One of several signs that city crews installed earlier this month on the gates to Stellos Stadium, Nashua’s main venue for high school football and other fall and spring sports.
One of several signs that city crews installed earlier this month on the gates to Stellos Stadium, Nashua’s main venue for high school football and other fall and spring sports.
NASHUA — The Board of Aldermen this week narrowly approved a measure that allows the city to exempt roughly $45 million in bond payments for fiscal 2025 in order to pay for much-needed improvements to various infrastructure projects — including the estimated $1.5 million needed to replace the field turf at Stellos Stadium.
Mayor Jim Donchess and city Administrative Affairs Director Tim Cummings told aldermen at a special board meeting that the passage of the resolution will have no effect on the fiscal 2025 budget, but could affect future budgets if the measure is defeated.
Cummings added that the passage of the resolution would “provide us the vehicle to continue moving forward with these various projects,” a sampling of which he shared in a slide show. Some of the more expensive projects include about $1.3 million in renovations to the historic Greeley Park Stone House and maintenance on its band shell and bathrooms, $1 million to upgrade the City Hall HVAC system, $15 million in needed repairs of the city’s parking garages and $3.5 million for a police training facility.
The total expenditures listed come to slightly more than $20 million, roughly half of the amount aldermen approved by passing the resolution.
City attorney Steve Bolton noted that some of the proposed projects on Cummings’s list may never come before the board, unlike others, such as Stellos Stadium turf replacement and the repairs to the parking garages.
Donchess, meanwhile, said that because the entire state Legislature, despite extensive lobbying by all of Nashua’s 27 state representatives, voted in favor of a bill that “grandfathered” certain language in the city charter, even though it affects only Nashua.
“We told (legislators) it made no sense ... that it’s going to be a mess. But they went ahead and forced it on the city, anyway,” Donchess said.
“That’s why we’re in this mess, and that’s why we need a tax cap to get out of this mess,” he added.
“Now, the reason we need the exclusion is so we can undertake various infrastructure capital improvement projects (that have) a crying need.”
To that end, Donchess said he and city officials, with Bolton’s guidance, will soon be “coming forth with a proposal” to put the tax cap question on the ballot for the 2025 city election.
Ward 2 Alderman Rick Dowd told fellow board members ahead of the vote that the resolution’s passage does not automatically authorize expenditures for the projects. Rather, the board would take up the proposals separately and vote on each one.
Currently, the city is about $4 million under the limit imposed by the spending cap, which is nowhere near enough to pay for even a few of the proposed infrastructure upgrades and repairs that they say are critically needed for safety and functionality.
City Attorney Steve Bolton, in response to a question posed by Ward 6 Alderman Chris Thibodeau, said the resolution “has no impact until next year. If you pass this resolution, you can still vote on each one of them ... you’re giving yourself an opportunity to vote on them in the future,” Bolton said.
The 11-4 vote to pass the resolution, known as 2024-R-089, is slightly more than the two-thirds majority required to pass.
Alderwoman-at-large Gloria Timmons was absent.
Voting in favor were Aldermen-at-Large Michael O’Brien, Shoshanna Kelly, Ben Clemons and Lori Wilshire; Ward 2 Alderman Rick Dowd, Ward 3 Alderwoman Trish Klee, Ward 4 Alderman Tom Lopez, Ward 5 Alderman Ernie Jette, Ward 7 Alderman Tim Sennott, and Ward 8 Alderman Derek Thibeault.
Voting no were Alderman-at-Large Melbourne Moran Jr., Ward 1 Alderman Tyler Gouveia, Ward 6 Alderman Chris Thibodeau and Ward 9 Alderman John Sullivan.
Dowd, meanwhile, cautioned board members that rejecting the resolution now would likely mean putting off most, if not all, of the needed capital infrastructure improvements — including perhaps the most talked-about project, the replacement of the Stellos Stadium turf.
“If we don’t pass this (resolution), we won’t be able to fix Stellos until next year,” Dowd said, adding that the turf-replacement project will be the subject of an upcoming meeting to be scheduled for next week.
