Board of Aldermen 12-28-2021 Page 24
postponed. So things have happened. Obviously parts of Greeley have been either sold off or roaded. The original will
talked about 168, more or less, acres. Now we know that when | looked at the three parcels of what was considered
Greeley Park, | didn't really even quite come up to | think maybe 126 acres of it.
We look at Ward 3 as having a lot of acres. | look over at Ward 5 the way they say that they have quite a large number,
but that's primarily Mine Falls. Ward 1does have park. They have Lincoln Park and they have an entrance to Mine Falls.
Whether Mine Falls falls within Ward 1 or it falls within Ward 5, | don't know. Mine Falls also falls in parts of Ward 4
because it's really big. It's really huge. So it's loved and used by everyone within the city. | can say the same thing with
Greeley Park. | talked to people that live in French Hill and they walk up Concord Street and they go to Greeley Park.
There is a little pool in Greeley Park for the kiddies to go into and it's a beautiful pool. It's really tiny, but it is a beautiful
pool. We have baseball fields there; we have pickleball court on the east side. So Greeley Park is used by all kinds of
people. We have a stage there. It needs to be finished but we do have that. We have a little children's park with swings
and so on that is also in there. They recently replaced, | think, the old slide because it was metal, rusted, and even
burning children. So they now have one that will not do that.
I'm sorry that the Ward 9 parks are to not being taken care of and | have spoken to Alderwoman Harriott-Gathright on that,
and that just like yours Alderman O'Brien, is something that she really wants to be looked at and it should be looked at. |
think it should get the attention that it deserves. One of the problems with Greeley Park is if we don't do it now, we don't
act now, it's done. As far as a $2.5 million, you all have tabled that. So that isn't on discussion and while this other one
might say not to exceed $2.5 million, it doesn't mean we're spending $2.5 million. Maybe it would be less. Maybe we only
purchase half of that but | want the right of negotiation for the Mayor, for economic development whether to buy all of it,
whether to buy part of it but at least to start that discussion.
As was pointed out, this came in from an Alderman. It didn't come in from Director Cummings. It didn't come in from any
other department. It came in from me and it came in together just for that reason. | did not want to ask for a bond and
then have to come back and ask for authorization to spend that bond. Logic was to bring them both in together.
| don't have a staff but | do have an amazing Ward who has done a lot of work and they have given me more information
than | ever knew about Greeley Park and I'm sure you've all been the recipient of some of that information as well. So
yes, | don't have a staff but | do have an incredible constituency that has worked very hard for it. They've sent you emails.
They've talked to friends, and family, and so on that live there. For these people to come out and say, please purchase
this land, enhance Greeley Park, save growth. | know | wrote something here.
Alderman O'Brien you brought up a Pandora's Box. This would not be the first time that the city has purchased land to
stop development. Pennichuck is the perfect example of it. We purchased that land to make sure that it didn't go
somewhere else. That it didn't go to a foreign country. This is not quite the same thing. I’m not worried about going to a
foreign country but we want to make sure that we save the integrity of it. It was asked why didn't we approach the family.
To me, it would have been foolish to wait for this person who was passing away on their deathbed go knock on the door
and say, hey, can we buy your property? We didn't know what the family want to do. For all we knew, the family
themselves wanted to move back into that house. We did not know this was going up for sale. We heard about it - or at
least | heard about it when | was contacted by Mr. Geisinger who said can we meet? I've heard you’re the Ward 3
Alderman and I'd like to talk to you. That was literally days before he held a meeting. He actually notified the abutters
and the neighbors before he talked to me about it. So from the moment | learned about it, | took action. | didn't just sit
back. | took action.
You don't have to be with me. | understand exactly the way you feel. | understand what your constituencies feel but |
can't just say Ward 3 has too much green space, or Ward 1 doesn't have enough green space, or Ward 2 doesn't have
enough green space. The issue really is that the green space is where it is and we're changing the lines possibly. So to
turn around and say as a matter of fact, | think Ward 2 green space will probably grow a little bit because they're going to
be taking some of the thing | think the Pennichuck Brook which is going to be an issue to have to take care of and so on.
So need versus want, you can define it as that but this is a one shot deal. If it gets developed - trees clear cult, it's over,
it's done. Thank you.
Alderman Harriott-Gathright
Thank you, Madam President. When this first came to us and there was these apartments or townhouses that were going
to be built, we talked about whether it was affordable. What | found out and what we were told was that it was not
affordable housing at all. It was like a $650k type of homes. So right off the back, | was against that, because we are
trying to put in low income and affordable housing here in New Hampshire. So I’m really happy that the gentlemen pulled
out of that negotiation because it was bad news for Nashua.
