Special Bd. of Aldermen — 11/26/2018 Page 5
most sense to try to reduce the project cost and to just provide the flexibility to ... and again the Board of
Aldermen would need to approve some of this. We thought it would be best since we are here to try to create
the flexibility so that the Steering Committee and the Board of Aldermen of the City could decide how best to
allocate the $6.5 million dollars.
Testimony in Favor - None
Testimony in Opposition Good evening, my name is Karen Bell resident of Nashua, 95 Parnell Place
here in Nashua. So along with Alderman Jette’s comments which were very good, thank you, | have a few
questions myself. So we had to raise the $4 million dollars ok, if $1 million dollars is for design and there was
a stipulation by the Board of Aldermen that you couldn’t use more than $2 million dollars, well you are going to
have a $1 million dollars when you raise the $4. So you could raise that, you could use that. And if you are
confident that you are going to raise the $6.5 that’s fine, there’s no Resolution necessary because you only
had to raise $4 million dollars within 2 years, it being signed by you Mayor Donchess on February 20", 2018,
giving the deadline to be 2/2020 for that $4 million dollars to be raised.
So if we think that there is a lot more money out there in the community it would seem like raise the money and
spend the $1 million dollars, because it was for the design, correct? Part of that $4 million dollars could be for
the design. And | understand the chicken or the egg thing because a lot of non-profits and | have been part of
some in the City myself, if you want to build a new building or have a huge capital campaign, yes you need to
elicit a professional fund raiser, you need to have a design, all of these are expenses which occur well in
advance of knowing the actual cost of your project.
So to just throw out and say we need $4 million dollars before we can move forward and we have two years to
raise that, that’s all well and good but there should have been some knowledge, some forethought and some
very hard knowledge about what that needed to be to have a design, to have a professional fund raiser on
board, to know the tick marks of what is going to take to get to that number. Having been told by these
professional fund raisers that there is $6.5 million dollars in the community, that’s great whether it is from non-
City private enterprise or not.
Where are we at if | might ask toward the $4 million dollars, what is our bank account number toward the $4
million dollars at this point, who can answer that for me?
Mayor Donchess
| can. In answer to the first question why don’t we just take the $4 million dollars and use that to design, for
example with the New Market Tax Credits, we don’t even qualify, we can’t even submit an application without a
design. So without a design forget $4 million dollars.
Ms. Bell Well wait a minute forget the $4 million dollars, this is going to be a non-profit entity correct, the
Performing Arts Center?
Mayor Donchess
Yes.
Ms. Bell So the New Market Tax Credits are totally different than just someone say Alderman Caron making a
very generous donation of $1 million dollars out of her own pocket either way it is going to be a donation. So as
a non-profit entity, if somebody wants to make a donation it is a tax credit period versus a New Market Tax
Credit; which is fine that it is a New Market Tax Credit but as a non-profit Performing Arts Center every
donation will be a donation, a tax deductible donation. So what is the difference if we are raising money now as
