Board of Aldermen 2-06-2020 Page 16
a good job. So | chose to come back to Nashua to serve as a public servant. | am the Executive Director of
the Nashua Community Music School which is a 35 year old non profit organization that serves this area. | also
currently serve as the Chair of the Nashua Arts Commission and | have also been fortunate enough to be
asked to be part of this wonderful Steering Committee for the Performing Arts Center.
| speak strongly in favor of this amendment; | think it is really important that we give the good team that we
have assembled more time to be able to put together and amazing project that has already been two years in
the making. | can speak firsthand saying that | think Nashuans as a whole, they have a lot of heart. So we
have a lot to say, right? Alright, we have a lot to give to others; the charitable community in this area is so
warm and so welcoming and | say that as a member of it because of the Nashua Community Music School and
our nonprofit status, | see that first hand. And | think Nashuans see that there’s a lot of value in what we have
now, but | think it is really important as public servants, for myself and the folks on the Board, that we also
embrace all the potential that we do have to still reach. This Performing Arts Center project and your choice to
extending the time and allowing us to have more time to make it as successful as it has the potential to be, will
really help us reach that level of potential.
As the Chair of the Nashua Arts Commission, | want to share, there are 6 goals that exist in our most recent
Nashua Arts & Culture Plan. The Performing Arts Center hits all of them. We want to create an identity for
Nashua as an arts destination. We want to increase a marketing value, something that draws people here.
This project does that. Mr. Mayor and Director Cummings have spoken at length about the economic
development benefits. That addresses the commerce goal of our current Arts & Culture Plan. It will inevitably
bring growth and education, to not only the people who are currently here in the City living and working and
enjoying what we do. But it also provides a centralization effort knowing that this Performing Arts Center is an
integral part of our downtown of our center. | ask you, Board of Aldermen, the team that is on this project is
good. The Steering Committee has not acted in haste. There are two dedicated groups; one working on
design and operations and another working on financial fundraising, and they are proceeding thoughtfully and
carefully. They want to act strategically; they don’t want to be rushed to fit a means that is not going to be
successful and what we deserve.
There has been a specialty team working with the volunteer committee, of architects, of theater consultants of
lighting consultants, acoustic consultants. The Committee themselves is a group and a mix of audience
members, arts lovers and people like myself, musicians and theater professionals who are with the project
every step of the way saying this is going to be the best thing for our Performing Arts Center to be successful
and this is the best way it is going to serve our community. | need you to consider an extension of time for this
funding, an extension of time for this funding could have such a negative effect it could effect or derail the entire
project, but an extension of time for the funding of this project does not mean we are asking for an extension of
time for the project as a whole. If we are allowed to proceed as we are currently working, our goal is so that the
project will be open and operational in the fall of 2021. That’s our goal right now. If you give us more time
there’s a really good chance we will be able to have that and see that success firsthand. If you choose not to
give us that extra time, the building within the center of Nashua that could be the heart of what we do here and
who we draw here, could be empty, could be a vacant space, could take years to become a new level of
potential for us here in Nashua to reach. | think that everyone in this room, whether you’re on the board or you
are in the audience; | think everybody wants to the same thing. | think we want to make Nashua a special to
live a long and happy life. This project, | ask you to vote in favor of this amendment because this project will
help us get there.
TESTIMONY IN OPPOSITION
Ken Siegel Hello everyone, Ken Siegel, 224 Parker Street, Lowell, Massachusetts, former Board of Aldermen
member. How are you? | see some of my former colleagues on here. I’m not in opposition to the arts center, |
am actually addressing this specific piece of legislation which goes to whether or not there should be a time
frame on the fund raising or not. | was the person that put the original amendment in that called for the 2 years.
The reason I’m here is | think Alderman Klee was rewarded for starting a thread in the Nashua Civic Sounding
Board and just tried to be nice and got basically beaten about her head | think.
