Special Board of Aldermen Public Hearing Page 4
Now in terms of the overall challenges, | mentioned already the cost of providing healthcare to
employees is increasing by 11%. $3.3 million dollars of the operating budget which will really drive
the potential tax increase to at or near 3%. If it weren’t for this particular item, the increase would
be closer to 1% or 1.5% in the tax rate. We, therefore, because of that significant cost, asked the
Police, Schools, DPW, and Fire Departments to limit their increase to 2.25% and all other divisions
1.75%. There have been a few variations from that but we’ve tried to hold increases to that amount
to help keep the tax rate at a reasonable level given the other budget challenge that | already
mentioned.
So looking forward in terms of just the kind of things we will be working on, | know the Board of
Aldermen is very on board with all of this. We want to continue to make infrastructure, street and
sidewalk improvements, not only this year but in succeeding years. One project that we have is that
we got a grant to Lock and Whitney Street sidewalks which will be about $1 million dollars. That is
in design, one of the infrastructure improvements that we want to make in the near future. We will
be implementing our Riverfront Master Plan to bring forth the river walks, lighting along the river
walks and cantilevered walkways near the Main Street Bridge. We all believe that the riverfront is a
major asset, a very beautiful asset for the City and that if we make the right investments we can
really bring the river more to life and introduce more of our residents to that area of the City bring
people downtown and just increase the quality of life for everyone.
We are working on the Rail Yard District, which | mentioned in the State of the City address near
Corriveau Routhier and at Henry Hanger to see additional downtown housing located in on those
parcels and in that area of the City where the railyard used to be. We are looking to try to add
additional downtown housing in addition to the railyard district. We can, as time goes on, | think we
will see additional details concerning that. Bringing housing downtown of course adds to the tax
base, increases residents downtown, increases customers for our businesses, strengthens the
downtown business community and just adds a dimension to the community which will attract
various millennial and empty nester residents to downtown. | just in the last few weeks have met a
group of people who have located into the Lofts 34 housing conversion is definitely bringing people
in that were not downtown before. | think all of the housing projects that we are working on will do.
We know that affordable housing is certainly an issue and the project on Marshall and East Hollis
Street, we hope will help to address that; that’s 150 units of so-called workforce housing. That is
targeted to families who are working and make up to $50,000.00 some thousand dollars a year and
offer rents that are less than market.
In conjunction with the Joint Special School Building Committee and our School Board will be
looking to upgrade our Middle Schools in coming years, including either renovating or replacing the
Elm Street Middle School and upgrading the facilities at the other middle schools at the same time.
Dr. Mosley is very committed and the School Board very committed to this middle school project.
Alderman Dowd is Chair of the Joint Special and will be pushing this project forward over the next
few years.
Now kind of a fun thing, some of the accolades that Nashua has gotten in recent, in the last couple
of years, you can see them here. This is due to the efforts of all of our residents, our Board of
Aldermen, our City Government, our business community, our non-profits; everybody is working
together to make Nashua the best place we possibly can. But it has been named one of the safest
places to retire in the country, this is just in 2018. Nashua is named one of the best run cities, |
think 9" in the country. Nashua is named the best place for millennials to live in Hillsborough
County. Nashua is named the most diverse community in New Hampshire and the most inclusive |
might add. Nashua has some of the lowest crime for a mid-sized city, those were all in 2018.
