Board of Aldermen 12-23-2019 Page 13
R-19-191
Endorsers: Alderman Richard A. Dowd
Alderman-at-Large Michel B. O’Brien, Sr.
Alderman Ken Gidge
Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright
Alderman Patricia Klee
Alderman-at-Large Brandon Michael Laws
Alderman Thomas Lopez
Alderwoman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja
Alderman Jan Schmidt
Alderman-at-Large Ben Clemons
Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire
AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR AND CITY TREASURER TO ISSUE BONDS NOT TO EXCEED THE
AMOUNT OF ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTEEN MILLION DOLLARS ($118,000,000) TO FUND
THE DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF A NEW MIDDLE SCHOOL AND RENOVATIONS AND
EXPANSION OF THE EXISTING TWO MIDDLE SCHOOLS (PENNICHUCK AND FAIRGROUNDS)
INCLUDING THE PAYMENT OF COSTS INCIDENTAL OR RELATED THERETO
Given its second reading;
MOTION BY ALDERMAN DOWD FOR FINAL PASSAGE OF R-19-191 BY ROLL CALL
ON THE QUESTION
Alderman Clemons
Thank you. | am very pleased to support this this evening. The reason being is that this is actual ... we
have to recognize the fact and as was previously explained in public comment that Elm Street is no longer
a viable option for us. We did the studies, it is actually going to cost more if we were to renovate Elm
Street. So you know some of the comments that | have heard | just wanted to kind of address. There have
been studies that have been with the population that was explained at the Budget Committee. Each one of
these schools after the renovation, the new one and the two existing middle schools, Pennichuck and
Fairgrounds, are going to have relatively equal population. Right now it is imbalanced because | think Elm
Street is the larger one. So that population is going to shift a little bit to the other two schools.
The other thing that | had asked the City Treasurer to provide and was included with the Agenda this
evening was the amount of bond debt service that the City has projected in the next few years. It is actually
going down. So even with all of the bonding that we are doing this evening or that has proposed to be
done and has been done; the debt service is actually going down. It goes up a little bit like $2,000.00 next
year and then the year after that it is down $2 million; it is down $1.5 million; $530,000.00. You can see
these trends all the way through — we have it projected out to 2041 of paying less money per year than we
are paying now in overall bond debt.
The reason we are able to accomplish this is because the high schools are being paid off after now that
they are coming to the end of their years. It’s like any other loan, you pay less in the beginning, more in the
end. The high schools are at the end, we are paying a lot more towards them. We have a very good
Treasurer, he knows how to first of all float these bonds in a way that they are at the least cost to the
taxpayer, we have a Triple AAA Bond Rating in Nashua. In addition to al of that, you have to remember
that the City anticipates some of these costs. | don’t think that anybody didn’t know five or ten years ago
that something was going to have be done with Elm Street.
The question is absolutely timing, that was mentioned this evening and timing is absolutely right. And the
time to do this is right now because for the very reason that our bond debt service is going down to a point
where we can let a bond that will allow us to do a big project like this and it won’t cost anything extra to the
taxpayer. That’s the point.
