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Special Board of Aldermen Public Hearing — 12/16/2019 Page 14

R-19-191 - AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR AND CITY TREASURER TO ISSUE BONDS NOT TO EXCEED THE
AMOUNT OF ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTEEN MILLION DOLLARS ($118,000,000) TO FUND
THE DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF A NEW MIDDLE SCHOOL AND RENOVATIONS AND
EXPANSION OF THE EXISTING TWO MIDDLE SCHOOLS (PENNICHUCK AND
FAIRGROUNDS), INCLUDING THE PAYMENT OF COSTS INCIDENTAL OR RELATED
THERETO

Harriman & Harvey gave a brief overview of R-19-191 before hearing public testimony.

Chairman Dowd

We have Harriman Architects that are going to present this part of the bond presentation. Please identify
yourself.

Mark Lee, Architect Harriman

Very good, thank you very much Alderman Dowd. My name is Mark Lee and | am an architect with Harriman
and with me this evening is also Jaime Ouellette another architect with Harriman. We are here to give a very
concise overview of the findings of a process to develop a concept design to address the three Middle Schools
in the City of Nashua. Mainly we looked at the existing Elm Street School, we looked at Pennichuck Middle
School and we also looked at Fairgrounds Middle School. The goals and objectives of the study that we
conducted were to address the deficiencies at Elm Street being one of the highest priorities. The building is
the oldest of the three different structures and in need of the most upgrades.

We looked at two different options. One, we looked at what would it look like to renovate the school itself, the
Elm Street Middle School. The second option was looked at how does that compare with the option of
constructing a new Middle School. Through all of the studies that we did, as has been noted, we worked in
concert with Harvey construction. So we would test out different organizational patterns of the school and then
Harvey Construction would cost those out.

The second goal of the study was to review the facility conditions at all 3 schools; so not just the deficiencies at
Elm Street, but really looking comprehensively. This was a Middle Schools Project not just simply the Elm
Street Project itself. We had a team of architects and engineers go through and evaluate the buildings,
identifying areas for improvement, specifically looking at a new model for the schools where we would equalize
the enrollment at the different schools. That was to create a more equitable experience for the Middle School
students. So the idea is what would it take to look at creating an 800 student school at Fairgrounds,
Pennichuck and either existing Elm Street or a new school.

In evaluating the model of 3 800-student schools, we primarily were looking at what we call the educational
program spaces, but those are the special education spaces. So what spaces are needed to support the
special education programs currently in the schools. We looked at the spaces necessary to support a middle
school concept of delivering education that is really thinking about the social and emotional development of
students at that age group and the need to create a more defined community within the larger school itself.
And so we call those the Middle School Team Areas.

The other thing we looked at were the Unified Arts, things such as Art and Music and some of the Career
Technology Programs and looked at how those aligned with the High School Career Technology offerings.
Were the offerings similar or equivalent at all 3 middle schools? We also evaluate them for safety and security
in looking at what needs were there and how could we make improvements to the safety and security at the
three existing schools and certainly constructing a new school today we would be able to create one that is
State of the Art with respect to how we would organize space and also the different technologies that we would
put in, thinking about safety and security, which is very much top of mind for educational school designers now
more so when the other schools had been constructed.

The other thing we looked at were the athletic and Phys Ed Recreation Facilities both inside the buildings as
well as outside of the schools.

Special Board of Aldermen Public Hearing — 12/16/2019 Page 15

While Pennichuck and Fairgrounds have a compliment of recreation and athletic fields, the Elm Street location
does not have outdoor recreation spaces on the school site. We looked at, in addition to those programs, we
looked at what we call “core spaces” those ones that serve all students so that is the library and the cafeteria
and thinking about the sizes of those to support an increase at both Pennichuck and Fairgrounds and also
thinking about an 800 student model at Elm Street or a new school.

Lastly in addition to thinking about the schools themselves, we also took comprehensive review of the site and
in particular some aspects of the sites of the 3 different locations and that had to do with traffic flow through the
site; safety with pedestrian crossing; traffic routes; the ingress and the egress from the sites themselves and in
general the different site amenities; parking, and storm water treatment on the sites themselves. So that ina
nutshell in sort of the scope of our study. The results of that Jaime is going to walk us through the different
concepts at Pennichuck and Fairgrounds and a new school proposal. So Jaime?

Jaime

Thank you, again this Jaime Ouellette with Harriman. So | will kind of walk through each school and start off
with the site of each school and then move into the building itself.

At Fairgrounds Middle School, the site concept design incorporates a multitude of different items. The
perimeter security drive will be upgraded, there is additional parking added to the southside; reconfigured drop
off and entry, expanded bus loop, on-street queuing lane; and reconfigured parking at the entry lot. As you
move into the building, we are looking to add a new admin and secure entrance to the building, upgrades to
the unified arts spaces, science room upgrades, team collaborative instructive spaces, gymnasium upgrades,
upgrades to the special education rooms and some limited system upgrades which includes electrical,
mechanical, and their fire alarm systems.

Over at Pennichuck Middle School, we are looking to remove the portable classrooms. In order to do that there
has to be some additions to the buildings which are noted there in “B” so there is not only those “B” additions
account for the removed portable classrooms, but it also has to account for the additional capacity to equal
these out at 800 students per school, give or take, plus or minus. Reconfigured parking, new bus drop off, new
parent drop off, traffic signal at Manchester and Ferry Road, additional entry location for the busses which is
also emergency access drive, separation at the median at the entry so that the ingoing and outgoing are
separated, the traffic coming in there. The right and left exit lanes into the site and out of the site, entry turning
lane onto Manchester and improved pedestrian crossing at the crosswalk. So that whole intersection that
enters the building enters the site is getting upgrades to help with traffic and congestion that exists there. As
we move into the building, you can see “A” signifies those classroom additions that replaced the portables and
allow for increased capacity. “B” signifies a library addition, “C” upgrades to the unified art spaces, there are
science room upgrades, again those team collaborative instructive spaces, some gymnasium upgrades with a
stage addition, upgrades to special education rooms, and a cafeteria expansion to account for the additional
capacity at the school.

The new site location is located in the southwest quadrant of the City, you can see it very faintly in the bottom
left picture all the way at the bottom is kind of a light green, | think it says “N” for new school. And then if you
move to the upper right photo, you can see how that transposes on to the existing site. It is off from
Cherrywood Drive to the right and BuckMeadow off to the left. The other street indicated up in that kind of
upper left quadrant of that right photo is Main Dunstable. So it is a 20 acre site development. There are on-
site parking spaces, recreational play fields and courts. There is a natural preservation area, connection to
existing trail networks, there’s an access drive from BuckMeadow, an emergency access drive from
Cherrywood. Water and sewer that come from Cherrywood, new upgraded power from BuckMeadow.
There’s a sidewalk to the site from BuckMeadow, there’s dedicated service in emergency drive as well as
dedicated safe sped play areas.

The building consists of four levels. The first floor level is the mass of the school and there is a ground level on
the lower side of the building. If you took that piece that says “ground level” you slid it right under the spot right
next to it, that would be where that was located.

Special Board of Aldermen Public Hearing — 12/16/2019 Page 16

The building accounts for things like secure entrance, innovative middle school classroom communities, ability
to close off public spaces for after school activities and community access, 21°' Century Unified Arts & STEM
spaced, enhanced sped spaces, administration, nurse and guidance, gym, performance spaces, new cafeteria,
library. And then it accounts for possible future additional locations off the end of each wing which is noted on
that southern side of the picture here is the classroom wing and the upper portion that kind of square piece is
the public space, it would be the cafeteria, the gym, things like that.

There is a second and third floor, those are more classroom wings, they account for some of those same items
we just spoke about.

Mr. Lee

So that, again, is very, very concise summary of what the results of the study were. | think the study process
has been a little over a yearlong effort to engage various stakeholders to develop that as we have really
enjoyed going through that process both with community as well as the School District. As we said at the
beginning, it is a concept design, so that means that the design has to account for all of the major spaces, they
are approximate size and location and building, but it is not a final design. Those floor plans do evolve a more
detailed development of the project itself. But with that we are here to answer any questions you may have.

Chairman Dowd

Does any one from the Board of Aldermen have any clarifying questions they want to ask of Harriman. Ok we
are going to open the public hearing for R-19-191. Again, there are frequently answered questions sheets in
the back, we should try not to ask any questions that are covered by this sheet. We have a lot of people here
this evening. Again, please try to limit your input to 3 minutes or less. If you have a question, you can ask 1
question, if you have other questions that aren’t asked during the presentation from other people, then you can
ask it at the second go around in testimony. So having said that, | will take testimony in favor of R-19-191.

TESTIMONY IN FAVOR - None

TESTIMONY IN OPPOSITION

Doris Hohensee 15 Swart Terrace. |’m on the Board of Ed. | just want to tell you that the Board was not kept in the
loop. We tried to find out information especially when the Mayor said that Elm Street was going to go to housing
for low income. We hadn’t decided as a Board so it was rather puzzling why that decision was made in the press.
At the vote, because as you know, the Board has to vote on the plans in order to authorize this. This is what the
Board President said on the day of the vote, before we took the vote on the motion, supposedly that approved this
project. “I just want to be clear tonight that this motion is not binding us to build a new middle school. It is just
voting to simply say that we are going to go forward with the new middle school option at the JSSBC and if we hate
their designs, we can say no or not and then come back to the Board”. So we didn’t get the impression that this
was a final decision and we voted 7 to 2 or something like that, 20 minutes later our motion which was on one
building, was now expanded to 3 buildings and a special ed unit. | want you to understand the context on which
you are voting tonight.

Next, there is no easement from Buck Meadow, we can helicopter them in, parachute the students in, but we only
have the emergency entrance from the back, unless we get an easement, which my understanding is we don’t
have it and unless we build a roadway across that land which | have priced out at about $2 million dollars more,
then we have access to that property. And then there is supposed to be, in advance of building a school, the State
regulations say that we are supposed to have a statistically valid study on enrollment; well we didn’t do that. We
just like 800 here, 800 there and 800 in the last place. But if you look at our enrollments over the last ten years,
Fairgrounds has gone down 28%; Pennichuck has gone down 17%; overall the District has gone down 14% in ten
years.

Special Board of Aldermen Public Hearing — 12/16/2019 Page 17

So with this rate of decline of students, 35% less students we will have over the course of 25 years which is about
the life of the bond. So we won’t need one out of the 3 schools. So! am sure there is a reason to do some of this
work and | am not opposed to it but | think we are not doing our due diligence before we run and bond. It is the
process, it is the process, itis the process. Thank you.

Howard Coffman Also on the Board of Education, thank you Ms. Hohensee, just to validate what she said. My
particular concern is access through Buck Meadow, we do not have access to the building site. | think it is really
poor public policy to approve a bond when you can’t even access the property you want to build on. That is an
affront to all logic and total disrespect to the tax payers in what is supposed to be a democratic process. The
school re-districting plan is in your Q&A. The fact is, that is the kind of planning that should be done at the front
end, because that will help you determine your enrollments, which will help you decide your capacities. Doris
mentioned no historical or projected data which is required by law by the way. It should be in the plan now, not
later. There is no staff impact plan, there’s no transportation on how we are going to move the 1,100 kids that are
at Elm Street. There’s been no public hearings at the School Board level or the JSSB on this matter. You saw the
detailed work presented for well it exists for Pennichuck and Fairgrounds; that level of detail does not exist for the
new building. | guess you can’t plan a road when you don’t have access to it, maybe that is the most honest thing
they’ve done in that plan. There’s no technology plan recommended by the State. The Special Education plan
while | wholly support it, is grossly inadequate because it only does the middle school, it is only going to cover
grades 6 through 8; it does not address the whole District’s need for Special Education which is to the tune of $6
million dollars a year now in out-of-district placement right now plus transportation.

There is no analysis or impact statement regarding what the tax rate is going to be as a result of this. There is no
impact on what the operating budget for the District is going to be if we have to hire staff or whatever, there is no
operating budget. Our Finance Committee is now beginning to borrow within the Finance Committee and the
Operating Budget, you'll see that on Wednesday night. There’s not Citywide Demographic Analysis, the buildings
although they have similar capacity approximately of 800 students, the square footage is very different. The two —
Fairgrounds and Pennichuck are roughly 125,000/135,000 square feet. The new building is 193,000 square feet.
There’s 50,000 feet, maybe Public Works should move in there, there’s plenty of room. | did ask the architects,
they said it is accounted for in stairways and hallways and equipment, but 50,000 square feet. That’s a lot of
space. The District Office currently now is about 9,000. So just in terms of perspective 50,000 extra square feet of
space. Noise abatement people in the community are concerned about that, has not been committed. | believe
we are overbuilding, no reasonable analysis has been made, enrollments are not included in our strategic plan.
They are not included in this plan as required by law. This is a premature decision | suggest you get road access
before you decide and commit $118 million dollars.

Kristin Ford | live at 101 Cherrywood Drive. My property abuts this land for the new proposed middle school.
Some of you may already know my name because I’ve been very vocal in the last 6 months in opposition of this
project. Dropping a giant middle school into this quiet neighborhood is something that myself and my neighbors
have been staunchly opposed to. Once Harriman, thank you, you know, once they came up with a concept design,
some of us, myself included, have felt a little bit better about the project, essentially with having the main access
point off Buck Meadow and not Cherrywood, essentially because Cherrywood is not, it’s just not a street that can
handle that kind of traffic. So | don’t know where things are, | know that Doris and Howard are criticizing with not
having the easement, I’d like to echo that but also hope that can go through because | have talked to some of my
neighbors recently and they are concerned. What if the easement doesn’t go through, what is Plan B? I’m not
asking that right now, | am just saying that is the concern. Does then fall back on having the access point through
Medallion and Cherrywood, | don’t know, | mean maybe that’s to be decided. So you know there’s a huge concern
there. We are also concerned about buffers, | know in the FAQ’s it says X amount of feet, but you know there are
13 properties that essentially between Medallion and the part of Cherrywood that | live, it’s just not a huge buffer. |
mean all due respect; you can basically see 150 feet into the woods right now. Stand in my backyard, any of you,
please come to my house I'll show you. So we want to make sure that we are being heard and being listened to. |
have e-mailed the entire Board of Ed, all of you Aldermen, Mayor Donchess, you know, | have become sort of the
unelected official here and | just want to continue to push and push.

Special Board of Aldermen Public Hearing — 12/16/2019 Page 18

So my question | guess for Alderman Dowd being the Chair of the Committee, | want to get a sense for sometimes
as we are expressing these concerns we are feeling placated, and | want to know, what is your plan. What is the
JSSBC, the Aldermen’s plan for working with us, the community? Because you had said yourself at one of the
JSSBC meetings that the top priorities are the safety of the children because we have concerns about the streets
and how Buck Meadow is going to work, you know, that is a very narrow road, there’s fog, there’s wetlands,
whatever. You know there’s concerns about having the safety of the children but also, the least disruption to the
neighborhood. So that’s my question is how do you plan to work with us to make sure that happens. Because |
can continue showing up at these meetings, you are not going to get rid of me that easily. But you know we want
to make sure that if this school is going in 100% yes, then our view has changed from “No | don’t want it”, to “OK
let’s compromise” and that means we are willing to compromise but we want you to compromise too.

Chairman Dowd

I'll let Harriman chime in as well but it has been our, as we mentioned in several of our meetings before, we are in
the concept phase now, we are going into detail design phase and we will be interfacing with all of the parties that
we have interfaced with since the beginning; whether it is local City Departments, neighbors, teachers,
administrators, as we have finalize the design. The intent is to make it as more neighborhood friendly as possible.
Would you like to add some more?

Mr. Lee

Sure Alderman Dowd and we have appreciated the input that we have received from the neighbors at the two most
recent public hearings that we have had so we echo sort of the sentiment of sort of collaboration going forward. If
the project were to move forward, we are committed also to continuing that dialogue to understand how we can
look at the development and create the least possible impact to the abutters.

Ms. Ford And | do want to thank you for the design, you know, | had said | think at the last meeting where | saw
you, specifically how the main use of the buildings where the classrooms are sort of on that south part where they
might be after school weekend activities that are in the northern part of the design, where that would be just
physically further away from the housing. So that’s great, | want to thank you for that, that kind of thing, right? |
know there will be JSSBC meetings, but will have they public input through the detailed design phase?

Chairman Dowd

Oh absolutely, absolutely, and you'll be invited.

Ms. Ford You can’t stop me, I’m not going anywhere.

Chairman Dowd

We don’t want to stop you.

Ms. Ford But | do want to say as much as | was staunchly opposed to it, like | said, once Harriman came out with
their design | felt a little bit better about it. You know, as a parent, | do want to state for the record that | feel in
favor of this, | have a daughter she’s 3 years old, eventually she will be going to this new school. | much prefer her
in a State of the Art brand new school than at Elm Street, the current school as it is. So thank you for your time.
Fred Teeboom 24 Cheyenne Drive. | looked at the questions that were just handed to me, but nowhere in the
questions is a question “can we afford this”. Answer the question, can we afford that. So | have a couple of

questions, first of all you mentioned detailed concept design. To what detail have these concepts been
developed?

Richard O’Hearn Jr., CEM

Senior Energy Engineer

Summary

Mr. O'Hearn has over 7 years in the roadway lighting industry, focusing on turnkey & energy
efficiency projects on the national level. He has acted as a consultant for a joint venture
between the U.S. Dept. of Energy & the National Renewable Energy Labs, as the industry
expert in roadway lighting data collection. Since joining Siemens Mr. O’Hearn has been
involved in numerous energy analysis projects and has added rich value and expertise to
each opportunity he has been assigned.

Education

Post-Bachelors Program, Accounting; University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
Bachelor of Science, International Business; Massachusetts Maritime Academy

Employment History

2014 — Present
Energy Engineer, Siemens Industry, Inc.
Responsibilities include:
e Utility analysis
GIS data oversight
Luminaire selection
Energy calculations
Utility bill adjustments
Rebate calculations & applications
Energy Assessments
Investment Grade Audits
Project Energy Management
e Guaranteed Energy Savings Analysis and Management

eeees#eeesse#8e.

2014 - 2014

Program Manager, Lighting Solutions, ConserVision Energy
2012 - 2014

Sr. Project Manager, Phillips Lighting

2007 - 2012

Applications Engineer, Speclines
Reference Projects
City of Manchester Street Light Conversion

Role: Energy Engineer
Project Details: Street light conversion and maintenance contract for 9,000 lights

Ciamane Induetry Ine Intallinant Traffic Guctame

Special Board of Aldermen Public Hearing — 12/16/2019 Page 19

Mr. Lee

So the question is, to what level of what detail has the cost estimates been done and that is actually a great
question for Harvey but Harvey Construction has put together a very, very detailed estimate of materials, quantities
and labor units to develop the cost based on their experience in building schools. It is a very, very detailed
breakdown.

Mr. Teeboom | just want to remind you, the last time Harvey gave us a detailed break down it was on the
Performing Arts Center, | think it something $10.5 million dollars. Carl knows that, right now it is around $20 million.
So can we afford it, that’s the question, | looked and did my own analysis, and it talks about an average payment,
average payments don’t count, actual payments count. The first payment due in this bond is $8.85 million. Then it
goes down. $8.85 million represents about between 4% and 5% of the tax rate. 4% to 5%, how are you going to
pay for this? Are you going to load another 4% to 5% on the taxpayers?

Chairman Dowd
Is that your remaining question?

Mr. Teeboom | have another one, this is a public hearing Mr. Chairman so | intend to ask some questions. You
are talking about a $118 million dollar bond that has a $54 million dollar interest payment. Interest alone represents
46% of principal because you are borrowing this thing for 25 years. Can we afford it? Can we, just to give you an
idea, | looked at the budget to see exactly what this means. Right now, if you look at the 2020 budget, you will find
that the combined City School debt is principal and interest, it’s $166 million. This school project alone more than
doubles that, $172 million added to $166 million; that’s over $300 million, my God. Who is going to be looking at
the details? You know I’ve got this fancy four-story building, who is looking at the details, can we afford it. | didn’t
see that question in the questions? In terms of the payments, we are talking about an annual payment of new debt
of $8.9 million dollars, | think | mentioned that earlier, it was the first payment. That’s half the current $17 million
dollar payments, the total payments in the budget today are $17 million, we are adding more than 50% on top of
that annual payment, annually for 25 years. Where is the bonding analysis, | did not see that presented. | saw this
fancy little diagrams, very nice, you know, the playing area and all that. I’d like to go to a school like that, hell I’d
like to live in a palace. But where was the bonding analysis, has that been performed Mr. Chairman.

Chairman Dowd

Is that a question?

Mr. Teeboom Yes.

Chairman Dowd

Then you would ask the Treasurer.

Mr. Teeboom Mr. Treasurer?

Mr. Fredette

Excuse me, David Fredette City Treasurer. We have a bond spend plan that we update annually, sometimes more
than once a year. And this project has been included in that plan and been reviewed. The one thing that you have
to remember is debt payments are going down from Fiscal Year 22 through 25 because the High School is being

paid off.

Mr. Teeboom | know the debt payments are going down, but are they going down by $8.9 million dollars?

Special Board of Aldermen Public Hearing — 12/16/2019 Page 20

Chairman Dowd
Is that another question?

Mr. Teeboom Yes because that’s a first year payment on this debt, $8.9 million; is the debt going down by $8.9
million.

Chairman Dowd
Treasurer Fredette?
Mr. Fredette

Well I’m not sure $8.9 million is the first year payment, it depends when the bond is sold, how it is sold, if we do
bands prior to selling, there’s a lot of aspects to this bond that we don’t know yet. We could do an equal payment
bond versus liberal principal which the payment would be lower. You end up paying more in interest but the
payment is lower at the beginning. So | don’t know what is going to be done at that time.

Mr. Teeboom That’s not an answer, I’m going by your own analysis, your own bond statement, your own bond
statement states an average payment and the average payment is correct over 25 years, it does average out, it
ignores the beginning payments. Your total payment of interest of $53.69 million is correct. So either your analysis
is incorrect or it is correct. You can’t just say well | don’t know what is going to be. You have to do a bonding
analysis, when we did the high schools and spent $156 million some 20 years ago, there were very detailed
bonding analysis done before anybody talked about adding a huge amount of bond payments to our budget.

Chairman Dowd

Mr. Teeboom you do realize that after careful one-year plus analysis, we determined we had to do this work to
these middle schools in order for the educational requirements to meet the State standards. And you do also
realize that if we were to renovated Elm Street which doesn't include building a new school, that it would have
added somewhere between $15 and $25 million additional dollars and we wouldn’t have had something that met
the State standards for middle schools. So this is a project that we need to undertake. It’s like back in the day
when we had to build the two high schools because the school that was built before that was built on the cheap
and was falling apart. So our intent is to build a good school.

Also as far as Harvey is concerned, Harvey has done a number of schools and are currently involved in building
schools. So they have an extensive amount of experience in pricing these things out.

Mr. Teeboom | have no doubt about that, they should go to Fairgrounds to find a column that’s got my name on it,
because 25 years ago we renovated Fairgrounds. | am familiar with school renovations, all am | asking is can we
afford this size project? Do we, for instance, have to do all the 3 middle schools just for equity, just many
questions have to be asked. You do a needs analysis, you have to do a detailed bonding analysis to look at our
current bonding which projects bonding going forward against an $18 million dollar bond which more than doubles,
it doubles $166 million to $172 million added as | said before to our City and School debt load. These have to be
done. And how much money are you going to get for Elm Street School? Are you going to sell it? Is that going to
off set this bond, that’s another question Mr. Chairman.

Chairman Dowd
We are not in a position to answer that question right now. The intent is that if we are not using it for a school, that

it will be turned over to the City to do whatever the City wants to do with it. You have exceeded your time. There
is going to be another session, so please let someone else come up and testify.

Special Board of Aldermen Public Hearing — 12/16/2019 Page 21

Mr. Teeboom We just heard of Burke Street earlier that you are going to take the Burke Street property, almost $4
million and apply that structure to $10 million dollar building, why aren’t you doing that? Instead of getting all
hunked about these fancy buildings, start looking at the question that is not on this question list, again, can we
afford it?

Chairman Dowd
Any one else that wants to speak in opposition. Please state your name and address for the record.

Stephen Scaer, 11 East Hobart Street. Could you tell me how much this is going to add to the annual tax bill of a
median home of $300,000.00?

Chairman Dowd

| don’t Know if anyone has that answer right now for the reason that the way the bonds are let, could be different so
there is no exact amount. Also we try to keep the bonding in the City at a fairly constant level for that very reason
so the tax impact is not that great. But we can’t give you a dollar figure now.

Mr. Scaer OK thank you.

Laurie Ortolano 41 Berkeley Street. | picked up this information pack on the back with these questions and like
some of the questions raised here, the first question | had is what is the cost of this, where is the bond analysis. |
built a school when | was over in Litchfield on the School Board and one of the things we looked at very closely
was the bond and the cost. | think it is really unacceptable that you are asking us to get behind a $118 million
dollars without being able to tell us what the impact on the tax rate is on some estimated level. | can’t shop that
way in my budget and | don’t want my City spending that way with my money, it’s just not acceptable. I’m shocked.
There are a lot of nice questions in here but | expected to see a bond estimate in here. | am also concerned about
the enrollment study and whether we are overbuilding our space, you know? We have enrollments that have gone
down and we need to be careful about how much additional space we are taking on.

It is expensive, we have got to maintain it and there’s a lot of parents that look for alternate options for education.
We know some of that grant money got flushed away to take for charter schools but that’s going to remain an
issue. You are going to have parents looking for alternatives and that is going to move students out of the middle
and high school and | think that matters.

So the lack of a schedule and the enrollment study is that this City tends to shortcut on the studies that need to be
done and the impact studies that need to be done when you are doing projects. And you and | all know that | have
been very involved in assessing. | saw a lot of short cuts go on down there. One of my concerns is | really don’t
want to have to pay for something like this when | know | have an assessing department that doesn’t know how to
establish equity for our assessments. If you are an over-assessed property you are stuck and you are going to pay
a bigger impact and a bigger cost tax rate for this type of bond than others. We haven't figured out how to
equitably assess this City and we are going to have to eat this $118 million dollar bond. When would the first
payment kick in for this bond, that was another thing | was curious about, there’s a question — one.

Chairman Dowd

We don’t know when the first payment would kick in because we don’t know when we will be selling the bonds,
when the first payments will be due. That’s downstream.

Ms. Ortolano So my vote is fix your assessing department, learn how to create equity for everyone and then sell
your bonds, because | don’t want to pay for them before that. Thank you.

Laura Calhoun 30 Greenwood Drive. I'd like to read a statement. This action first should be brought up to the
residents of Nashua and not just by the Mayor and the Board of Aldermen. Nashua residents should have a voice
and be able to vote on it.

Special Board of Aldermen Public Hearing — 12/16/2019 Page 22

Bottom line, is it will be the Nashua residents paying for the school in even higher property taxes. City Officials
keep on increasing our property taxes here in Nashua. However, they do not realize that young people cannot
afford to get an apartment in Nashua and young couples cannot buy a house and then pay their property taxes.
The residents have already seen a drop in young people moving into Nashua, so why spend the money on a new
school when the tax payers would prefer to put the money back into the schools we already have.

The Mayor does not seem to mind spending the tax payer’s money on frivolous things like a half a million dollars
on a boat ramp. How many residents us that boat ramp, 5, 10%? | do not think that Nashua residents should have
a Say in this type of spending? Why did the City Officials not go up to the Legislative Committee to get the $10
million dollars for Charter Schools but instead let the State Officials turn it down? $45 million dollars would have
gone a long way to help the Charter Schools within the State of New Hampshire which is a better educational
rating than any of our public schools. Did they want the Nashua resident to decide where their children should go?
How many Nashua parents are waiting to get their children into Charter Schools? If the Mayor was not interested
in getting the money, why should the Nashua residents spend the money for the new school?

If the Nashua Officials went up to this meeting, they would have heard that the State had stated that New
Hampshire has a declining K to 12 enrollment, so why would the Nashua residents pay for a new school when the
number of children within the State is dwindling? Officials would have also heard that the Academy of Science &
Design and Micro Society Charter Schools in Nashua have the longest waiting list to attend these schools. Did
Nashua Officials even consider these schools or the Nashua residents who are waiting on these lists to get their
children in for a better education? No. Our Mayor and our Board of Aldermen only want to spend Nashua tax
payer money. Well Nashua residents do not want to spend their money on a new building, fix the schools. Thank
you.

Beth Scaer 111 East Hobart Street. | request that the Aldermen provide an analysis for the amount of financial
bonding commitments, including any possible additions for planned projects for the next five years. | would ask if
any alternate lower cost proposals have been considered for each of the programs that you wish to bond. We
shouldn't have to build for an increase in student population when data shows a decrease. You can design a
building to allow future additions if necessary. We should also see the estimated increase in our tax rate which
should have been developed. Have you considered delaying any of the programs until some of our bonds are
completely paid? | think an alternate proposal should be discussed at a future meeting where we can see less
expensive options. Thanks.

TESTIMONY IN FAVOR

John Roche 12 Meadowvew Circle. | just want to say | think the world of this project. | think that the Joint Building
Committee and Alderman Dowd deserve a ton of credit for the hard work that they have done. | am absolutely
looking forward to having a brand new middle school down in my southwest corner of the City.

Shawn Smith Good evening, | am the Director of Plant Operations for the School District, also a relatively
recent new resident of Nashua. | was living out in Temple and moved to Nashua this past March. | like that my
commute has gone from 45 minutes to less than 10. | didn’t prepare any statements until | started hearing
everything in opposition so | thought I’d come up here and talk a little bit.

First and foremost the discussion about the access road, for one thing if that is indeed in negotiations which |
think it is, itis not something you want to talk about publicly, so we can’t. From what | know those discussions
are on-going and | am not going to say anything more about that. I’ve been here for over 22 years now in this
position and | cut my teeth on the Amherst Street Elementary School Project, renovation. | was here for both
high school projects. There’s been five other elementary school projects since then, all renovations, obviously
| am pro schools and pro building and putting money into our schools. | do know that the site on the southwest
quadrant was set aside years ago, even before my time. So it has always been set aside, there was a lot of
concern with the residents that they thought it was all conservation land; it was never conservation land. It has
always been set aside for the school.