Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 5/20/2019 - P13
Special Bd. of Aldermen — 05/20/2019 Page 13
So you don’t need an endowment fund so whatever money is collected here should be thrown into the
construction job. But you cannot ask these architects to make up a $10 million dollar deficiency.
You have people in the Steering Committee talking about maybe cutting an elevator down into stairs or cutting
down one set of stairs into .. two sets of stairs into one set of stairs or maybe the loading dock is a little smaller.
| forgot all the little things you talked about; no way is any discussion going to make up $10 or $12 million
dollars. The problem is that this whole operation started with the suggestion of a budget and | remember
Clarence, he’s not here, he said “let’s vote the people for a vote” because he couldn't get the 2/3 vote for the
bond. It went for a vote, and (inaudible) it’s a $15.5 million dollar job. Now if you add the building, you add the
other $4 million dollars that | just mentioned, the building, the AV and architecture, that’s more than $1.7 if you
add the construction manager. This job is not going to be $10 million dollars over, it’s going to be $14 million
dollars over, maybe $16 million dollars over. You’ve got to start dealing with this. You either stop the project
which | hope you don’t do or you start coughing up some money. You are not going to get all this money in
fact — | understand it’s highly competitive from whoever made the presentation, highly competitive, not
guaranteed that Nashua will get that and no guarantee that you’d get the $5.2 million because you need the
$4.5 plus the 15% none of this is guaranteed. You have to start making a plan. Now it is not impossible for the
City of Nashua to come up with another $10 million. You bond $37.5 million dollars for road construction, you
had contracts for $300 million for the teacher’s contract, $300,000 million. But you have to start dealing with
this, you have to start getting honest with the citizens of Nashua about the true cost of this project. That’s why
| am here so I’m addressing this. Thank you.
Mr. Cummings
Thank you Madam President so | just want to correct for the record a couple of misrepresentations that were
just said a second ago and | don’t want to belabor the point or go too far off the subject here because we are,
after all, here for a very specific resolution and | want to make sure we stay on track for what it is that we are
here to speak on this evening. But we do have the press here and | want to correct for the record some of the
statements that were just made.
First and foremost, this idea that you know the project number being higher and has never been articulated by
me and I’m going to just point up to the slide that was presented to you on December 20" which outlines a
project of something in the order of magnitude of $18 million dollars. So even in December 20" of 2018, we
were talking about a project as high as this. | want to remind you to the fact that you amended the bond back
last fall that would allow you to re-appropriate the New Market Tax Credit money that is some $4 million dollars
in various ways.
Lastly | also want to mention the $18 million dollar figure that was referenced; that was at the start of schematic
design. The conversation further continued where the designers and architects were able to get the building
project at $13.5 million dollars with a charge of dropping the price down to something like $12.5 million. There
is a very clear understanding that we are designing to a budget and we are also making sure that we live with
that $15.5 million dollar commitment that the City of Nashua has authorized us to work toward. And we will do
that, we will not look for additional funds from the City of Nashua beyond that $15.5 million dollars.
I'll just conclude my comments by also saying that the feasibility study developed a concept that is much
different than what is being designed right now. It was a conscious decision by folks when designing this
Performing Arts Center that they wanted to design it appropriately and in the right way. They’ve made a
conscious choice to look at additional elements that weren't part of the feasibility study initially. So with that
being said Madam President, | think I’ve done a pretty good job of correcting the record and making it clear,
except for one last point which is depending on how you define the project. This evening we’ve been talking
about a $19 million dollar project, that is not counting the endowment fund that is being set up. If you count the
endowment funds that are also being set up, that could bring the project up in total of something like $21ish,
$22 million dollars, it really depends on how you define “what the project it is’.
