Board of Aldermen — 9/12/17 Page 35
One of the things that I’m not excited about, and this is just me, is it is unfortunate from an economic
standpoint that our symphony, New Hampshire Symphony, can’t take their full orchestra into this proposed
venue. It’s not large enough. They said they would bring their strings in or they might bring a brass or
whatever. There are other things that they could do there, but they wouldn’t be able to send their full band
there. | say economics because they need the number of seats that are available in the Elm Street Theatre in
order to pay for their instrumentalists. | will never see if this becomes fruition, or if this becomes a reality, | will
never get to see Gustav Holst, the Planets, performed in this theatre. | will never see Mussorgsky’s Pictures of
an Exhibition. | don’t get to see Dvorak’s New World Symphony. It’s not going to happen there. But that’s
something that | won’t be able to participate in, but there are other things that it could continue to do and
provide for the arts community.
| had one interesting email, and I’m sure several of the aldermen received it as well. That was from an artist in
the Nashua area that said, I’m not interested in the Currier presenting or having art coming from the Currier
come down here. We've got plenty of artists in Nashua. | thought it was an interesting data point, saying that
we have artists here that would probably be willing to move forward with exhibitions and something to present
at this facility, again, if it comes to be.
One of the things that we are not often afforded is the luxury of having to consider things in a vacuum. This
evening, we have a resolution before us asking for a $15.5 million bond. I’ve introduced a resolution as well
that’s considering a feasibility study for Daniel Webster College. It's not meant to be a competing resolution,
but unfortunately with the timeframe if this Board wants to consider the Daniel Webster campus for anything,
not performing arts, anything, school admin, the Brentwood School program for Nashua that is housed in
Merrimack, if we needed to do something with the records that are stored at Court Street or in this building,
whatever it is, there is a resolution that has to be considered within the next 30 days. It will go through a public
hearing. That resolution is for not-to-exceed $23.5 million. These are the other things, and Alderman Deane
mentioned several as well. These are the other things that we have to consider.
At last night’s Board of Education meeting, if any of you were able to watch it or listen to it, came up the fact
that Elm Street at some point in the near future will have to present a $48 million bond for that school to rehab
it. If they were to demo it and build from the ground up again, $42 million. This is as provided last night at the
Board of Education meeting. At the May 25" Joint Special meeting, Elizabeth Van Twuyver brought up the
same thing. What’s going on with the cost of Elm Street and Mount Pleasant? These will be competing
resolutions for money for the city. It’s unfortunate. | wish that the performing arts center was a standalone,
and we didn’t have to worry about other aspects of the city.
| want to vote for this. Honestly. | think there is real opportunity downtown. | would like to make a motion, but
| know that | can’t make a motion after holding the floor for this long. So, it is my intention to make a motion to
consider definitely postponing this until after the auction has been completed with Daniel Webster College. It’s
a month. October 23" is the auction date. We have a meeting on the evening of the 24" of October.
President McCarthy
| will allow you to make that motion. What is considered bad forum is making a motion to limit debate after
speaking.
MOTION BY ALDERMAN COOKSON FOR DEFINITE POSTPONEMENT UNTIL THE EVENING OF
OCTOBER 24, 2017
ON THE QUESTION
Alderman Dowd
Roll call.