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Carolyn R. Choate 59 Cheyenne Drive « Nashua, NH 03063
603-883-7435 Cell 603-533-4984
crchoate@tvl3nashua.com

Management Executive, PR Professional, Fundraiser, Ambassador, Survivor

Management executive with an excellent reputation for integrity and working in all
aspects of private and non-profit organizations.

Goal-oriented professional whose success is driven by expertise in a variety of fields
and with a heart for community service. Has demonstrated leadership skills in creating,
developing organizational mission objectives whether financial, human resources,
marketing, or communications. Shows independence but embraces team approach and
seeks to collaborate whenever possible. Experienced negotiator. Noted for bold,
creative initiatives in marketing and fundraising. A breast cancer survivor who turned
personal tragedy into breast cancer awareness advocacy.

Professional Experience

1988 - Current: Producer & Sales Manager WYCN tv13 Nashua

e Miultiple responsibilities in programming. In charge of local programming lineup as well as
booking, scripting, and promotions.

e Producer for three, long-running programs with broad experience in development, strategy,
human resources, and public relations.

e Sales and marketing. Responsible for local sales force and adept at contract negotiations.
Built station from financial ruin to million-dollar asset.

2006 — Current: Free Lance Food, Wine, Travel Writer
e Occasional wine writer for “Celebrate NH” Magazine; Castello Banfi, Italy; Chateaux St.
Michelle, Seattle
e Occasional writer for “Northlander’” Magazine, Porsche Club of America; Restaurant Review,
Copper Door; Wine Tour, LaBelle Winery; travel piece, North Adams, MA
e Occasional travel writer for newspapers

2003 — 2007: Lay Instructor & Mentor Rivier College
e Responsible for developing and teaching credited Video Production Workshop.
e Developed student lead and faculty lead programs focusing on student programs and activities
in the former and, local and state business issues through the Rivier MBA program.

2006 — Current: Professional Writer & Consultant
e Free-lance writer in the areas of food & travel.
e Pro bono public relations writer for Boys & Girls Club of Nashua, Elm Street Middle School,
Nashua Rotary Club, NH Minority Health Coalition, & Breast Cancer Education Initiative for
Low-Income & Minority Women.

Special Board of Aldermen 12-07-2021 Page 30

Tim Cummings, Economic Development Director

So the red highlighted shows what the current construction costs are that we modeled, what we've designed, what
we've gotten back. We won't know when we put it out to bid, which, you know, the construction manager will do
ideally sometime this spring. At any time between now and then, the numbers could increase. But we have
contingencies built into the project. So | don't believe it will. What it will do is we will, as we continue with design and
we get a better understanding of what the individualized project costs are, it will tell us what would be available that
we could then reallocate to maybe some of the other priorities that we're just not going to be able to get to. Because
to be able to make this budget work, we need to stay under $21 million just with the current estimates that we have.
And really, it's because we just wrapped up preliminary design. We know that we need to carry a good contingency
but we expect that contingency to go down once we get through final design.

Chairman Dowd
Any other questions? Seeing none, I'll open the public hearing on R-21-193 testimony in favor.

TESTIMONY IN FAVOR - None

TESTIMONY IN OPPOSITION

Dan Richardson

Thank you very much. Dan Richardson, 70 Berkeley Street, Nashua, New Hampshire. I’m generally disposed to not
believe that this is a very good approach. Apart from the artistic impressions that were revealed, giving maintenance
nightmare, the segmented green spaces at different elevation levels you're going to have a terrible time maintaining
this. | noticed several areas that were inaccessible for people who are non-ambulatory. Besides that, | understand
the present low bond rates would prompt one to want to borrow as much money as you can at the present time. |
understand that philosophy in one shot, but that's not actually what happens. We get the bonding authority and
money is borrowed in segments over time as it's needed. So that you have you don't have to have an excess amount
of taxes covering the debt service.

So the real problem | have with this is the usage of a TIF. TIF is fundamentally unfair to the rest of the community and |
got to tell you the reason why is because it's established in State law, State Statutes how this works. There's no means in
State Statutes of segregating inflation from the truth - increasing the valuation of the property. All things being equal if
there was no inflation, you will be able to find an increase in valuation ostensibly attributable to the increase in property
values in that district. However, there is no such provision of law and you have no means established to do that.

So that's a true problem. It causes an increase in valuation due to inflation which causes an increase in taxes from that
valuation increase. That was fundamentally captured views only in the TIF District. And that's unfair to the rest of the city.
It produces an excess amount of money for use only in that area and what ends up happening is when people see an
excess amount of money, they tend to increase the scope of a project beyond what it is ostensibly for. So | am against
use of a TIF District for financing this. | think what you ought to do is have general obligation bonds and just straight up,
borrow the money as you need for the project segments

Alderman O’Brien

30 seconds.

Dan Richardson

...for the particular annual budget. Thank you very much.

Chairman Dowd

Anyone else in opposition?

Laurie Ortolano

Laurie Ortolano, 41 Berkeley Street. Mr. Cummings started this presentation off by saying he's had numerous

presentations with the board and other committees. Can you tell me the last presentation you had with which board?
What board was that?

Special Board of Aldermen 12-07-2021 Page 31

Tim Cummings, Economic Development Director

Sure, it was with the Board of Aldermen. It was the Infrastructure Committee and I'm gonna say it was in September off
the top of my head, but I'm sure you could go back to the meeting minutes and look. | don't know.

Laurie Ortolano

Yes, the meeting was in March 24" of 2021 was your meeting on the Riverwalk project with the Infrastructure Committee.
You are not on the agenda in September, October, or August. In that meeting, you said that you would like to come back
to either this committee or the entire board and on the Board of Aldermen minutes, | have a specific search engine | can
use. The last time Riverwalk was discussed was 2019. | feel it's inappropriate for you to do a presentation of this nature
at 9:30 at night and then roll into a Budget Committee to approve a bond of this size. This should have been vetted before
the full Board and the community should have an opportunity to discuss this. | have a lot of questions. I'm with Dan on
this. | don't like the TIF funding on this and | don't like what | see going on with the TIF funding because it's not fair to the
rest of the community.

At the end of the meeting, Alderman O'Brien said that there would be future meetings that we would get together with the
committee that Dave Tencza is on and we would be able to work more on ideas to move this project forward. That joint
meeting | can't find either. So there is very little history on this. The community has had very little information and it
almost seems like you and the Mayor have been working more quietly behind closed doors to push this forward. | don't
see how TIF funding means it doesn't cost the taxpayers anything because we're bonding $21 million here. You're going
to close Water and Factory Street for a period of time to do work. How exactly is that going to work when you put barriers
up on Main Street for three years?

Alderman O’Brien

30 seconds.

Laurie Ortolano

That's another issue that needs to be addressed. So this should be tabled. | hope the goal is not to get this approved
before a new Board of Aldermen seats or spend this kind of money. I'm asking the Budget Committee to table this, take it
to the full board, hold some more meetings, and | would like another public hearing on this when we have more information
and can ask more questions. Thank you.

Tim Cummings, Economic Development Director

Thank you. Again, | just want to reiterate, we were before the Infrastructure Committee and | don't have the date in front of
me but September, off the top of my head early fall, late summer, where we discussed this because we had a conversation
at length about Water Street. So | don't have the time to go through the minutes but | can tell you that we had that
conversation. | wasn't alone. It was with other members of the Infrastructure Committee.

Chairman Dowd

Is there anyone else that would like to speak in opposition?

Laura Colquhoun

Laura Colquhoun, 30 Greenwood Drive. First of all, Mr. Cummings gave this same presentation in March of 2021 and
never mentioned $21 million. | also find that the TIF program is stealing from the general fund to get it into the TIF
area therefore screwing the Nashua taxpayers. This is something that should be brought up in front of all the
residents of Nashua that we should see this because $21 million for another downtown project is absolutely ridiculous.
You also have to realize between the PAC, the new school, and now this how much more do you people want us to
pay? We have inflation coming up and Mr. Cummings doesn't even live in Nashua where he's putting all these things
in and | think that the residents have a right to say whether they want this to go down or not. So I'm asking you to
table this. | thank you.

Chairman Dowd

Anyone else want to speak in opposition? Seeing no one, | will go back to testimony in favor.

Special Board of Aldermen 12-07-2021 Page 32

TESTIMONY IN FAVOR - None

TESTIMONY IN OPPOSITION

Laurie Ortolano
A question. Why did Director Cummings decide that now is the time to take on a $21 million project?

Tim Cummings, Economic Development Director

Yeah, thank you. | actually would have liked to take it on a year or so ago. Unfortunately, it took us over a year to get
through FEMA permitting so we could actually move this along. | would suggest a two year phase of being within
preliminary design is much too long. However, that's what we had to go through to be able to get to the project to the
point now that we're in and I'm trying to move this along as fast as possible.

Laurie Ortolano

Well | think you need to consider what we can afford and what's been proposed because while you were working hard
to get that permitting, | understand, there were other bonds that came up and got approved like our DPW facility, as
well as some other big projects. We just did a massive amount of (inaudible) and we're in a different time period now
with some new assessment numbers coming out next year. So | think the timing of this is not correct and | think this
has been done very underhanded and backdoor. There has not been enough open vetting of this and the discussions
at the Board of Aldermen table have not taken place since 2019. This should not be voted on now. Thank you.
Chairman Dowd

Anyone else in opposition? Seeing no one, | will close the public hearing on R-21-193.

ADJOURNMENT

MOTION BY ALDERMAN O’BRIEN THAT THE DECEMBER 7, 2021, SPECIAL MEETING OF THE BOARD OF
ALDERMEN BE ADJOURNED, BY ROLL CALL

A viva voce roll call was taken which resulted as follows:
Yea: Alderman O’Brien, Alderman Klee, Alderwoman Kelly, Alderman Dowd,

Alderman Caron, Alderman Clemons, Alderman Tencza, Alderwoman Lu,

Alderman Jette, Alderman Laws, Alderman Cleaver,

Alderwoman Harriott-Gathright, Alderman Wilshire 13
Nay: Alderman Lopez 1
MOTION CARRIED

The meeting was declared adjourned at 9:38 p.m.

Attest: Allison Waite, Deputy City Clerk

<=

Downtown Riverfront Implementation
December 7, 2021

Genesis for the Project

NASHUA DOWNTOWN
RIVERFRONT
DEVELOPMENT PLAN

FINAL REPORT

City of Nashua, New Hampshire
Mayor Jim Donchess
Community Development Division

Prepared by Halvorson Design
August 2017

Project Purpose

Multimodal Connectivity
Access to the River
Recreation/Greenspace
Environmental Stewardship
Floodplain Resiliency

Economic Development

- VHB
Slatverson Design

: Haynee SYA,

Project Area:

~ Timeline
& ‘ e ; Prelimin
oN Master ary Final Design
N Plan — Design &

2016/2, 2020/20 Construction
\ 91A'\/ 21 Start 2022

toy aye
Authorizati
on 2021