subdivision.” The listing
goes on to say a total of six houses. When we bought our house 11 years ago, my husband and | were told by
two realtors, the homeowner and two neighbors that 396 could never be built on because the city had denied
the request. Knowing that they couldn’t build was the factor in buying our home. The trees behind our house
provide us with privacy and is a natural sound barrier for a very busy area. My neighbors and | have many
concerns about the property being marketed as a subdivision. My house sits below the hill and among
concerns is the drainage issue that our neighborhood has on account of the hill. To pull the water away from
my house we had to redirect the natural flow, put in a dry well, put stone around the house and redo the
retaining wall where we found out there was ledge. Because of the ledge we were unable to follow through on
the original design of the retaining wall because they couldn’t break through the ledge without blasting.
Blasting is a major concern. Who will pay for the damage to the properties caused by blasting? Does the
burden of proof fall on the homeowners and what about the noise of construction? I’m home during the day.
On Sagamore and MacDonald there are people who work from home and work the midnight shift. Also, the
suggested road would abut my backyard. This leads to another concern. Six homes with the potential of two or

Board of Aldermen Page 16
May 10, 2016

three cars per home, 12 to 18 cars which would ultimately cut through Sagamore Road to Conant Road.
Finally, if this property is subdivided it would put an undue financial burden on my husband and me. The
property value would be lowered even more. We would have a harder time selling the house. For privacy we
would need to get a variance to put up a higher fence. Also, any drainage issues would need to be addressed.
As we get closer to retirement, we should not have to take on such burdens. These are just a few of the many
concerns my husband and | have, and we ask for your support on this issue. Thank you for your time.

Ms. Marta Langlais, 30 Sagamore Road

We have a water problem and it is due to the runoff of a spring that runs from the property at 396 Main
Dunstable Road. This floods our basement. The flooding in our basement is due from the flooding over there.
If the 396 Main Dunstable Road property is excavated there will be more flooding. If you refer to the minutes of
April of 1987, the previous owners of our home also had flooding at that time and had many water problems.
Our home is at the corner of the lot next to 396 Main Dunstable Road. If a road is built behind our house, % of
our property will be surrounded by pavement creating an island affect and depreciating the value of our home.
The noise of any construction or excavation due to the ledge in the area would startle my son who has cerebral
palsy. He startles very easily. This would also disrupt the children and the families in our area, distract anyone
from working from their home. | know | don’t have time to go over the multiple issues, but thank you for your
time.

Ms. Donna Schleiper, 20 Sagamore Road

My boyfriend and | recently purchased our home in August of 2015. This may be a shock to you but obviously
the sale of 396 was a shock to us. When we were recently notified of the sale of this property, we were
obviously very disappointed. One of the selling points of our house when we purchased it was the private lot.
A lot of the other homes in our price point offered a lot of the features that we were looking for but not a private
lot. Clearly when we heard about the sale, we were very disappointed. We were also very concerned when
we heard about the sale that our home, being the last property of the houses that would be affected, would be
the closest to a home that would be built on this abutting property. If you were to put a home that close to our
house, our foundation would be in severe affect. We're very concerned about the blasting that would be taking
place like Teresa previously mentioned. We're very concerned about the overall property damage that would
affect our foundation as well as our property structure. As well, we’re not from this area. We're originally from
Maine. If we were to sell our home, we are very concerned about the overall reduction of property value that
would result in a house being built so close to our property line. It would be about 150 — 200 feet away from
our property line. Pretty close. We are also very concerned about the runoff that would as the result of a
home being built that close to us. We also have some issues in and around our property that we are
concerned about as well from the natural spring that comes from 396. Thank you for your consideration.
Thank you very much.

Ms. Kristi Durette, 27 MacDonald Drive

My husband and |, David, have been proud residents of Nashua for 19 years now. We're really proud of the
fact that all of the neighbors that abut the property that’s in question, 396, are unanimously working together
because we take great pride in the neighborhood that we’ve been a part of. Most of our neighbors on
MacDonald Drive that abut the property have lived in their homes and been owners for probably 10 all the way
to the original owners of the development. Many of the issues that have been raised by folks who are at the
bottom of the hill, we sit at the very top of the hill, and can already see a lot of the effects of the runoff through
the winter and into the spring. We’re really particularly concerned that we had the same thing when we moved
in in 1997. Really had us understanding of a lack of landlocked situation. As | listen to you talk about revenue
and property values, at least ten properties bordering that particular piece of land and really changing the
whole feel and quality of life that happens in that little Main Dunstable community in Ward 5. We know that
you're not ultimately the decision makers. We are really trying to make sure we understand how the zoning
board works and looking at what conservation possibilities are and looking at how we’ve seen that habitat
evolve over the years. Looking at zoning. We just really wanted to be put on the record to have you know that

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May 10, 2016

we are a very invested group of neighbors and citizens are really concerned about quality of life, quality of our
properties and how we move forward based on a history. Linda Panny in the planning office was very helpful
in pulling minutes from a Board meeting back in 1987 that stated the property owners abutting the property at
that time had risen as well. Thank you for your time.

President McCarthy

| would just like to make sure that all of you understand that subdivisions are actually the purview of the
planning board and not this board. | did have an opportunity to go out and take a look at that property. | would
encourage you to carefully think about what you are going to say at the planning board, bring up the things that
were brought up the last time that apparently a subdivision was proposed there.

REMARKS BY THE MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN

Alderman Dowd

Last night | attended the Board of Education meeting. Just a couple of points. They did pass capital reserve
requests which will be coming to this board for approval. That’s to address some of the issues they have with
some of the schools and most critically the Mount Pleasant Street School with the excessive heat you’ve heard
mentioned a number of times. | think it was on the front page of the Telegraph today. That bill will be coming
to us shortly. There is no action whatsoever on the part of the Board of Education to close any school. They
have four open classrooms in the entire district. Those four are being used for other services. Closing a
school is not even an option. Also they had some funds to redo the planetarium and update the software, put
in seats. | believe the rededication is the 25 of May. I’m not sure of the time. | will try to find the exact
information and get it out to the Board.

Alderman Siegel

I’d like to thank the members of the Senior Center and their Board for putting the Fire & Fusion dinner together.
It was very successful and an enjoyable fundraiser. | think a whole bunch of us were there. Thanks to
Alderman Caron, who did a lot of work on that? The other thing is | was asked by a letter carrier to remind
everybody that this Saturday, the second Saturday in May, as in every May, you can put out a box of
nonperishable foods or a can of nonperishable food by your mailbox prior to when your mail is picked up and it
will be distributed to a food bank in the area. So help them out this Saturday.

Alderman Schoneman

Mr. Gallagher from the Conservation Commission was in and spoke earlier tonight. He reminded me, and all
of us, | guess, of the trails opening event which is May 14 at 10:00 a.m. down at the Southwest Trails Park.

Alderwoman Melizzi-Golja

| would just like to remind everyone that this Thursday evening from 6:00 — 8:00 p.m. at Nimco will be the
kickoff for the Sculptures Symposium. This year the sculptures are from India, Greece and Lithuania.

Alderman LeBrun
Alderman Dowd, | believe you scheduled a meeting for May 23. That is also the evening of the County

Delegation which myself and Alderman O’Brien would be mandatory that we attend that. Could that possibly
be changed?

Board of Aldermen Page 18
May 10, 2016

Alderman Dowd

I’m not sure it can because we have limited days to do the budget hearings and we have some other business
including a public hearing that we just scheduled for that date. It would be very difficult to reschedule that.

President McCarthy

We'll have our assistant look at that.
Alderman O’Brien

|, too, would like to thank Alderman Caron and the great work she has done. | had a lot of fun at the Fire &
Fusion. It was very good. The throwing in with the cooking with the hot sauce made it very interesting. |
would also like to say that | have that for 2:30 p.m. for the planetarium rededication at Nashua High School
South. I’m looking forward to it.

Alderman Lopez

| would like to apologize to Alderman Caron for not attending Fire & Fusion, but | did attend the baked potatoes
festival. | appreciate the neighbors who came in to talk about the impact of something in their community. |
think that kind of unity and investment speaks very highly of their community. | also wanted to thank Dr.
Cynthia Whittaker and Alex Hamel for speaking at our Human Affairs Committee yesterday. | think they
offered valuable insight and experience. Both women are very, very, very experienced in treating and working
with substance abuse, opioid addiction. As my brother said, facts tell but stories sell. Both of these presenters
were a wealth of personal experience. They really focused on the known experiences, approaches, strategies
and resources available in the recovery community. | also wanted to remind the Board of Aldermen that this
Sunday is the Gate City Marathon. It’s just like a parade, but way longer.

Alderman Caron

| do want to thank everyone who showed up because it was a great success. This is their fourth year. | think
they hit goal of what they were looking to make. They are looking for bigger and better next year.
Unfortunately the Alpine Grove is the only venue in the area that can accommodate 300 people plus 8 chefs
and cooking. Alderman O’Brien, | will have your membership forms next meeting.

President McCarthy

The planetarium rededication is in fact at 2:30 p.m. on the 25". It’s actually really interesting. We're not
actually paying to upgrade the planetarium. The upgrades are being done as part of a partnership with a
company down on Lake Street called Sky Scan which, if you never knew it was there, is a company that makes
planetarium equipment for places all over the world. They have a 27-foot dome in that little building behind the
mill on Lake Street. We had gone and looked at it when we outfitted the original planetarium. They had a
really neat system that uses coordinated video projectors to project on the dome. At the time that system was
way too expensive for us to afford. Technology being what it is, that’s come down in price and they're actually
giving us that in return for us helping them out with curriculum development which will also result in us getting
the materials to use in the planetarium, not just for space science education but they are doing a lot of
materials on other education. Biology and chemistry, for example, that they can use the space on the ceiling to
show things that are difficult to project in the flat. | think it’s a really interesting opportunity for us. It helps us
with our goals towards science education. | also wanted to thank all of the members of the board and of the
delegation that showed up last week for the meeting with the state delegation. | thought that was very
productive. | thank Alderman LeBrun and Alderman O’Brien twice because they sat on both sides of the table.
It started out a little slow but got off to a fairly good momentum in the middle. | think we’ll probably try to do
that again when we see what the agenda looks like for next year.

Board of Aldermen Page 19
May 10, 2016

Committee announcements:

Alderman Dowd

| hope everyone received a copy of the budget review schedule. It starts the 16" and goes several days that
week. The departments that are covered are in here. We've had to shift them around for various reasons but
the 23” is penciled in there and we will see what we can do about that meeting.

Alderwoman Melizzi-Golja

PEDC is May 17 in the Chamber. At the last PEDC meeting, | misspoke regarding the date of the next time we
would be discussing the Performing Arts Center. That is June 7.

ADJOURNMENT

MOTION BY ALDERMAN WILSHIRE THAT THE MAY 10, 2016, MEETING OF THE BOARD OF
ALDERMEN BE ADJOURNED

MOTION CARRIED

The meeting was declared adjourned at 9:14 p.m.

Attest: Patricia D. Piecuch, City Clerk