Board of Aldermen 2-12-2020 Page 23
So | will support the amendment too, my purpose in debating with Alderman Jette’s was | want to make
sure that are being attentive to this because if we just politically say it is easier for someone else rise or fall,
then we are not helping the people of Nashua who actually this to succeed. And even like getting old, this
could literally rise and fall while we are just still working on this project that we thought we could knock out
of the park in 3 years.
Alderwoman Kelly
Yeah thank you Alderman Lopez did cover some of the things that | was going to say. But it’s not a fair
comparison to the Soup Kitchen. Everything that they have raised so far has been grant money and
because of the project that it is, they do have some of liberty to be kind of ahead of the line and be in the
center. So they are not engaged in a Capital Campaign at this moment, which is different from what we are
doing with our people and our Capital Campaign.
Alderman Schmidt
Thank you, the City voted on an idea. We voted on an idea. And | think that was a terrific idea, it really
mattered to a lot of people. It’s not just downtown, it’s not just business, it’s people coming, it is growing
the City, it is growing downtown living which is beneficial for this City. This started out as an idea, and
because we are Government, we can’t do things like non-profits do. We have to be open to everything. We
have to be sure that everything is done exactly correctly and we started out with an idea and for a year and
a half it took that idea to grow. Now we have the design, we have the people that are getting the money for
us, we have a plan for the future, and | think it is way too early to say throw it all away. 18 months is a
small, small amount of time to give this a chance to finish growing. | really think that we need to pass this.
Thank you.
Alderman Klee
| want to mention also, Alderman Kelly mentioned about not being the same donors and the perfect
example of it is when | went with another member of the Steering Committee to get the Certificate and they
awarded the City up in Concord and | spoke to one of the people that made the decision. And one of the
things that she said to me was we are really excited about your project and | wish we could have given you
more. But we gave the Soup Kitchen and therefore but if we didn’t have that one we would have awarded
Nashua more money, which to me that excited me. The fact that we didn’t get it, it went to a good cause, it
went to the Nashua Soup Kitchen. So when you lose out to something like the Soup Kitchen | can
understand. But | want to make a note of that the donors that donate to the arts are not the same that
donate to programs such as the soup kitchen or some kind of social services. They are completely
different type of donor; there is some crossover, don’t get me wrong. Some people will give to both. Buta
lot of people that give to the arts, they give to the arts because that’s where their passion is. It is not saying
that they don’t have empathy and sympathy, but they tend to give to a particular type of venue. So we are
talking apples and oranges and you know sometimes we are talking apples and steak, just not really talking
about the same animal.
Alderman Clemons
Thank you | would be remiss if | didn’t mention this. So we are at the point here where we are amending
this to go to August 31, 2021. So to speak to that | want to stay two things. One, is that | have heard that
maybe we shouldn’t do this because of the donors, we don’t know about the donors. And | want to just
stress this to the public that Bank of America and Enterprise Bank have both donated between them
$350,000.00 to this. Those two banks are not going to donate to something that isn’t viable. They are just
not going to let their money go to something that is not viable. And it would be a very big disappointment
and it would probably be a very long time from ever, if the City was ever doing something again like this
project that they would ever donate again if we turned our backs on this project at this point.
