Board of Aldermen — 9/12/17 Page 34
President McCarthy
If it is purchased, it falls under the authority of this Board. | would assume at some point we will generate a
lease with whoever the group is we decide to have manage it or occupy it or whatever, that’s some of the work
we have left to do, but it is this Board that has to approve that.
Alderman Deane
| wanted to go back to the original resolution that we had when we had Burke Street. We spent $4.5 million on
that building, and there it sits. This board has to make a decision what they are going to do with it. It’s to the
point now where it’s probably better off to just tear it down. That’s my opinion. We have significant
investments that haven’t been made in our other public works structures: the street department. These are
things that are coming down the pike. The administration building that we purchased that was mentioned by a
resident earlier. | supported that purchase. The only reason why | supported it was because of the proximity
to the police department, that piece of property. It abuts the police department. We've got the parks and
recreation department. We've got blue tarps up top on the storage buildings. There’s other things.
Our school district doesn’t have deferred maintenance. We bond everything we do in the school district. We
bond fire trucks. When people look at our Spending Cap, there’s a lot of things that were worked around on
the Cap. Bonding has been part of it. I’ve been on this Board for a number of years, and we never bonded fire
trucks. We never bonded any of that stuff. We just paid cash for it.
In some of my readings, the demands by some of the citizens that sent emails for it about bond schedules,
spending schedules and things of that nature, | think a lot of that really has to be looked at whether that is
going to be done by the strategic planning committee or not is one thing. But, | see a lot of priorities in this
community that need to be met. | got a real hard time about supporting and for us proposing the bond for the
street paving. | had people come up to me and tell me they have driven on flatter roads in Vietnam. That’s
pretty telling, and that was back in the seventies. So, we'll see where the chips fall with this. | still struggle
with a lot of what this city has to pay for. The pending litigation we are dealing with, how we deal with that after
the fact. The departments that have people. We have a lot of contracts that are due up now across the city.
You read about the teachers and the Board of Ed now. We have a lot to think about. Thank you, Mr.
President.
Alderman Cookson
First, let me thank the audience for coming here this evening and sitting patiently as we go through this
process. | want to especially thank Sy, Rich and Marylou. | appreciate the invitation to join you last
Wednesday at 7:30 in the morning to discuss this. We had a very good conversation. Thank you. Marylou, if
you are still here, I’d like to thank you for continuing to send us correspondence and articles to read that you
provided to each one of the members of the Board of Aldermen. |’m not sure if Director Cummings is still here;
I’m sure he is. | had asked Director Cummings for some additional information with regard to the arts, and he
was able to provide me with some literature as well. So, I’ve been attempting to do my due diligence on this.
There may be few aldermen that have more of a passion for the arts than! do. As | was sharing with Sy and
Marylou and Rich, I’ve played the trumpet for the last 40 years. | love the trumpet. | love symphonic bands. |
love symphonic orchestras. Liz Racioppi stood up and mentioned that she was on the Arts Commission. | was
the alderman who sponsored that legislation to create the arts commission for the City of Nashua. | had the
pleasure of being the aldermanic liaison to that committee and working with Liz and several very, very talented
people along the way. | thought we made great strides making sure that the steering committee, the Nashua
Arts Commission, was the face of the arts community. Not just the community, but the assets as well, to
facilitate, to advocate, to coordinate and to educate. The face of the cultural assets and community.
Many of you know | have a daughter. She is very, very excited about going into Boston to see Phantom of the
Opera, one of her favorite musicals. |’ve seen it several times. Wang Center. I’ve seen it down in Florida a
couple of times. | love the arts; | love the performing arts.
