Finance Committee - 07/01/2020 Page 20
Mayor Donchess
| thought it was probably going to the COVID Impact Account but maybe it is being issued directly out of the
Downtown Improvement Funds. But it is still being reviewed by the same loan committee. Mr. Griffin?
Mr. Griffin
Yes Mayor, just to add some additional clarity. The $5,000.00 payments, as Alderwoman Lu indicates, those
aren't the loans or the grants that we’ve been providing through the COVID fund. So you are absolutely
correct. The payments were made right out of the Downtown Improvement Expendable Trust Fund.
Alderwoman Lu
Thank you. Mr. Griffin, did you say they “are” the COVID-19 or they “are not” the COVID-19.
Mr. Griffin
Hopefully my microphone works, they are not part of the loans. They were, as the Mayor indicated, direct
payments as the choice of the team that reviews the Downtown Improvement Funds. They were made directly
out of the Expendable Trust Fund for downtown improvements to those entities that are shown on that page.
Alderwoman Lu
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that fund disburse directly to small businesses in downtown Nashua, | could be
wrong. But | mean, | thought they were just, they didn’t move the money from the Downtown Improvements
Fund to the COVID-19 Relief Fund that we set up. And | thought they were for COVID-19, but if they are not for
COVID-19, are they just, | mean is that the way our parking revenues are disbursed, just like you know to
increase the revenue of the downtown businesses?
Mr. Griffin
Mr. Mayor, if | may? Instead of moving the money, the $55,000 / $56,000.00 to the Impact Fund, they were
direct disbursements and as the Mayor indicated back when this began in the 2011 /2012 time frame, I’ve
never seen direct payments to businesses. But because this is an unprecedented time, they wanted to get the
money quickly to those businesses. Generally what you are going to find is that campaigns or other downtown
related initiatives that would have nothing to do, they wouldn’t? spend the money and give it to businesses to
then go out and spend again. We have a long list of initiatives that have been funded by the Downtown
Improvement Committee.
Mayor Donchess
Yes, this would be the first time that money has been directed to any private business, but of course, COVID-
19 is an unprecedented situation. Some of the projects they have paid for over time, the new directional signs
that you see around the City, for example, were paid for with Downtown Improvement Funds. Holiday Lighting,
other needs like that are funded with the use of these funds. | mean it usually is somewhere in the vicinity of
$100,000.00 to $150,000.00 per year.
Alderwoman Lu
So | can | just make sure | get this straight, can | ask a couple of follow up questions?
Mayor Donchess
Yes.
