NASHUA, NH – Just before the Nashua Board of Aldermen (BoA) take a break for Thanksgiving, they’ll take another look at a set of three capital improvement requests with a special public hearing, scheduled during their most recent meeting on Tuesday night.
The first item would authorize the mayor and city treasurer to issue bonds not to exceed $15 million for capital and site improvements for city parking garages on Elm Street and High Street. Then the board would review a request for bonds not to exceed $2,142,351 for a compactor ant two refuse trucks at the Four Hills Landfill. The Compactor would have a ten-year life span and is expected to cost $1,314,935 while the refuse trucks would last seven years and are expected to cost $827,416. The final request would transfer $3.5 million from city’s assigned fund balance to design and construct a police training facility on Riverside Drive along with maintenance of the Nashua Police Department Headquarters.
The special hearing of the BoA on the items will be held on Monday, Nov. 25, the same night as a previously scheduled meeting of the BoA’s Budget Review Committee.
These capital requests were mentioned during the BoA’s meeting on Oct. 10 where the board approved R-24-089, which allowed the transfer of unassigned cash reserves into the city’s capital account in excess of limits to the city’s expenditure cap.
Alderman At-Large Ben Clemmons expressed his frustration with the expenditure cap and hoped that a referendum could be held to alter the cap into a property tax cap, as his constituents have indicated their concern about rising property taxes, but not expenditures coming from other sorts of revenue such as state or federal grant money.
During that meeting Nashua Mayor Jim Donchess provided further details on some of the things that the city sought to fund such as a new roof for the over 100-year-old stone house at Greeley Park, design work for a fish ladder at the Mine Falls Dam and renovation at the Hunt Memorial Building that would cost the city several hundred thousand dollars in federal grants if they are not pursued and $1 million in HVAC repairs at city hall which if not done could require city hall to be shut down over the winter.
While Donchess said that the need for structural repair could require the closure of the Elm Street Garage for safety reasons at some point next year, but it was uncertain if the closure would be necessary, making the garage a less urgent priority than the items paid for by the surplus cash. Since that money had already been appropriated in the past, its expenditure would have no impact on the city’s tax rate.
Also during Tuesday’s meeting, Donchess noted that the Stellos family will be donating $200,000 toward field replacement at Stellos Stadium, with a hearing on repairs to the facility to be held on Tuesday, Oct. 29.