Board of Aldermen 12-11-2018 Page 5
activities such as the proposed Performing Arts Center. | ask you to please vote in favor of R-18-092
and thank you in advance for your support.
Again, Tracy Hall, Executive Director of the Chamber. | had a lot to say but again | think the Mayor said
pretty much everything | had to say. | just know how hard | have been involved not for 30 years, but |
have been involved in the last few years, from the beginning of hiring the consultant to do this, helping
to select him and all the way to now. It has been a long slow process, | like things to move quickly but |
understand that in the municipal arena it doesn’t happen as quickly as the private sector. But | will tell
you that the last few months have been amazing with the progress. As has been mentioned, there has
been many meetings, great support, excellent attendance at every one of those meetings. We have
pushed forward selecting and | think before you tonight will be our request to approve both — all three —
architect, construction manager and operator. That was unanimous decisions of every member of the
Steering Committee for all three.
There was a lot of discussion but it came down pretty quickly wnat we needed and what we want and it
has just been clear from the start even though we didn’t realize it in the words of the ordinance that we
can’t go out, if we came to you and you are say BAE or Fidelity or somebody and we ask you to be a
large donor for six or seven figures and they say, “Well can we see the plans, can we see this” and we
say, “Well we really don’t have them yet”. You are not not going to get any donors. The small donors,
possibly; but the mid to large range you need very detailed plans as has already been said a couple
times and we’ve got an architect ready to go and we think we could have at least conceptual plans
within a couple of months that will help the finance or Capital Campaign Committee move forward
quickly. We are very optimistic to raise the funds that we need to raise. Thank you.
Dave Grebowski Good evening, Dave Grebowski, 42 Wood Street. | am also a small business owner
here in town and would like to speak in favor of this amendment, it is a necessary and important action
that will allow the Steering Committee to fulfill their obligations in soliciting funds and also in educating
the public as to exactly what they can expect to see in terms of a completed design and what they will
be getting for their money.
Anecdotally we are in the home remodeling business and | can assure you that there is no customer
who is willing to make any investment without first seeing detailed designs and a comprehensive cost
estimate as to what they can expect to receive. No major donor, whether is through philanthropic
donation or a marketing investment in the form of naming rights would do the same for the Performing
Arts Center. | think it is important that we allow the Steering Committee to do their due diligence and to
be able to present the Performing Arts Center with confidence and to be able to build the confidence in
the public and in the investors to know that their money is being well spent. Thank you.
Judith Carlson Hi my name is Judith Carlson and | live at 15 Manchester Street and have been a
resident of Nashua since 1973. | apologize | am getting over a very bad sinus infection and | hope
don’t sound like | am coming from the bottom a tin can here. | wrote down a few things that | would just
like to say. Many of them were said by the Mayor and | think another thing | would like to add is that the
architect that we have recommended is willing and has a great deal of experience working on other
projects and helping out in fund raising for projects is very common that the architect get involved in
fund raising and this firm has a lot of experience in doing that and is willing to work with us once on
board.
I’d also like to just mention a few things, being an ex-journalist myself, as far as both the Federal and
State Credit programs go, these programs are the power of public and private collaboration at work.
Many of you may not know that Nashua was selected as the creative community by the NH State
Council on the Arts at the Governor’s Awards last year. | would just like to share what Mayor Donchess
said when accepting that award. He said, “With limited funds and many demands on budget, no City or
Town Government can become a creative community on its own. It requires public and private
partnership and volunteers working together with support from the City leveraging their efforts.”
