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Board of Aldermen 2-06-2020 Page 14

Ms. Novotny

For me?

Mr. Teeboom No this is for whoever can answer the question, probably Tim. How much money thus far did the
City spend on fundraising?

Mr. Cummings

Yes thank you Mr. Chair, give me one second | am quickly, this is going to be an approximate number. | am
going to say, approximately $50,000.00 and that may go up a little bit more to something like $60,000.00.

Mr. Teeboom That’s both with the New Market Tax Credit Consultant? OK how much more did we spend with
the New Market Tax Credit Consultant?

Mr. Cummings

Mr. Chair if | may the spending of the New Market Tax Credit Consultant to date is approximately $25,000.00,
it's a phased contract. We are in Phase |, that’s again $25,000.00-ish if we go into Phase II it is an additional,
again it is subject to us receiving the New Market Tax Credit but that would be an additional, I’m going to say
$40,000.00, $35,000.00 — for that second phase. | just want to be clear, the funding for these two expenses,
comes from the Downtown Improvement Committee, where they elected to put some of their resources towards
this project.

Mr. Teeboom So the money does not come out of the proceeds, it doesn’t come out of the $15.5 million?

Mr. Cummings

Correct.
Mr. Teeboom OK thank you.

Philip Scontsas Good evening everyone, Phiip Scontsas, 14 Ashland Street. This is always the most
intimidating group to speak in front of. | don’t Know why, but | guess | am pretty passionate about this and you
can probably guess why. Again, not to be redundant but | am a third generation business owner in downtown
Nashua and I’ve seen a lot of things come and go. I’ve been involved in a lot of things. | have to say that | am
really proud to be involved in this project. It has been a project that has been thoroughly, thoroughly thought
out. The studies that have been done, the people that have been involved have really been top notch. When
you see what this building and this Performing Arts Center will bring to, | get a little crazy when people keep
concentrating on just downtown. | keep saying what it will bring to Nashua; | think it is pretty amazing. And |
hope that all of my friends on the Board understand that my feelings are not just because | am downtown, but
because | feel that it is the right thing, and the right direction for our City to do.

| am also on the Capital Campaign Committee and | have to say that the enthusiasm that we have seen from
people to give money has been overwhelming. It’s not an easy task as you can imagine, people have to really
think this through, especially with these major gifts. But the response has been really awesome. | know that |
can personally tell you that my family has dug deep and is going to make a major donation as well as a lot of
my fellow business people downtown and friends and business people that | know around the City. The other
thing | want to tell everybody here is when | speak about the Performing Arts Center, | always ask people’s
opinion. And | have to say that it is positive, it is a resounding positive response that | get from people that live
or play or shop in Nashua. A lot of people that don’t even live in Nashua think it’s just a really wonderful thing
and envy it for their towns.

Board of Aldermen 2-06-2020 Page 15

So | hope that you will all think long and hard on this, | know it seems like it is being secretive and you’ve all
heard the whole concept. This wonderful consultant that we’ve hired is a pretty smart cookie and | respect her
opinion, | really respect her opinion. | know it feels, it is kind of tough to vote on something and not know, but
understand that it is going well. We are doing well, I’m not faking it to make it; this is really the truth. I’m pretty
proud to be a part of it and | hope you will all be proud to be a part of it because it is going to bring us to the
next level as a City and let’s all do this together. | think it’s something that we owe it to ourselves. So thank
you very much for indulging me.

Alfred Vane Good evening my name is Alfred Vane and the song is about me, most people don’t get that joke.
I’m from Manchester, New Hampshire actually but | do have some ties here in Nashua. | own five restaurants,
one in Concord, New Hampshire; one in Manchester, New Hampshire; two in Nashua, New Hampshire.
CodeX Bar for one and | am part owner of Light Center. The Mayor spoke very positively about the arts center
that are happening around the state that | am very familiar with. Concord has Capital Arts Center which when |
first came to Concord, Concord Arts Center was just starting and it was, the momentum of the City was
growing. We then got the Colonial Phenix Hall in Downtown Concord, just making a true comeback. | don’t
know if any of you know who Mark Ciborowski is, he is really pushing to re-create Phenix Hall and there is a lot
of momentum behind that. My restaurant Cheddar & Rye is literally on the same block as the Palace Theater
and we get so much business and so many people coming to the Palace Theater coming to the downtown area
to just spend money and to have that entertainment and be a part of downtown.

Nashua and Concord, at Codex it is kind of weird kind of thing because | never expected it to be as successful
as itis. It is the most successful restaurant that | have without spending a penny on advertising. We do it with
word of mouth and we have people coming to CodeX as a destination place; we have been named a Best Craft
Cocktail Bar in the State of NH, 4 or 5 years running. We are very proud of it, my team is very proud of it.
Because of that word of mouth, one of the things | always ask and the bartenders always talk about at the end
of the night is “how did people find out about us”. Day one, when we first started Code X, we sat there for the
first hour, again not a penny on advertisement, first hour went by maybe two customers and | was thinking, “Oh
great, this was not a good idea’ and then all of a sudden 6:30 hit and we had a line out the door. On most
summer nights in Nashua as all business owners know in Nashua, New Hampshire; most summer nights are
the difficult nights because Nashua unfortunately isn’t quite the tourist destination that we’d all like it to be,
although CodeX does pretty well, because it is an destination spot.

This event center, the Arts Center that everybody is debating about is going to be a destination place, very
much Codex, very much like the Palace Theater, very much like the Capital Arts Center, very much like Phenix
Hall when it is done. And it doesn’t make sense not to amend and continue with this amendment and to give us
more time for the City of Nashua to make Nashua a destination spot, just like Concord, Manchester. | don’t
have any business in Keene so I’m sorry Mayor | can’t talk about Keene. So I’m in favor of this amendment, |
think it is a good thing for Nashua, I’m proud to be part of the Nashua Business Community and thank you.

Bernie Marchowsky Good evening, my name is Bernie Marchowsky, | live at 21 West Brook Drive. I’m a 35
plus year resident of Nashua and absolutely had no plans of standing in front of you this evening to talk about
this particular subject. | came here to merely to witness who goes on in our community and | am happy to see
so many positive people representing those people who are in favor of doing this in our town. It has been a
long time since | represented George’s Apparel in Manchester and telling people how to dress to go to their
business meetings, so I’m a little bit uncomfortable at this time. But nevertheless I’m here to represent seniors
frankly, because | think we often get overlooked in these situations. We travel to Ogunquit, we travel to Keene,
we travel to Manchester, we travel all over Massachusetts to go to shows. We love being entertained just as
anyone else does, I’m getting a little emotional, excuse me. But nevertheless we too on nights like tonight find
it difficult to drive, to be able to make our way to where we want to go. It’s raining out its snowy, it’s hard to get
to where you want to go. And we need somewhere to go in this community. And | hope you will decide to
make that happen for us. Thank you.

Lindsay Rinaldi Hello, my name is Lindsay Rinaldi and although | currently live in Lowell, Mass. | did live at 24
Woodfield Street for over 30 years and | still very much consider Nashua, New Hampshire my home. In fact the
last time | stood at this podium it was during my Law & Ethics Class here in this School so | really hope they did

Board of Aldermen 2-06-2020 Page 16

a good job. So | chose to come back to Nashua to serve as a public servant. | am the Executive Director of
the Nashua Community Music School which is a 35 year old non profit organization that serves this area. | also
currently serve as the Chair of the Nashua Arts Commission and | have also been fortunate enough to be
asked to be part of this wonderful Steering Committee for the Performing Arts Center.

| speak strongly in favor of this amendment; | think it is really important that we give the good team that we
have assembled more time to be able to put together and amazing project that has already been two years in
the making. | can speak firsthand saying that | think Nashuans as a whole, they have a lot of heart. So we
have a lot to say, right? Alright, we have a lot to give to others; the charitable community in this area is so
warm and so welcoming and | say that as a member of it because of the Nashua Community Music School and
our nonprofit status, | see that first hand. And | think Nashuans see that there’s a lot of value in what we have
now, but | think it is really important as public servants, for myself and the folks on the Board, that we also
embrace all the potential that we do have to still reach. This Performing Arts Center project and your choice to
extending the time and allowing us to have more time to make it as successful as it has the potential to be, will
really help us reach that level of potential.

As the Chair of the Nashua Arts Commission, | want to share, there are 6 goals that exist in our most recent
Nashua Arts & Culture Plan. The Performing Arts Center hits all of them. We want to create an identity for
Nashua as an arts destination. We want to increase a marketing value, something that draws people here.
This project does that. Mr. Mayor and Director Cummings have spoken at length about the economic
development benefits. That addresses the commerce goal of our current Arts & Culture Plan. It will inevitably
bring growth and education, to not only the people who are currently here in the City living and working and
enjoying what we do. But it also provides a centralization effort knowing that this Performing Arts Center is an
integral part of our downtown of our center. | ask you, Board of Aldermen, the team that is on this project is
good. The Steering Committee has not acted in haste. There are two dedicated groups; one working on
design and operations and another working on financial fundraising, and they are proceeding thoughtfully and
carefully. They want to act strategically; they don’t want to be rushed to fit a means that is not going to be
successful and what we deserve.

There has been a specialty team working with the volunteer committee, of architects, of theater consultants of
lighting consultants, acoustic consultants. The Committee themselves is a group and a mix of audience
members, arts lovers and people like myself, musicians and theater professionals who are with the project
every step of the way saying this is going to be the best thing for our Performing Arts Center to be successful
and this is the best way it is going to serve our community. | need you to consider an extension of time for this
funding, an extension of time for this funding could have such a negative effect it could effect or derail the entire
project, but an extension of time for the funding of this project does not mean we are asking for an extension of
time for the project as a whole. If we are allowed to proceed as we are currently working, our goal is so that the
project will be open and operational in the fall of 2021. That’s our goal right now. If you give us more time
there’s a really good chance we will be able to have that and see that success firsthand. If you choose not to
give us that extra time, the building within the center of Nashua that could be the heart of what we do here and
who we draw here, could be empty, could be a vacant space, could take years to become a new level of
potential for us here in Nashua to reach. | think that everyone in this room, whether you’re on the board or you
are in the audience; | think everybody wants to the same thing. | think we want to make Nashua a special to
live a long and happy life. This project, | ask you to vote in favor of this amendment because this project will
help us get there.

TESTIMONY IN OPPOSITION

Ken Siegel Hello everyone, Ken Siegel, 224 Parker Street, Lowell, Massachusetts, former Board of Aldermen
member. How are you? | see some of my former colleagues on here. I’m not in opposition to the arts center, |
am actually addressing this specific piece of legislation which goes to whether or not there should be a time
frame on the fund raising or not. | was the person that put the original amendment in that called for the 2 years.
The reason I’m here is | think Alderman Klee was rewarded for starting a thread in the Nashua Civic Sounding
Board and just tried to be nice and got basically beaten about her head | think.

Board of Aldermen 2-06-2020 Page 17

So | applaud her for her bravery. The reason that | put in the 2 year time limit and I’m not saying you should
keep the 2 year time limit, I’m just trying to provide some historical perspective, so every body here can make
an informed judgement about what to do, so I’m addressing the legislation.

The reason that it was put in there was because we were under the gun. In the Fall of 2017 John Koutsos had
offered to the Board of Aldermen and the City of Nashua, Alec’s Shoe Store for $4 million dollars. So unlike
most of projects, you sort of got the building before you had the concept behind it. But he had other buyers, he
was willing to give the City of Nashua a break so we had to make a fairly quick decision about what to do with
the building. We voted to acquire that because the understanding at the time was that, in the event that there
was no Performing Arts Center, it was still a very valuable piece of real estate and most likely it could be sold
and the City of Nashua would not be on the hook for that $4 million dollars permanently. So when the
Performing Arts Center ideas were being developed, | think some of my colleagues may remember, we actually
had some intern come by and do something that looked like it was out of Vanity Fair, a drawing which was a
little futuristic, clearly not appropriate, we were fairly clear back then that there needed to be a lot of legwork.

The two year time frame did not come from members of the Performing Arts Center. The way that came about
was | had a breakfast with Simon over at Norton’s because he was asking my opinion about everything trying to
solicit votes. | was talking to him about the fundraising, asking how close he either was or wasn’t and we got to
talking about timeframes and | said, “Well would two years be enough time to get the money”. Absolutely
based on where they were at the time, his thoughts, they felt that would be an appropriate amount of time. My
feelings in putting an amendment in there was we needed a kill switch to the entire project because in the event
that it couldn’t be properly funded with public and private donations, you have a $4 million dollar asset on the
books that is just going to sit there forever. | think people tend to forget about that. And that’s why | felt
compelled to come up here to give you a little bit of history.

That problem still exists. Now | think Director Cummings underestimated the affect that Alderman McCarthy’s
death had on the entire process. It wasn’t just we had to shuffle some meetings and re-arrange things, he was
more than the point man for this, he had been the heart and soul of that entire project for years. | mean my first
term on the Board Brian had been talking about putting a Performing Arts Center on the roof of one of the
garages if you recall and we went through that whole discussion. So there’s a long history there. So | am very
sympathetic with the idea of extending the timeframe because you took a very big hit. | know the public is
demanding to know how much money has been raised. | would actually say there’s an alternate question to be
asked, which is how much money was de-committed after Alderman McCarthy died? Now | don’t know the
answer to that. | actually agree with your fundraiser that you really need to be confidential.

What | would urge the Board of the Aldermen is to recognize that you still have that $4 million dollar asset, you
are still working towards the goal of having the Art Center. Whatever | think or don’t think, I’m in Lowell now so
| can enjoy a Performing Arts Center so | can say “Yay great, more free stuff absolutely please build it”. But |
want to caution you that you are on the hook for a $4 million dollar asset and if you want to do something
extend the deadline, but don’t eliminate it. You really do need a cutoff and frankly | think it wouldn’t hurt the
fundraising to know that this has to be done by a certain amount of time or the opportunity will not exist
anymore. So rather than eliminate the deadline entirely, | would strongly urge you to amend it and provide a
longer deadline if necessary. Thank you very much.

Mike Soucy Thankyou, 3 Roseann Circle. I’m a life long resident of Nashua, 60 years as a youngster | worked
in the Parks & Recreation Department; | worked for the School Department as a substitute and a coach, |
worked for the Fire Department for 3 years: | was a Police Officer for 20 years, Fire Commissioner for four
years and a past Alderman in Ward 5. So | don’t think anybody can challenge my love for this City. Thank you
Alderman Jette for your thoughtful questions, | really appreciate it.

Here are my concerns, when this went on the ballot, | actually checked off “no” at the time because | thought
the goal was too lofty, | didn’t think we could meet that requirement. And lo and behold if we did, we wouldn't
be here today. We didn’t meet it, so now we are asking for a rule change. OK. But what happens if we don’t
meet the next goal, are we going to ask for another rule change? | mean let’s talk math. My biggest concern is
the lack of transparency; you can see it all over social media.

Board of Aldermen 2-06-2020 Page 18

Everybody that | talk to, the nice questions that | heard from Alderman Jette, what have we raised at this point?
I’m hearing strategic plan, that we can’t do it, I’m hearing all types of things, but when a big donation such as
the $250,000.00 comes out, that’s quickly acknowledged or the $100,000.00. What else? Are we at
$250,000.00 if we meet a requirement but if you don’t meet that requirement that’s gone? Where are we at?
You are the Aldermen, you are the elected officials that we trust with our purse. You are the people who are
going to put us in this $15 million dollar bond. | am standing here today as one of the largest or as a
representative of one of the largest investors in this project, a taxpayer, $15 million dollars. We deserve to
know, we deserve to know if this is viable, if people are actually contributing. We are being told that it is on-
going and it is moving fast forward and all that, but that’s not what we are seeing, we are not seeing that.

And the math that I’m talking about basically is change of rules plus lack of transparency equals distrust in
Government. And I’ve got to tell you at this point, | really don’t trust what | am seeing until | can see some
numbers. | can have my mind changes, I’ve always been open minded on everything, but | need to see some
numbers, | need to see something. And as an Alderman, when | was sitting in the Ward 5 chair, there’s no way
| would have approved $15 million, $5 million dollars, or even $10.00 without having the facts before me.
Thank you.

Laurie Ortolano 41 Berkeley Street. | think my issue here is similar to the gentleman who just spoke. | think it
is about public trust and transparency. Mr. Clemons brought up the issue which is appreciated but he put it in
terms of “people are curious”. | can tell you my questions were not because | was curious, they were because |
wanted to do a reality check and that’s different. And | do respect that you want to maintain confidentiality, but |
think that there’s got to be a better balance between confidentiality and transparency and public trust. | wrote
my initial question to Mr. Cummings just out of curiosity because | knew this was happening, where can | find
out the money raised? | got the shortest answer, contact you, but by name, the Capital Campaign Person, I’m
no longer involved. | didn’t get a name of a phone number. | didn’t even know who that was. Then there were
other postings on social media on this page where another woman went out and she got a better response.

| think you should have had a better response, the City knowing this was happening. People were going to ask,
| asked. | sent an e-mail out to all of you because | figured you’re coming in here, you guys must know. And |
only got one response from an Alderwoman. So you know, | yeah, | think it is important that we have a different
level of transparency and my concern here is just with the total package, not just this extension. But | happen to
think the New Market Tax Credit, | studied that extensively, that’s a longshot. And | am concerned that we can’t
pull the whole thing off. And | don’t know that | believe that the total cost of $23.8 is fixed, the more time we
take, the higher the costs go. | think when you get into dirt costs and you start digging, you can see some
really big run ups and that’s concerning to me.

| believe your campaign is going well and you believe your campaign is going well, let’s face it the market last
year was hot, the investment market. Last year was a great year for people to come out and donate money. So
you don’t get a lot of years like we had last year; I’d love another one this year. | hope it is that was for us
again, because it would be wonderful from a donating standpoint. But last year was the year to really rip down
some private donations because the market was so good. I’m concerned that we still don’t have enough. The
$294,000.00 that come from the State Credit Program, do we know how many people bought into that
$294,000.00? You know that was a fixed program that went out and people could buy into that, and it was all
done; do we know how many bought into it?

Chairman Dowd

Your time is up, but if you have a question?
Ms. Ortolano | just asked it.

Chairman Dowd

Mr. Cummings, do you have an answer.

Board of Aldermen 2-06-2020 Page 19

Mr. Cummings
No.

Ms. Ortolano Alright, thank you for my three minutes.

Karen Bill Good evening, Karen Bell, 95 Parnell Place, can everybody hear me way in the back? OK, Nashua,
| am a Nashua native also and thank you for all of your comments, former Alderman Soucy, very well thought
out. | can’t agree more. The residents of Nashua in the original resolution were lead to believe that there was
$4 million dollars waiting in the wings for this project, OK? That there were people known to the City
Management that would be donating, that was not and is not the case. When | asked last year in a private
setting about the private donation money raised, the answer was, “I don’t know’. That’s not an acceptable
answer in any professional arena. If the Mayor asked Treasurer Fredette how much money is outstanding in
unpaid property taxes, do you think the answer “I don’t know” would be acceptable. | don’t, it would not be
acceptable in any financial situation.

The $250,000.00 from Bank of America is contingent, it is not a given, it doesn’t come without strings, it is
contingent on raising the $2.5 million. Again, the target is just going to keep moving, we don’t have the money
yet, that’s ok we will present a resolution to move the target for however long. | don’t know if there is a date in
that resolution. Then we won’t hit so we will move it again. | ran a non-profit in this town | know how hard it is to
raise money. | know about quiet phases, | know that people can cancel, but you know, in the January 26" letter
to editor Chuck Hafemann made some really great points. | have it if anybody wants to read it. Fundraising
didn’t commence until almost a year and a half after it had passed. An official was quoted in the article saying,
“| was naive and didn’t realize we couldn’t start the fundraising”. You know when you get a job you have to
produce what you say you are going to produce in a certain amount of time. You don’t get to say, Oh I’m sorry
that | didn’t know that | didn’t know how to do this job and | can’t meet any of the deadlines’.

Joan Stylianos did a story in the Union Leader and a friend of hers asked, “Oh how much of the private funds
have been raised and she said, “well you know, we don’t know”. Some taxpayers feel duped because no
renovation or construction could start until the $4 million in private funds was raised. She was having a
conversation with Joseph, | don’t know how to say his last name. The minister of music at First Church and
performed as a guest conductor at Symphony NH who said, “Nashua bought the building too quickly and
without the proper legwork”. He said, “they don’t have a pit, it's not a good location, you have Elm Street that
has an orchestra pit and could do a lot of renovations instead of buying a place that needs beyond what some
place like Elm Street could use.” | think we bought the building way too fast, | think people said, $4 million?
They thought that there were people lined up, there are not that we bought it without doing our due diligence
and we will be doing everyone a disserve if we continue to say yes, we are just going to keep moving this
target, because I’m a tax payer and my taxes have gone up 27% in the last ten years. So you know, if I’m
going to be footing the bill, no, | am not your biggest investor, | don’t want to be.

Fred Teeboom 24 Cheyenne Drive. Now | attended nearly all the PAC Committee meetings, | read every one
of the proposals and | am pretty familiar with this project at this point. | do look forward to buying a season
ticket, | think they have a good proponent in the form of Tim Cummings, you have a very active team, the PAC
team. But! am concerned about the financial viability of this project. First of all, we’ve spent a long time talking
about the $2.5 million dollar, what they call the Capital Campaign but no discussion about that $4.2 million
dollars that’s supposed to be raised with these tax credits. So in 2019, we got zip. What if we get zip in 2020?
So | did an analysis and I'd like to make this analysis part of the public record. | have enough copies, | am not
going to into details because there are a lot of details on this sheet, that’s not the purpose. But | do want people
to have a copy and | want it to be on public record as part of the minutes.

The two things that | want to bring out are the following. The original budget for this PAC was $15.5 bond and
a $4 million dollar private funding. That’s $19.5 million dollars. You just heard the number, $23.7 million. Now
if you look at this sheet, the actual construction cost of the PAC is $15.2 million dollars. The original estimate
was $11.5 million, I’m not going to go into how that happened, there’s a lot of deception on $11.5 million. The
fact is that is way over budget.

Exhibit A
NASHUA 16314 — East Hollis & Bridge Street Intersection Improvement Project
Scope of Work and Task Descriptions
Amendment 1
September 30, 2021

Phase 2E — Public Involvement

Public Involvement for the project will continue through the Preliminary Design phase. It is
assumed that MJ will meet with the Project Steering Committee up to three (3) times to update
the committee on project progress and receive guidance. MJ staff (2) will attend and facilitate
these meetings. MJ will generate meeting notes that will be distributed after each meeting.

Public Informational Meeting — Public Information Meeting will be held prior to completing
Preliminary Design to provide the public an opportunity to make final comments or suggestions
on the proposed streetscape elements. Color Hearing Plan type plan view project graphics will
also be displayed for public viewing before and after the meeting. 3D visualizations of the
project are not included.

MJ will continue to update the project website with meeting information and project documents
through the Preliminary Design Phase.

Phase 2F — Utility Coordination

MJ will conduct coordination efforts with private utility companies. Existing underground utilities
include sanitary sewer, natural gas, water, and underground power. Existing overhead utilities
include power, CATV, and telecommunication lines. MJ will be responsible for coordinating
meetings with utility companies and performing the following tasks:

e After the boring program has been completed, the existing utility information shown on
the base mapping, which was collected during Phase 1, will be compared against the
Dig Safe markings placed in advance of the boring program.

e The existing utility information will then be updated with any corrections or clarifications
provided by the utility companies.

e MJ will prepare a list of conflicts for each utility and distribute to the utility companies so
they can develop their utility relocation design.

e It is assumed that two (2) utility coordination meetings will be held to describe the
project, the utility conflicts, and the work required for the utility companies to design the
relocations.

e Once the location of relocated utility poles has been finalized, MJ will show the proposed
utility relocations on the project plans. It is assumed the utility owners will provide their
own relocation designs.

e MJ will prepare meeting notes for the utility coordination meetings and provide on-going
project correspondence via e-mail or telephone communication.

It is assumed that placing existing overhead utility lines underground will not be part of the
project. However, MJ will coordinate with the Eversource on the layout for the underground
lighting conduit for the pedestrian scale lighting and traffic signals.

Page 8 of 13

Board of Aldermen 2-06-2020 Page 20

If you add the numbers, the cost of the PAC including the $2 million acquisition of the building, it’s not $4 million
it’s $2 million, it’s $22.5 million dollars. That means $7 million dollars above the $15.5 million dollar bond; $7
million dollars in deficit building the Performing Arts Center. Then it’s $1.2 million dollars of endowment fund in
the plan, that’s why the $22.5 plus $1.2 is $23.7, that’s the number presented by ICON, the Architect. | don’t
know if you need the $1.2 million. We are very fortunate, we got Spectacle Management that have agreed to
operate this Performing Arts Center with no subsidy but the condition was to make it 750 seats. Well 750 seats
is not the same as 550 seats of the original design, the stupidity of putting it on the second floor, that’s gone.
That’s not going to come to get 750 seats.

So if you add the $1.2 million there’s another expense, there are utilities that have to be moved, utility poles,
transformers, you can’t actually electrocute people as they deliver props. There has to be better access off
Pearl Street. All that is costing $1 million to $2 million dollars. If | estimate $1 million dollars and add the $1.2
million dollars for the endowment fund that’s planned the total budget is now $24.7 million dollars. If you take
out the $1.2 million which | don’t think you need, it is still $23.5 million; that’s a far cry from the $19.5 million
dollars that is represented in the orders before you. It says $15.5 million, with $4 million dollar private funding.
You are $9.2 million dollars above the $15.5 million fund that you have; that’s the only money you have. That’s
what this Board of Aldermen authorized. That’s alot of money. What if the New Market Tax Credits don’t go
through like the lady said before, this is a good year. Ortolano, she ought to know, her husband runs a big
operation. If it doesn’t come through this year, what’s the back up plan. I’m not at all saying you ought to drop
the project.t If you drop this project, that’s another problem. You can probably sell the $2 million dollar building
although | don’t know if you are going to get $2 million dollars for it. But the other sum cost, the architect, if you
look at this sheet the architect’s fees are $1.3 million. That's spent, that design is pretty much done, that
design you see over there, it’s a very nice design. It’s not the design | wanted to tilt it in to the building as
opposed to that design, that’s OK the Committee chose that design. It’s a taller elevation and narrower.

Chairman Dowd
Mr. Teeboom, can you summarize for us?

Mr. Teeboom yes the point of it is, the $9.2 over. If you don’t get the New Market Tax Credits what is your
alternate plan? And I’m saying again you are not going to drop this project because you are going to lose $1.3
million dollars in architect fees, that’s gone and another $200,000.00 in pre-design services, so you are down
about $1.5 million. You drop this project as some people would recommend, you are out $1.5 million dollars,
plus the $2 million dollars you are stuck with. So you’ve got a lot of problems here. You have to start thinking
about Plan B. Plan B if you don’t see the New Market Tax Credits. Plan B if you don’t raise $2.5 million. And
probably the Plan B is probably the people I’m looking at. Thank you.

Gordon Jackson 59 Cheyenne Drive. | would like to thank the Mayor and the Board of Aldermen for listening to
us tonight. I'll start off by saying | am opposed to this amendment to that resolution for several reasons. You
begin your, how shall | say, you begin your argument with the assumption that this facility will in fact generate
or create an economic or an improved economic environment for the City of Nashua. So you begin with an
assumption. Now I’ve spent the last 3 or 4 days going through all of the history of our Art Center here in
Nashua and as we probably all know, it has been quite an ordeal going back. We decided where it was going
to be we have consultants, | should be in the consulting business, | could have done pretty well here. But
we’ve gone over this time and time and time again.

We were even thinking of putting it on top of the parking garages at one particular point which | thought was
pretty crazy, but nonetheless, we have suddenly come to the conclusion that this particular location is the ideal
one. Quite frankly | think that is also an assumption. One of the reasons | am opposed to it, let me clarify this, |
am not opposed to an Arts Center here in Nashua. | am all for it, like many others. | am opposed to this
particular project and inasmuch as that it doesn’t do, and | am surprised by this, that the artists of this
community seem to be for this, because it seems to totally ignore any support for the Arts in Nashua.

Board of Aldermen 2-06-2020 Page 21

We may be importing artists to perform for us where if you have the wherewithal to buy a ticket you can sit
down and enjoy but it does not support, in my mind, the Arts Community. So you won’t see potters there, you
won't see sculptors, you won’t see weavers, you won’t see many of the different artists who are striving here in
Nashua to be any part of this.

You know if | can, as you can imagine a lot of paperwork from going over all this history, this is from Webb
2015, this is one of the studies that was done. They gave us three options, they said “partner with a regional
college or university on the development of a new art center’. Ok that sounds pretty reasonable. Or option
two, develop a downtown and here are the key words to me, “meeting, events and music center’. | just don’t
see this as that sort of environment to encourage our local artists to be a part of this in any way. You know |
see it as a Performing Arts Center like | said where you on a Saturday night you’ve got the wherewithal to pay
$50 bucks or so for a ticket, and you go out to a restaurant and you have a meal and you go home. So the
economics of that is we are supporting a lot of restaurants perhaps and bars downtown but | don’t see it
generating that sort of economic that we are trying to generate for the greater good of our citizens.

And then of course the third option for them that they give us was to develop an arts district anchored by
renovating the Keefe Auditorium and the Hunt Building. So it then occurs to me, what is the downtown? Well if
you look at a lot of these studies, the downtown is described as Main Street, starting at the Hunt Building, going
south to City Hall but continuing if may beyond City Hall further south, getting you almost the entire length of
Main Street if you want to look at it that way. But it goes considerably further to incorporate these little bump
outs for example the hospital, medical center, this that and everything and Elm Street by the way and Keefe
Auditorium. Already 3 minutes? | haven’t even got started, I’m sorry. So anyway, I’m not as | said opposed to
an art center. | just don’t think, | think we could do better quite frankly. | think the projects that we have ongoing
in the Riverfront are fantastic and | think the idea of trying to get more of these millennials downtown is great.
But | think if we could just pause fora minute and do better, | would agree with this gentleman that said
continue that limitation, thank god whoever had the good sense to do that and extend it perhaps to give them
what they think would be an appropriate time but let’s not jump — | hear numbers like 22 — we started with 15 |
think we were kind of, | won’t say, a bill of goods. But we were told and | think we had a turn out the total voters
at that last election it was only 16% of the total voters and so that means only 8% of the potential voters voted
for this with a majority of 150 votes.

What | feel is you don’t really have the confidence of all the citizens of Nashua to proceed on this, | would go
slowly and | would go carefully. Thank you.

Dave Ladd My names Dave’s Ladd, | live at Watson Avenue in Nashua, life-long resident as well. And | really
have no up or down vote, but | do have a couple of questions for the funding campaign. Who is responsible for
the C3, not the fiscal agent, but the C3, is that your organization? Who are the officers of the C3.

Ms. Novotny

Rich Lannan is the President.

Mr. Ladd Ok my question maybe for Rich more but maybe you can pass it along. March 15" is the filing
deadline for the 990 PF, is the City, that’s a matter of public record. In that form will be a list of donors, called
Scheduled B attached, no social security numbers just names and addresses and the amounts donated. That
form is a matter of public record and can be found on the internet actually. So the question of disclosure, a
quiet phase doesn’t really exist. That information will probably be processed in about 4 to 6 weeks and will be
available at that time. So my question to you is why wouldn’t it be provided ahead of time? It will be obtained,
if it is not willingly obtained, it can be requested and under penalty for failure to provide, up to $10,000.00, it will
be provided as a matter of public record, as required by law. If it’s not filed actually, the C3 actually risks losing
its exemption for failure to file over a period of time. So there is a point, that information will be available and
will be public or other consequences will happen. So | don’t know if that’s the plan not to provide it but it will be
provided one method or another. It will be made available. I’m just curious why it seems as though there can
be a quiet phase when the form with the required documentation will be a matter of public record.

Board of Aldermen 4-14-2020 Page 5
President Wilshire

Mayor, do you wish to address the Board?

Mayor Donchess

Thank you. Well Madam President, we are now into the Coronavirus Crisis for a number of weeks. The
City Employees are working hard to continue to deliver services to our citizens, our residents while at the
same time trying to enforce social distancing, physical distancing whereby in many cases working remotely.
Many of our City Employees are working 7 days a week on the Coronavirus Crisis. | want to thank all of
them for doing that.

Right now Nashua is in a relatively good position, we have 96 cases in Nashua. In New Hampshire there
are more than 1,000. But we see down south of the border of the border in Massachusetts that there are
many more cases than we have up here, in part because of all the measures we are taking to do the
physical distancing. In addition, unfortunately, we have 7 deaths in Nashua so far. The hospitals though
are in good shape, there are about 10 positively confirmed Coronavirus cases in the hospitals. However, if
you know someone whose family has been seriously impacted by this, which | do, it really brings home that
even a single case is quite a tragedy.

But in any event, many people in the community are contributing and working very hard to meet this crisis.
For example, we have many people making masks for everyone in the community or hospitals, first
responders, we want to thank all of them. Also, over the weekend a company by the name of SoClean
from Peterborough delivered 3,000 masks to the City, including 1,000 N95 masks. | want to thank Jorge
Ortiz who is the Nashua resident who has been very kind enough to make this happen. Thank you So
Clean and thank you to Mr. Ortiz.

What we have on our Agenda, Madam President, the first item is the necessity of transferring another
$200,000.00 into the Coronavirus effort. As you previously recall Madam President, the City has
appropriated $150,000.00. We have on the line Administrative Services Director Kleiner as well as
Emergency Management Director Kates who can in the absence of time for a Committee Meeting are going
to report to you regarding the need for these funds. But of the money appropriated so far, we have
$13,000.00 left. We are seeking approval tonight, so we hope you will suspend the rules for $200,000.00
more.

What we need this for is for additional cleaning which we have been doing very extensively in City
Buildings, but also for PPE, or Personal Protective Equipment; masks, and the like for our employees and
First Responders and others. People working even in Public Works who we want to wear masks and who
are picking up garbage, working on other Public Works duties. So in addition to that, we are the first line of
defense sort to speak with respect to the Alternative Care Site which is located out of Nashua South. That
needs to be outfitted now with some oxygen equipment in case people need to go there and they need
oxygen. Although we are being asked to front this money, the Governor has assured the City both privately
and all of the communities of New Hampshire publicly that FEMA and the State will reimburse us 100%
with respect to any funds expended at the Alternative Care Site.

In addition, we will get at least 75% on all the money we are spending internally, the PPE and everything
else that we are spending money on. So we will be reimbursed, but we do need to have money available
now in order to do that. But as we discussed previously, Madam President, because we need this money
immediately really, in order to inform the Board in more detail as to the need for the money and exactly
what it will be expended for, we do have Ms. Kleiner and Mr. Kates on who will report to you regarding
those issues. So in conclusion on that item, | am asking the Board to suspend the rules and pass R-20-
027 tonight so that we can proceed with our Coronavirus efforts.

Also, | wanted to address, Madam President, two other items that are on the Agenda. The next one is R-
20-029, this is just on for a first reading; no need to act on this tonight. But we are proposing that various