Board of Aldermen Page 16
August 9, 2016
Alderman Moriarty
| thank Alderman Deane for his hard work and if | don’t vote yes on this | will have my 10 year old son
who is a skateboarder will probably have a hard time forgiving me so count me in.
Alderman O’Brien
| offer to go watch Alderman Siegel skateboarding. This could be a baseball park or like what we did
with the Legacy Playground. These are hallmarks that make Nashua great. It includes skateboard parks
and horseshoe pits and other recreational facilities. If we voted to pass this resolution can the School
Board shoot down the wishes of the Board of Aldermen?
President McCarthy
If what you are getting to is should we refer it to the Board of Education, | don’t think that is proper
because they either have authority of they don’t so | am going to ask Attorney Bolton to opine on how it
would be handled but | suspect their vote is separate from ours.
Attorney Bolton
It’s not entirely dissimilar from the fact that this will be going before the Planning Board and they will have
to have a plan that they can approve. The Board of Aldermen has a certain level of authority but other
requirements also have to be fulfilled so it could get derailed at the Board of Education or the Planning
Board so it’s got to meet every requirement.
Alderman Schoneman
| think to have a facility like this is clearly good for the folks who want to use it. | think the choices that
they would be faced with if they didn’t have that are not good and healthy. | also think that based on
everything | have heard this is a great location for it. I’m also sensitive to the fact that actions that we
take can be frustrating for people. | think what helps us to get through that is process because process
is what self-government is about. | don’t see any fault with the process that was taken and | understand
the frustration and | respect the opinions of those who have spoken of their frustration but this looks like
a good location and | believe that the process was well documented and well committed and | will
support it.
Alderman Dowd
Just for the public’s information, the Board of Education has authority because it’s the Stellos lot, is that
correct?
President McCarthy
That is the belief. When we built Stellos we did it under the authority of the Joint Special School Building
as a school project which entitled us to reimbursement under the state aid to build an education building.
Alderman Dowd
Shawn Smith was part of the committee up to a point because they were considering other school sites
but this is a school site and | wonder why he dropped off.
Alderman Deane
He was on the committee originally when we were looking at areas within the confines of a school.
