Board of Aldermen — 01/09/18 Page 2
MOTION BY ALDERMAN WILSHIRE THAT ALL COMMUNICATIONS BE READ BY TITLE ONLY
MOTION CARRIED
From: Michael A. Joseph
Re: Resignation — Citizens Advisory Committee for Community Grants
MOTION BY ALDERMAN WILSHIRE TO ACCEPT AND PLACE ON FILE
MOTION CARRIED
From: Patricia D. Piecuch, City Clerk
Re: NRO 5-6, Compensation
MOTION BY ALDERWOMAN MELIZZI-GOLJA TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE, AND WAIVE
THE PROVISIONS OF NRO 5-6
MOTION CARRIED
From: Patricia D. Piecuch, City Clerk
Re: Citywide Election to Fill Vacancy on Board of Education
MOTION BY ALDERMAN CARON TO ACCEPT AND PLACE ON FILE
MOTION CARRIED
PERIOD FOR PUBLIC COMMENT RELATIVE TO ITEMS EXPECTED TO BE
ACTED UPON THIS EVENING
Ms. Paula Johnson — 15 Westborn Drive
I’m here to discuss the Performing Arts Center. |’m a little bit surprised, and | shouldn’t be surprised, that this
would be one of the first things on the agenda for the new year, but | am. Given the fact that on the election
there was a nonbinding referendum, and it only passed by 155 votes. Given the fact that this is a city of 57,057
voters in the election and we didn’t even have that many come out to vote; only like 18.81% came out to vote.
So that really isn’t a landslide, to say that we really need to spend $15.5 million on this building.
I’m a little bit concerned. I’m concerned because our taxes went up 2.88% this past year, and that was only
because we used 7.1%, | believe, surplus money. What would the real cost of our taxes have been if we didn’t
use that surplus money to put down on the tax rate? People think that Nashua is thriving like the rest of the
country. Yeah, it was fine to feel a little bit more movement in this country, but if we have high taxes, who is
going to really want to come to Nashua? In the school district, we have two buildings that are in deplorable
condition. So we learned about last year when we found out that we wanted to buy Alec’s Shoe Store old
building. What are we going to do with that? That’s over $10 million worth of building repairs. Where is our
priority? Is our priority in a Performing Arts Center? Where’s our priority in our children in this city, because we
always pit the kids against every project. But let’s be honest here: The kids are our future; the Performing Arts
Center is not going to get the books in the classroom to kids that need it. It’s not going to correct things in
these schools if you’re bonding $15.5 million.
Mr. Joe Johnson logs a lot on the Telegraph, and | read it sometimes. | don’t have time to do all this anymore.
Life goes on when you leave the Board of Aldermen. You only come in for important things, and | wasn’t even
coming in for this tonight. | was coming in because of lack of snow plowing in the city and the quality of
services went down between the 23” and the 25", of these storms this year, which I'll discuss later on because
that’s not on the agenda. But I'd like to read a little bit of wnat he said here. “It is beyond irresponsible for city
Officials to consider buying Alec’s Shoe Store building, unless and until an inspection report on the building has
been obtained and reviewed. This article makes no reference to any such report. After the Burke Street fiasco,
where renovations turned out to be a multiple of estimates, it could only be presumed that city officials are
