Special Board of Aldermen 09-28-2020 Page 20
asking all of these appropriate questions. | had the good fortune of serving on the Board of Trustees at the
Capital Center for the Arts in Concord, New Hampshire back in 2001 to 2007 period, actually 2 consecutive
3 year terms. | will just say to all of you having been part of that amazing organization, if any of you have
had an opportunity to be in Concord recently and seen what has happened to downtown, it is just an
amazing story. And | can remember being part of that board and hearing conversations about what
needed to happen to the Capitol Center for the Arts.
The investments that were happening a lot of the same questions frankly that | am hearing here with this
project and looking today what has become a beautiful story in Concord. So just to assure all of you by the
way that it has been an amazing place; center for not just businesses but it is education leaders, non-
profits leaders have been part of that board but also part of being able to take advantage of that amazing
facility in Concord. So | see a lot of the same energy going into this project in Nashua and | just wanted to
be able to take a moment personally on behalf of our family, just to thank all of you that have been working
so hard on it. We see a lot of energy. | happened to find and I’ll close with this, | happened to find an
article that was in Money Magazine this goes back to 2018 | believe but it really speaks very, very
powerfully for the decisions that you are being asked to make and why you are making them, right? But
this article came out, | think it was in December of ’82 that said and | am quoting, Nashua is the best place
to live in New Hampshire according to a new survey, Money Magazine said it is selecting the charming
Gate City for the top spot due to it’s up and coming downtown recreation options and proximity to Boston.
So all of that is certainly playing out right now and | am certainly here to speak personally. But | can just
say also working for a company that has made what | think is the lead commitment, we are really proud of
what is happening here and we support Nashua and we wish you all good luck in making this really
important decision. So thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Dowd
So anyone else that would like to speak in favor? Yes, certainly Mike.
Mike Apfelberg Yes, Alderman Dowd, I’d like to speak in favor if that’s ok. Hi, Mike Apfelberg, I’m the
president of the United Way of Greater Nashua. You know we are not an arts organization so you might
think it odd that somebody from the social service, representing a social services agency would speak in
favor of an arts project. However, as we did three years ago when the project was first conceptualized, I’d
like to reinforce that we are strongly in favor of this project. You know, the study by Americans for the Arts
shows that the arts have a 7 to 1 return on investment in any community. Now, 7 to 1 is a big number and
of course that’s an average and a generalization but what we do know is that arts have a strong positive
return on investment. And that return in our community comes in the form of improved property values,
increased tax revenues, a downtown that’s more vibrant, vitality in the community and just a general
improvement of the qualify of life for our community.
So you know | am just going to reinforce many of the comments that Brian made previously. We believe
that the rising tide really does raise all boats. And in our community, we'd really like to see this arts center
come to fruition because it will ultimately benefit all of us and we appreciate that. And thanks again to the
Capital Committee in particular. When this project was first conceptualized, we were a little concerned
about what it meant to build a $4 million dollar Capital Campaign in the middle of a number of a number of
other very significant projects in the social services. But it does appear that they have been able to do their
work without negatively affecting some of the other projects in place and we appreciate that as well. That’s
all | have to say and thank you so much. We hope you support this.
Chairman Dowd
Thank you. | see Kate Luczko.
Kate Luczko Thank you. Good evening everyone, I’m Kate Luczko, I’m the President and CEO of the
Greater Nashua Chamber of Commerce located at 4 Water Street in Nashua. I’m here tonight on behalf of
