Special Board of Aldermen 03-21-2022 Page 2
The program that we have been able to relocate is the Title One Program. It used to be at a church at the top of Main
Street. We have relocated that program to Broad Street. So the preschool program that was at Broad Street is now
at Franklin Street and the Title One Program has moved there. So we’ve now saved the rental costs that we were
paying out there. About two years ago, we started looking for a permanent home for those two programs. We looked
across the City, had the assistance of Tim Cummings virtually across the entire City, different empty warehouses of
different sizes, and shapes, and conditions but we ultimately decided on Franklin Street. Last winter, we decided to
purchase it. We also had our architect to working with us on the middle school project take a look at it, they gave a
favorable nod that it was in good condition. I’ve been in this business for a long time. So the building had good
bones. It was originally built by Nashua Corporation as a laboratory. It’s mainly cinderblock construction and in good
shape. It had also been previously been used as a Nashua Christian Academy so it had very recent use as a school.
That was first grade through twelfth grade | believe.
So our plan was to put the High School Alternative Program on the third floor of the school and occupy the first and
second floors with the preschool programs. As | said, the Title One Program had already been situated at Broad
Street. Starting last spring, we started renovating with in-house workforce primarily, but contracted out some system
work such as the fire alarm system, public address system, intercom, and telephone systems. So those were all
brand new. Somewhere along that construction path or renovation path, the Fire Department determined that we
could not have high school students on the third floor and preschool students on the first and second floor primarily for
egress purposes. So imagine a fire alarm going off and God forbid a real fire and you have preschoolers on the
second floor trying to egress and the high school students theoretically running over them. So they did not want the
egress path to be the same for those two populations. We did look at alternatives but you cannot have preschool age
students on the third floor. | believe the State kicks in at that point, so that was a no-go. So we did think of that.
So ultimately we moved the Brentwood in on the third floor as planned and we moved the preschool programs at
Broad Street over to Franklin Street and they occupy the first floor. They did have to move the OTPT program to the
basement. The basement is actually in pretty good shape. It has ceramic tile and it’s really fabulous shape. So we'll
be using that quite a bit in the future. The second floor we could not use, so we could put adults there so it became a
place for offices and things like that for the staff if they needed office space. Again, no students could go on the
second floor.
So the lack of inability to use the second floor is really a driving force for this bond. We actually got some pricing from
Harvey Construction a group who also happened to be the construction manager for the middle school project and the
price tag at that point was $1.5 million. That was last summer. That was kind of about the time steel prices started to
shoot up. So we kind of have an idea of what the prices are now. We also did price out the handicap accessible
ramp in the very front of the school and that was at the time about $150,000. In the Harriman’s original assessment
that they did prior to us even purchasing the building, they noted we needed to improve the ADA compliance
bathroom, stairwells, access to the building, flooring, and asbestos abatement. I'll get a little bit more into that.
Pardon me for all the talking. We'll get into some nice color pictures later in the presentation.
So the other thing we knew the bones of the building were in good shape. We knew eventually we’d want to replace
the HVAC system. Everybody knows HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning). So that was our plan at some
point but then unfortunately we went through this pandemic and fortunately the silver lining was that extra funding
became available to us. | don’t know exactly what the acronym stands for but its Brimsy School something Relief
Funds that are made available to us. The City of Nashua, School District - | don’t know where the price tag is now,
but it’s millions of dollars - $29-30 million something like that and we have to spend at least 30% of that on non-
construction items. So those are school programs, that sort of thing to enhance the learnings of children of all ages,
all school levels that lost out during the pandemic. We weren't in school that sort of thing - we weren't learning. So
that’s where at least 30% of it is going to go. We haven't accounted for the remaining 70%. That’s still under
development, but we did put in and we did receive approval from the State for between $5-6 million dollars for Franklin
Street.
Again that fund is set aside primarily for code related things. That really means ventilation. So in our case, it’s a little
bit of a good thing because all the ventilation for the most part is above the ceiling. So what do we have to do? We
have to tear down all the ceilings, we have to replace all the lighting, all the suspended ceiling, and all that is covered
by this construction. What we are going to end up with is removing everything above the ceilings, all the asbestos
piping, covered piping is up there — that’s going to removed, brand new ceilings, suspended ceilings, brand new LED
lighting. Those are all things | hoped to achieve at some point, but over a long period of time not in one fell swoop.
Some of that work has actually already begun. We've almost completed installing a brand new high efficiency boiler
in the basement for primary heat and we will be starting work on the second floor in earnest during April school
vacation break on a not to infer basis. They won’t be making noise or doing an abatement while school is in session.
