Finance Committee — 10/06/2021 Page 3
ON THE QUESTION
Mayor Donchess
Mr. Poupolo are you on remote?
Dan Hudson, City Engineer
Mr. Mayor | don’t believe he is. I’m here filling for him.
Mayor Donchess
Yourre filling in for him?
Dan Hudson, City Engineer
Yes.
Mayor Donchess
Okay, can you go ahead then please?
Dan Hudson, City Engineer
Thank you Mr. Mayor. Dan Hudson, City Engineer. Unfortunately Superintendent Poupolo sustained an injury which
prevented him from being here tonight. He is going to be fine so you don’t have to worry about him but he could not be
here tonight to present this item.
This item is noted for a field study to look at Mine Falls Park and potentially two synthetic athletic fields. This was put out
for a request for proposals. Six bid packages were received and NESRA Engineering was found to have the best
combination qualifications in price. They were the lowest price but also in review was found to have an excellent proposal
with good references. For that reason, we are recommending awarding this to them.
Mayor Donchess
All right and just by way of a little extra explanation since Mr. Poupolo is not here. The funding is from the cell tower in
Mine Falls Park. We are very desperately short of soccer fields in the sense that they are overused. We call them
rectangular fields now because they're also used for lacrosse and sometimes for other things. Fields are in bad shape
because they are overused and don't have time to rest. These are the natural grass fields. WE believe that ultimately we
can fund potentially these. Once we get the costs, we have to see what that would be but we believe we can fund these
artificial fields through the cell tower in Mine Falls Park, which is the revenue from which is dedicated to Mine Falls Park
improvements. So that would be the source of funds and is the underlying purpose of the study.
Alderman O’Brien
Thank you Mr. Mayor. | have to agree with you 100 percent if | may just briefly glom onto what you said. This city faced a
crisis when we had the opioid crisis and different things. One of the things that it most desperately needed is good quality
sports programs for the kids to get into and teach them the right way of structure and everything. Part of this with this
study is to enhance the current fields and like you said, to make them available for year-round use and everything. | think
it will Show the public exactly what we think and try to combat and try to have quality programs for the youth of our city.
So | am definitely going to support this. Thank you Mr. Mayor.
Alderman Jette
As a former coach with the Nashua Youth Soccer League, | can attest. | coached many games at Mine Falls and | can
attest not only Mine Falls but all of the fields in the city. There are lots of times we were playing on dirt and having
synthetic fields will probably be a great improvement. Forgive my — | don’t know if naivety is the correct word or just lack
of knowledge but if | could ask the City Engineer. Why do we need an engineering study before we put down a field like
this? What’s involved in the engineering that is needed before the field itself is covered with, | assume, some asphalt and
then a synthetic carpeting type material. I’m not sure. What’s going to be involved? Could you educate me about that?
