Board of Aldermen — 9/12/17 Page 2
Today by coincidence and | swear | didn’t see this person out but we had a meeting about another subject and
| ran into the man who was the chair of the first board of directors of the Capital Arts Center in Concord who
was responsible for raising money and getting the thing off the ground to begin with. He pointed out that the
Capital Center has transformed downtown Concord over the past couple of decades. If you know Concord and
you think about it, the Capital Center is actually not really in the middle of Main Street or middle of downtown.
It is south by a couple of blocks. Maybe three but right around the Capital Center, you’ve seen two major office
projects, residential development, plus the Red River Theater, plus a new place for Gibson’s Book Store, and a
lot of other things that have occurred right around the Capital Center. This former chair of that board believes
that this transformation was caused by the redevelopment of the Capital Arts Center. His comment was, “that
the Nashua performing arts center would bring incalculable benefits to the City of Nashua and that Main Street
at the corner of Pearl is the perfect place.” Those were his words for this opportunity.
| have heard some people are skeptical and | certainly understand that but | don’t agree with running Nashua
down. We are a great city with tremendous potential. Now we know that the Capital Center in Concord is a
success. That community is half the size of Nashua. We know that the Palace in Manchester is a success.
The Capital Center is twice the size of what we’re talking about. They’re even in Plymouth — a community that
has 1/6" or 1/7" the size of ours. The have the Flying Monkey. A successful performing arts center. The
Music Hall in Portsmouth is successful. A community % our size. Tupelo in Londonderry is successful. A
community 1/3 of our size. So this idea that Nashua just can’t work it, it’s just too skeptical, it’s got too much
doubt, it’s just never is going to work. | just don’t believe that. Why is it that Concord, Manchester, Plymouth,
Portsmouth, even Londonderry can make these performing art centers a success? Why can’t Nashua do the
same? | think there is no answer to that question because | think and | think the evidence and the facts show
that we would have an equal or a better success right on Main Street in Nashua.
| would like to take a moment to debunk some of the myths or the misunderstandings that | think have been
circulated in opposition to the idea that we can have a commercially viable successful performing arts center
on Main Street. First of all, the idea has been floated that Nashua is just blowing up debt. We’re just going
crazy. That is just going out of control. That is exactly the opposite of the truth. We are actually paying off
debt. We pay off $19 million of debt every year. Come June 30 without any further borrowing, we will have
$24 million less of debt that we did when | entered office less than 2 years ago. As | said, we’re paying off $19
million of debt.
Now the performing arts center which could cost debt of $15.5 million is not going to be built right away. We
need to raise $4 million first and it would be built over a couple of subsequent years. During that time, we will
continue to pay off $19 million of debt every year. If this were to take place in a couple of years, we would
have paid off an additional $38 million of debt for a total of $60 some million. We're going to borrow 15. Is it
possible that other projects would come forward? It’s possible but we would have to consider those on their
merits, consider our ability to pay at the time. The bonded indebtedness in this budget is down $1.5 million.
That’s out of pocket because we have reduced debt. So this idea that Nashua with its AAA bond rating is just
exploding in debt is totally and absolutely false.
The analysis | just gave you does not include the paving bonds. Now we haven’t even borrowed those yet.
We're trying to pave the streets. Those have a separate unrelated, separate non-tax, non-property tax source
of support. That being the Highway Block Grant that comes from the State of New Hampshire a small portion
of the automobile registrations that we collect downstairs. Again, none of that money has even been borrowed
yet. The projection is to borrow $30 some million over 5 years with an independent source of revenue while
again we’re paying down debt at the rate of $19 million a year.
A second myth is the Daniel Webster College auditorium could work as an alternative performing arts center.
That is not accurate. First of all if you’ve been there, and | remember Judy Carlson testified at the public
hearing — she’s been there. I’ve been there. Tim Cummings has been there. It is a very small theater with no
back of the house. It is less adequate than our high school auditoriums at North and South. It’s part of a larger
administration building. It would be very difficult or impossible — probably more expensive than here to convert
that and it doesn’t meet a fundamental goal that we’re trying to achieve which is a more economically vibrant
