Board of Aldermen 09-14-2021 Page 18
Steve Bolton, Corporation Counsel
And if you had bought more then, you’d have more now. And candy too!
Alderman Tencza
To piggyback on Alderman Jette’s comments. And | hear comments being made and it always makes me uneasy that
what one alderman may say about taxes and spending gets attributed to all of us. | mean | think we all have our own
ideas. Even if we all sat here and expressed them all every ordinance that came up, we would be here for weeks, and
weeks, and weeks. | don’t think a lot of us feel that just because the money has already been collected that it’s not being
used for a good cause when we keep them in what has been appropriated for or separated out in the budget. We all are
conscientious of using people’s tax dollars wisely. We may differ as to what we think is ultimately the best way to use
them but | think everyone here is using their vote in starting the budget and approving a budget which we all think is best.
| hope we all keep that in mind moving forward.
Alderman Clemons
Thank you President Wilshire. When my mother sent me to the store for a loaf of bread, she would expect me to get the
best bargain that | could. If! did that, of course I’d come back and return the money to her whatever was leftover. She’d
save that money for next week to buy bread. Because is spent it wise, sometimes she would reward me for doing that.
So | think what you have is a situation here where we as a city saved quite a bit of money — millions of dollars — in
people’s taxes last year. There are some projects that were wants. There are some projects that were needs. We
separated those out. You could say the needs were the candy and the wants were the bread for next year or next week.
That’s a tradition that’s been going on this city for years. The only reason we can keep doing that is because we manage
our budgets very well. We have very smart financial people at the helm of this city including outgoing Treasurer Fredette.
My point anyway is and it kind of echoes Alderman Tencza is that we all have different views and what not on that but at
the end of the day, | think it’s hard to argue that city is mismanaged or doesn’t manage the money that we have because
we are after all we just had a resolution come in tonight to put back millions of dollars towards tax relief for this year. We
can’t do that unless we manage things correctly. So | appreciate the analogy and | think what it shows is there’s more
than one way to look at things even if it’s the same analogy. | appreciate everyone’s time this evening. Thank you.
Alderman Dowd
Just a couple of things. One on the middle school building project. The Fairgrounds Middle School has been completed
on time, under budget, and we are now working diligently on Pennichuck Middle School and that project will be completed
at the end of next summer because it’s a more complex building project. The middle school project is going well.
The other thing is that the Mayor and | did a tour of Fairgrounds and it’s on line in a couple of different places. | believe
it’s on the TV and it’s also on the school’s website. Anybody that wants to take a look and anybody that went there when
they were younger buying bread could take a look and see just how much it has been improved both in facilities and also
in the air that the students breathe. That’s the whole new HVAC program which will be on all three schools. We were
doing some of that anyways. Some additional things were done because of COVID but it uses all outside air and the
amount of fresh air that the students have is significantly more than they had before. Just wanted to say that.
The other thing on the like likes, there are a number of items on there that are critical that need to be placed, approved.
The one was police overtime. We've already had one murder since we passed the budget and you can’t plan ahead too
much for that. That’s why there’s an overtime contingency fund which we are now funding. We had to get down very,
very low and it’s either that or we come back during the year and appropriate more money for the Police Department and
we just can’t get around that.
The other thing - CERF. We were woefully short of the money in CERF. Ifthe program was working the way it had been
designed, there would be a lot more money in there and you'd put aside a certain amount of money every year for the
item as it goes through its life cycle. Then when it’s done, you’d have the money in there to buy it. That’s not the case.
So there’s a lot more on CERF and hopefully we have an evening where it’s fully defined because it’s a very complex
subject. Just want to mention those.
One other thing The Elm Street funds now that are being allocated are for a study to determine what can be logically
done with Elm Street after it’s not a middle school anymore or any school, that it can become a back on the tax rolls. The
study is to determine what we can sell it for and just exactly how the building will be divided up. It’s very critical because
the amount of money we'll get back on the tax revenue will far exceed that amount of money. Thank you.
