A regular meeting of the Board of Aldermen was held Tuesday, July 12, 2016, at 7:30 p.m. in the
Aldermanic Chamber.
President Brian S. McCarthy presided; City Clerk Patricia D. Piecuch recorded.
Prayer was offered by City Clerk Patricia D. Piecuch; Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire led in the Pledge
to the Flag.
The roll call was taken with 14 members of the Board of Aldermen present; Alderman Ben Clemons,
recorded absent. Alderman-at-Large Daniel T. Moriarty arrived after roll call at 7:34 p.m.
Mayor James W. Donchess and Corporation Counsel Steven A. Bolton were also present.
REMARKS BY THE MAYOR
Mayor Donchess
On our agenda tonight is the proposal that we begin a sister city relationship with Mysore, India. Mysore
is a city in southern India in the state of Karnataka of about 900,000 people. It has a growing IT
economy which is heavily into tech and it is a good fit for us because we have a number of citizens who
live in Nashua who are Indian; about 6% of our population. The vast majority of those citizens either
come from Karnataka or the neighboring state of Andhra Pradesh, both are in southern India. One of the
west and one on the east side of the country both on the ocean. We have about 5,000 people in Nashua
who are Indian/American citizens. This is a portion of our population which has grown very rapidly
compared with the rest of the city over the last number of years. When | was in city government before
we had a small Indian population and now it’s grown exponentially. Many of our citizens are involved in
the tech and healthcare industries and these are areas of the economy that we want to grow and
encourage more people to settle in Nashua. One thing that the Chamber of Commerce pointed out in a
report that it presented was that Nashua, during 2010 through 2014 maintained basically a stable
population but during that time, but for immigration from other countries, many of the people coming from
various parts of India, we would have lost population; probably about 4,000 people. We want a growing
and dynamic community and the Indian population that we have are very significant contributors to our
community. | think if we form this relationship | think we might be able to help to grow our tech economy
along with theirs. Many people from India find that if they come here the opportunities are greater both
for employment and to start new ventures. | would recommend that you follow the committee’s report
and enthusiastically back that relationship.
Another thing | wanted to mention is that in the budget we have the LED project which will save the city
considerable money every year in electric bills. Starting last night there is a test where you can see two
different LED lights. One version is a 4,000 Kelvin light which you can see along the Broad Street
Parkway. It seems brighter but it really has to do with color. Another is a 3,000 Kelvin version which is
on Terry Street so if anyone wants to make a comparison you can see them in those two areas. The
reason for the test is it’s within the contract that we have entered with Siemens and many communities
have adopted the 4,000’s but more recently communities are begging to adopt the 3,000’s because there
have been complaints about the 4,000’s being too bright and interfering with sleep and the AMA did
issue a press release about the problems that they have perceived with respect to the 4,000’s. The
decision needs to be made by the Board of Public Works in the near future as to which version to go
with. | think that it’s a possibility that we could do 3,000’s in the neighborhoods and 4,000’s on the main
roads but if any members of the Board of Aldermen or members of the public would like to check those
out and provide us your opinion we would certainly welcome that very much.
Finally, we have the senior center transfer on the agenda as well. The senior center has served us well
for a long time and they have done a very good job of breaking even and supporting themselves. In the
last couple of years that has become a little bit more difficult but they have pared back on expenses and
they are raising significant money still and this will help stabilize them for the coming year. We did a
similar transfer in recent years and this will help to stabilize this organization. Alderman Caron is on the
