Board of Aldermen 12-11-2018 Page 8
behind that. | think several people touched on that. | had a long discussion with Rich this afternoon, so
| fully understand, and | think | have my head wrapped around it pretty good.
As the Mayor discussed earlier when he was Mayor in the ‘80’s I’ve also been downtown for quite a
long time and | was on the 2000 Master Plan Committee that was 18 years ago. | think that a lot of
people in the City and a lot of people in this room that support it, we are all a community. | think there is
a lot of support for the Performing Arts Center at this point, we are just wrestling with how we get there.
What | am afraid of though is we could get mired down in how we go about this and we could still be
looking at this in a couple years, even if we said yes right now, let’s approve this money, let’s get it
going, let’s get the architect, let’s get the plans, let’s get everything rolling.
This project is going to take quite a long time, it is a long time-frame. So the longer we put off starting
it, the longer it is going to take obviously to get it finished. | always tell my people in my organization,
the best way to get something done is to start, because once you start it is easy. If you talk about it to
death, you are never going to get anything done. So sometimes you make small mistakes, but you can
always fix them as you go. The most important thing is to get a project started. I’ve been downtown
obviously since 1995 and there are challenges to being downtown, but when | came to downtown as a
young chef, at 30 years old, this town really embraced me and the business people in this town really
embraced me and gave me a lot of support. So | am here to stay. | have two businesses’ | have no
problem staying here with my two businesses and | would even grow business down here.
But | think it important that we sent a message to other people that this is a great place to do business
and | have seen over the years since we opened I’ve seen a rise of the downtown Main Street, I’ve
seen it really prosper, I’ve seen it back off, I’ve seen it go up and | think we are in jeopardy right now of
sputtering a little bit. And | hate to see that, | hate to lose more businesses or have people being
worried about coming down to do business because other places have closed. | think it sends a
powerful message if the people of the community and the Aldermen can see, take a little bit of
entrepreneurial approach and embrace this thing. We need the money to get the money, so it is kind of
a Catch 22. Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith to get things done.
| think we are in agreement, or a lot of us are in agreement that at the end of the day this will be a very
positive thing for the City, for the tax payers, for the people that love art to utilize to see shows and hear
music. It will be great for the people that do business downtown, it will also attract new business
downtown and it will also satisfy some of the big picture items of being a great place for families and
bringing young people and keeping people in the community. So | just urge you to be in favor of it and |
certainly am. Thank you.
Paul Patti_Good evening, Paul Patti, 3 Monica Drive. | also submitted this as an e-mail and I'll just call
the high points here. | am a proponent of the Performing Arts Center Investment and that is investment
in the community in what will be the future of Nashua, supporting the economic development of
downtown and the City. | support updating the bond item to release funds for the architectural design
because perspective donors as many people mentioned and especially Mayor Donchess with your
comments, because the perspective donors need to see what they will be investing in.
Having architectural renderings will help Nashua apply for the New Market Tax Credits and help the
City reach the $4 million dollar goal sooner. The bond item will also increase the likelihood of corporate
sponsorships and overall help the fundraising effort. There had been some comment before about the
professionals that were hired and such and | would like for the record to state that just as we recite the
Pledge of Allegiance, | was raised to and still do, trust in our elected officials to make informed and
intelligent decisions based on information received from multiple professionals in the industry as it very
much you all have it sounds like. As the economic wave of prosperity pushes ever outward from
downtown Boston, a successful Performing Arts Center for Nashua can be economic catalyst for the
future success of our City, our children and our grandchildren. Let’s not get left behind.
Thank you all for your continuing hard work and dedication to the success of our City and | would
encourage a positive vote for that measure. Happy Holidays to you and thank you.
