Board of Aldermen 2-06-2020 Page 21
We may be importing artists to perform for us where if you have the wherewithal to buy a ticket you can sit
down and enjoy but it does not support, in my mind, the Arts Community. So you won’t see potters there, you
won't see sculptors, you won’t see weavers, you won’t see many of the different artists who are striving here in
Nashua to be any part of this.
You know if | can, as you can imagine a lot of paperwork from going over all this history, this is from Webb
2015, this is one of the studies that was done. They gave us three options, they said “partner with a regional
college or university on the development of a new art center’. Ok that sounds pretty reasonable. Or option
two, develop a downtown and here are the key words to me, “meeting, events and music center’. | just don’t
see this as that sort of environment to encourage our local artists to be a part of this in any way. You know |
see it as a Performing Arts Center like | said where you on a Saturday night you’ve got the wherewithal to pay
$50 bucks or so for a ticket, and you go out to a restaurant and you have a meal and you go home. So the
economics of that is we are supporting a lot of restaurants perhaps and bars downtown but | don’t see it
generating that sort of economic that we are trying to generate for the greater good of our citizens.
And then of course the third option for them that they give us was to develop an arts district anchored by
renovating the Keefe Auditorium and the Hunt Building. So it then occurs to me, what is the downtown? Well if
you look at a lot of these studies, the downtown is described as Main Street, starting at the Hunt Building, going
south to City Hall but continuing if may beyond City Hall further south, getting you almost the entire length of
Main Street if you want to look at it that way. But it goes considerably further to incorporate these little bump
outs for example the hospital, medical center, this that and everything and Elm Street by the way and Keefe
Auditorium. Already 3 minutes? | haven’t even got started, I’m sorry. So anyway, I’m not as | said opposed to
an art center. | just don’t think, | think we could do better quite frankly. | think the projects that we have ongoing
in the Riverfront are fantastic and | think the idea of trying to get more of these millennials downtown is great.
But | think if we could just pause fora minute and do better, | would agree with this gentleman that said
continue that limitation, thank god whoever had the good sense to do that and extend it perhaps to give them
what they think would be an appropriate time but let’s not jump — | hear numbers like 22 — we started with 15 |
think we were kind of, | won’t say, a bill of goods. But we were told and | think we had a turn out the total voters
at that last election it was only 16% of the total voters and so that means only 8% of the potential voters voted
for this with a majority of 150 votes.
What | feel is you don’t really have the confidence of all the citizens of Nashua to proceed on this, | would go
slowly and | would go carefully. Thank you.
Dave Ladd My names Dave’s Ladd, | live at Watson Avenue in Nashua, life-long resident as well. And | really
have no up or down vote, but | do have a couple of questions for the funding campaign. Who is responsible for
the C3, not the fiscal agent, but the C3, is that your organization? Who are the officers of the C3.
Ms. Novotny
Rich Lannan is the President.
Mr. Ladd Ok my question maybe for Rich more but maybe you can pass it along. March 15" is the filing
deadline for the 990 PF, is the City, that’s a matter of public record. In that form will be a list of donors, called
Scheduled B attached, no social security numbers just names and addresses and the amounts donated. That
form is a matter of public record and can be found on the internet actually. So the question of disclosure, a
quiet phase doesn’t really exist. That information will probably be processed in about 4 to 6 weeks and will be
available at that time. So my question to you is why wouldn’t it be provided ahead of time? It will be obtained,
if it is not willingly obtained, it can be requested and under penalty for failure to provide, up to $10,000.00, it will
be provided as a matter of public record, as required by law. If it’s not filed actually, the C3 actually risks losing
its exemption for failure to file over a period of time. So there is a point, that information will be available and
will be public or other consequences will happen. So | don’t know if that’s the plan not to provide it but it will be
provided one method or another. It will be made available. I’m just curious why it seems as though there can
be a quiet phase when the form with the required documentation will be a matter of public record.
