Special Board of Aldermen Public Hearing — 12/16/2019 Page 21
Mr. Teeboom We just heard of Burke Street earlier that you are going to take the Burke Street property, almost $4
million and apply that structure to $10 million dollar building, why aren’t you doing that? Instead of getting all
hunked about these fancy buildings, start looking at the question that is not on this question list, again, can we
afford it?
Chairman Dowd
Any one else that wants to speak in opposition. Please state your name and address for the record.
Stephen Scaer, 11 East Hobart Street. Could you tell me how much this is going to add to the annual tax bill of a
median home of $300,000.00?
Chairman Dowd
| don’t Know if anyone has that answer right now for the reason that the way the bonds are let, could be different so
there is no exact amount. Also we try to keep the bonding in the City at a fairly constant level for that very reason
so the tax impact is not that great. But we can’t give you a dollar figure now.
Mr. Scaer OK thank you.
Laurie Ortolano 41 Berkeley Street. | picked up this information pack on the back with these questions and like
some of the questions raised here, the first question | had is what is the cost of this, where is the bond analysis. |
built a school when | was over in Litchfield on the School Board and one of the things we looked at very closely
was the bond and the cost. | think it is really unacceptable that you are asking us to get behind a $118 million
dollars without being able to tell us what the impact on the tax rate is on some estimated level. | can’t shop that
way in my budget and | don’t want my City spending that way with my money, it’s just not acceptable. I’m shocked.
There are a lot of nice questions in here but | expected to see a bond estimate in here. | am also concerned about
the enrollment study and whether we are overbuilding our space, you know? We have enrollments that have gone
down and we need to be careful about how much additional space we are taking on.
It is expensive, we have got to maintain it and there’s a lot of parents that look for alternate options for education.
We know some of that grant money got flushed away to take for charter schools but that’s going to remain an
issue. You are going to have parents looking for alternatives and that is going to move students out of the middle
and high school and | think that matters.
So the lack of a schedule and the enrollment study is that this City tends to shortcut on the studies that need to be
done and the impact studies that need to be done when you are doing projects. And you and | all know that | have
been very involved in assessing. | saw a lot of short cuts go on down there. One of my concerns is | really don’t
want to have to pay for something like this when | know | have an assessing department that doesn’t know how to
establish equity for our assessments. If you are an over-assessed property you are stuck and you are going to pay
a bigger impact and a bigger cost tax rate for this type of bond than others. We haven't figured out how to
equitably assess this City and we are going to have to eat this $118 million dollar bond. When would the first
payment kick in for this bond, that was another thing | was curious about, there’s a question — one.
Chairman Dowd
We don’t know when the first payment would kick in because we don’t know when we will be selling the bonds,
when the first payments will be due. That’s downstream.
Ms. Ortolano So my vote is fix your assessing department, learn how to create equity for everyone and then sell
your bonds, because | don’t want to pay for them before that. Thank you.
Laura Calhoun 30 Greenwood Drive. I'd like to read a statement. This action first should be brought up to the
residents of Nashua and not just by the Mayor and the Board of Aldermen. Nashua residents should have a voice
and be able to vote on it.
