Board of Aldermen — 9/12/17 Page 26
Alderman Schoneman
And perhaps in the body as well. Under purpose it says: “purchase, renovate and construction a new
performing arts center.”
President McCarthy
In that we would also add “201 Main Street.” Does everybody understand the motion?
MOTION CARRIED
MOTION BY ALDERMAN WILSHIRE FOR FINAL PASSAGE OF R-17-116 AS AMENDED BY ROLL CALL
ON THE QUESTION
Alderman Lopez
| am going to support this because | think we have all done our due diligence here in looking at the situation,
looking at the proposals and listening to public comment and listening to the public feedback. To me, it is
overwhelming clear that Nashua wants this; Nashua needs this; and, Nashua is looking forward to this. When
we first started to bring this forward as a final proposal, | had a lot of concerns about how we were going to pay
for it, whether that be CDBG money, where the location was. | think | did my job representing my constituents
and asking those questions and being sure we weren't just going to capriciously borrow $15 million on a
project that hadn’t fully been rendered. What | didn’t really question was the desire of Nashua’s to have this
performing arts center. | didn’t really challenge or have any concerns about the data that was presented by
Duncan Webb demonstrating that a facility of this size could succeed in Nashua because they didn’t try to
continue with the initial presentation and discussion of a much larger site. They didn’t try to put it in the
distance in Nashua at an offsite, large parking friendly location with nothing around it. They tried to integrate it
into the downtown scene, and they wisely course corrected when they noticed the opportunity presented by
201 Main Street. There’s been a lot of public comment over the past couple of months. There has been a lot
of emails that | have received and a lot of in-person discussion, both for and against. | think for me it really
comes down to when are we going to have the opportunity for this property again? When are we going to have
something that really fits in with what we’re trying to do that meets the needs of our community and meets the
opportunity as described by the feasibility study that we conducted? I’m very much in favor of this.
| recognize the concerns on the behalf of my fellow aldermen, and | suggest that they not be confused with
fear. Fear is something that we all have to overcome. Whenever we’re doing anything in public, whether we’re
creating any piece of art, fear is the emotion that we don’t want to listen to. Opportunity is the emotion we want
to listen to. We want to seize the chance. | think we have a huge opportunity here not just to gain something
of value, while the bond rating is favorable, while the community is motivated and energetic and excited, and
while we havfe the opportunity to improve our downtown before we have to start dealing with closing stores
and a loss of vitality that we have been experiencing in recent years.
Alderman Clemons
| appreciate everybody who has taken the time to reach out to me with phone calls, emails, everybody who is
here this evening. Thank you. | appreciate your input on this. When | graduated from college, | didn’t know
what | wanted to do. | went into selling cars, believe it or not. Most people hate the sales process of buying a
car. It’s something that they try to avoid at all costs. But! learned a lot about the business. When you have a
friend who is in the business, people tend to come to you. Even though that was at this point 12 years ago, |
still have friends that when they are ready to buy a car they come to me and say can you help me out, come to
the dealership. Most people know when they need a new car, most people know when they want to go out and
buy a new car. If you are buying a new car, it is pretty simple. You go to the dealership and say this is what |
want. They say what color, they come out with it. You know it’s a brand new car, you drive away with it. Fine.
It's when you buy a used car it’s a little bit different.
