Board of Aldermen 06-08-2021 Page 13
President Wilshire
Alderman O’Brien.
Alderman O’Brien
Thank you Madam President. | think the Mayor, in his opening remarks, spoke real brilliantly on what is going
on here and any elongated comments from me would be wagging the dog. But the thing is looking at this, I’ve
always believed in my tenure as an Alderman we have the business of running the City but also the future.
This is part of the Green Lake that runs right from the downtown that goes into the Mine Falls area. | think it
would be a shame if we let it go and it would be developed. | think the people of Nashua would probably be
very happy with the $325,000.00 spent on this. And plus giving our four-footed friends a little bit of a place
inside the City that they can go out and behave like good little puppies that they are. So therefore | hope
everybody goes with me and vote for this. | don’t think we are barking up the wrong tree. Thank you Madam
President.
President Wilshire
How do you top that? The motion is for final passage of Resolution 21-145, is there discussion on that motion?
Alderman Lopez?
Alderman Lopez
Yeah Alderman O’Brien just took the role of the guy with the puns. But while the Animal Dog Park Advisory
Committee has been working on this continuously for a year, | do feel the need to point out that it is because of
their work that we have this opportunity. The opportunity isn’t for just their work. | think it is important for us to
take advantage of this for the reasons that Alderman O’Brien pointed out. | think the way that the Dog Park
Advisory Committee has shed light on this particular land, far exceeds the specific goal of a dog park. As the
Mayor pointed out, that’s part of Mine Falls that a lot of people consider to be Mine Falls. It’s their entry into
that experience. The Bike Paddle Run relies completely on that. There’s any number of races and
recreational events that rely on that exit point. For it to be turned into a future parking lot or sold to a developer,
there was a lot of shock when UPS took down a lot of trees near Mine Falls. People didn’t realize that Mine
Falls, beyond that border those trees were actually on other people’s properties. And then recently it
happened again.
We need to protect Mine Falls and that means to buffer it as much as possible and create that natural green
space that is available. | think that’s a more important consideration here because that piece of land is pretty
good asset for the City to grab with the opportunity that we have with the friendly relations that we have with
the Mill Yard Association. We should take advantage of that. It is also potentially real estate that someone
might be eyeballing because of its proximity to the Broad Street parkway. So if we don’t want to see Mine Falls
whittled away, and we want to preserve it as the natural jewel that it is, we really need to take this into account.
We really need to take advantage of this opportunity. Thank you.
President Wilshire
Anyone else? Alderman Jette?
Alderman Jette
Thank you Madam President. | received some feedback from constituents about this matter and | tried to
explain it at the Budget Review Committee meeting. This Resolution is not to purchase this land, this
Resolution — we already voted to purchase the land at our last meeting. This Resolution is to come up with the
money that we already committed to pay for the purchase of this land. | voted against the last Resolution to
purchase the land, not because | think it is a bad project. | just felt that we were putting the cart before the
