Board of Aldermen 10-13-2020 Page 17
President Wilshire
Yes, if you could give your name and address for the record please?
Lisa Bissonnette Thank you Madam President, my name is Lisa | Bissonnette, | work for a Real
Estate Development Firm at 30 Temple Street in Nashua and | am also the Board President of
City Arts Nashua, a Nashua-area non-profit organization that advances the arts. And | also sit on
Mr. Lannan’s organization, Nashua Community Arts which is involved in the development of the
Performing Arts Center.
| wanted to speak tonight in favor of the Legislation for the Performing Arts Center. | had a chance
to speak two weeks ago at the Budget Meeting so | won't repeat the remarks | made that evening.
But the Performing Arts Center adds much needed vitality to downtown Nashua. It creates lots of
jobs and it serves as a catalyst for people who want to live, work, stay and play in downtown
Nashua and for businesses who might want to open their business, relocate their business or
develop new business including affordable housing in downtown Nashua. It is a fantastic project.
It has been worked on very diligently for many years by many people including fantastic consultant
and wonderfully dedicated staff at the City and amazing volunteers who in difficult circumstances
have raised millions of dollars.
The New Market Tax Credits and the TIF Financing are creative solutions to funding the project
and we applaud their use in Nashua. They are used very successfully in many other communities
to bring forward successful projects. Thank you for your time.
President Wilshire
Thank you. | don’t’ see anyone else with their hand raised so | am going to make a last call for public
comment at this phase of the meeting. Is there anyone else?
Laurie Ortolano 41 Berkeley Street. I'll move through it quickly. Resolution 20-077 Indigenous People
Day | really believe that belongs on the ballot, that that should go out to the folks of the City to vote on.
Parking | am in support of the reduction of the ticketing for parking. | think it’s a great idea. | am sensitive to
the Mayor's comments regarding the loss of revenue and the budget issues. It you are going to support
this, | think you have to make the cuts in the positions, people, personnel to justify the reduction in the
revenue. And | think that’s fine but make certain you do both of those things if that’s going to be the case
and we just don’t keep ourselves heavy on people when we don’t have the work for them.
I'd like to jump over to Ordinance O-20-009, Public Comment. | have some real concerns with the language
of this and what the Legal Office brought forth. | agree with Ms. Pappas that | think the first Public Input
should be open for anything on the Agenda. | really think there’s a benefit to that to the community to allow
those comments to be made on any item being discussed; not just final approval because it will make
people more receptive to what is going to be voted on. And it will give more input to the Committee that’s
taking it off to review it.
| also think these comments that were made in the Personnel meeting regarding public comments; they are
not speeches, all discussion should be relevant to items that fall under the purview of the Board of
Aldermen or the Committee conducting the Hearing. You know, that’s very restrictive and it’s not easy for a
person coming in as a member of the public to even know that. So Alderman Dowd, | think you are way off
base when you make a statement like that. There are people tonight who dialed in who had pre-written
statements who essentially made speeches. And they were fine, you know, that should be ok and we
shouldn't be putting restrictions on that.
