Human Affairs Committee

HUMAN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE NOVEMBER 29, 2010 A meeting of the Human Affairs Committee was held Monday, November 29, 2010 at 7:00 in the Aldermanic Chamber. Chairman Lori Wilshire presided. Members of the Committee present: Alderman Richard LaRose, Vice Chair Alderman-at-Large Ben Clemons Alderman Diane Sheehan Alderman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja (7:35 p.m.) Members not in Attendance: Also in Attendance: Mayor Lozeau Alderman Arthur T. Craffey, Jr. Jeffrey Connors, Grants Manager, NPD Pamela Auer, Development Director, BRIDGES Sue Butler, Executive Director, Great American Downtown Chairman Wilshire Alderman Melizzi-Golja will be joining us. She had another commitment that kind of ran over into this meeting, but she will be with us in a few minutes. GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT - None COMMUNICATIONS From: Carrie Johnson Schena, UPD Manager Re: R-10-50 Additional Information Chairman Wilshire I had asked Carrie for an update on the Community Development Block Grant projects that we funded, and I forwarded that to each of the committee members. We have been getting this periodically over the years, and it was just something we hadn’t seen in a while so I asked her to send us an update. I didn’t know if anyone wanted to review this at this meeting. It was really more for informational purposes. I would accept a motion. MOTION BY ALDERMAN LAROSE TO ACCEPT AND PLACE ON FILE MOTION CARRIED UNFINISHED BUSINESS - None Human Affairs – 11/29/10 Page 2 NEW BUSINESS – RESOLUTIONS R-10-70 Endorsers: Mayor Donnalee Lozeau Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire Alderman Michael J. Tabacsko Alderman-at-Large Ben Clemons Alderman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja Alderman Arthur T. Craffey, Jr. Alderman Jeffrey T. Cox Alderman Diane Sheehan Alderman Kathy Vitale RELATIVE TO THE ACCEPTANCE AND APPROPRIATION OF $90,590 FROM THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE INTO SPECIAL REVENUE ACCOUNT #331-6272 “2010 JUSTICE ASSISTANCE GRANT (MULTI-JURISDICTIONAL)” Chairman Wilshire We do have Jeffrey Connors from the Nashua Police Department who is the Grants Manager. MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS TO RECOMMEND FINAL PASSAGE ON THE QUESTION Chairman Wilshire If you would like to give us a little overview of what this legislation is about we would appreciate it. Jeffrey Connors The resolution itself covers the acceptance of the $90,590 from the Department of Justice, which runs the Bureau of Justice Assistance, which is in charge of this program, which we call the JAG Grant or Justice Assistance Grant. This grant is going to be used to continue to help the department fund some programs that it runs and to purchase some additional equipment that it was not able to purchase through the regular budget. There are no matching funds required with this grant. Chairman Wilshire Do you know specifically what the equipment is going to be that they are going to purchase? Jeffrey Connors Just a few of the things; one example is a rescue phone for the hostage negotiation unit, an additional taser for the problem oriented policing unit, a GPS for the professional standards unit, and things like that, items that were not able to be funded through the budget. Chairman Wilshire Thank you. Are there any questions? MOTION CARRIED Human Affairs – 11/29/10 Page 3 Chairman Wilshire Thank you very much, appreciate you being here tonight. Jeffrey Connors Thank you for your time. Chairman Wilshire If we could put R-10-71 on hold until the Mayor gets here, I know the Mayor was going to be joining us. She wanted to talk to us a little bit about this. MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS TO GO OUT OF THE REGULAR ORDER OF BUSINESS MOTION CARRIED Chairman Wilshire Thank you. I know the Mayor called me earlier this evening and said that she would like to be here to discuss that. She probably didn’t think we would be moving along so quickly, but I know she will be here. R-10-74 Endorsers: Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire Alderman Richard LaRose Alderman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja AMENDING THE USE OF FISCAL YEAR 2011 COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT FUNDING BY BRIDGES MOTION BY ALDERMAN LAROSE TO RECOMMEND FINAL PASSAGE ON THE QUESTION Chairman Wilshire Pamela Auer is here from BRIDGES. Initially we had approved $20,000 for the replacement of a roof at 33 East Pearl Street, which is BRIDGES home office. I would turn it over to you Pamela, and you can just inform the committee of what is going on. Pamela Auer Basically what happened was as the people who came and witnessed, our roof was in extreme disrepair and it got to the point where we were actually having leakage coming into the different rooms. We had 2,400 clients last year 600 of whom were under the age of 12 and people were getting rained on. We had to go forward to replace the roof. Basically we took the funds from another project that we need, which is the re-pointing of the chimney, we have a foundation problem, and some flooring, which the amounts that we got preliminary estimates equal just under $19,000. We humbly ask if we could transfer the funds to these projects since we had to use those funds to do the roof. Human Affairs – 11/29/10 Page 4 Chairman Wilshire Thank you. Is there discussion? I know there were a few of us that went over to BRIDGES and saw that the roof was in dire need of being done, and I know that there were other projects that you were looking at that also needed to be done. Alderman LaRose I think they attacked the problem the correct way and did not let it linger and get worse. It is a good way of still using the money to … Chairman Wilshire And they did the roof first. Alderman LaRose It is a good way for them to use the money for the upkeep of their building. Chairman Wilshire It is. Alderman Sheehan I just wanted to say I am in support of this. I had seen the roof we drive by there a lot. Went through the same thing and because of weather even though I was in the process of getting quotes just sometimes you have to do it right then and there because of the weather. That makes sense, and you would have to pull it from somewhere. I support this. Chairman Wilshire The motion before us is to recommend final passage of R-10-74. Is there further discussion? MOTION CARRIED Pamela Auer Thank you so very much. Chairman Wilshire Thank you for being here, appreciate your time. MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS TO RETURN TO THE REGULAR ORDER OF BUSINESS MOTION CARRIED Human Affairs – 11/29/10 Page 5 R-10-71 Endorsers: Mayor Donnalee Lozeau Alderman Michael J. Tabacsko Alderman Jeffrey T. Cox Alderman Arthur T. Craffey, Jr. RELATIVE TO THE ACCEPTANCE AND APPROPRIATION OF $350,000 FROM THE STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES INTO CAPITAL PROJECT ACCOUNT #791-3786 “SOLID WASTE, COMPRESSED NATURAL GAS (CNG) REFUSE HAULER TRUCKS” MOTION BY ALDERMAN LAROSE TO RECOMMEND FINAL PASSAGE ON THE QUESTION Chairman Wilshire The Mayor is here and I know she wanted to speak on this legislation. Please join us. Thanks for being here. Mayor Lozeau Thank you. I appreciate the committee’s time this evening on this issue. I would ask the committee if you would consider amending it and changing the dollar amount from $350,000 to $400,000. We had asked the Board of Public Works to do the same, and the reason is the State does have additional funds available, which may allow us to get up to 9 vehicles. All of you have been paying close attention to the CNG possibility for us to have the compressed natural gas station here and the vehicles that run on the compressed natural gas. The biggest challenges for most municipalities that look at this is the cost differential between the cost of a diesel vehicle and the cost of a CNG vehicle. These funds, the federal dollars, are available through the Diesel Reduction Act and so being able to use those to pay for that differential makes an awful lot of sense for us. As I say to folks when we talk about this, you know that is all well and good today, but what happens when you have the CNG gas station operating and you have 9 trash trucks that are using it and you can’t afford and there is no money available for that differential again and you have to buy new trucks. There are a couple of points that I would make with that; as you heard the other night when the gentleman came in and did that presentation on the gas station, there is no minimum gallon amount that they are expecting from us that would be beyond what 8 or 9 trucks would use. If we find ourselves in a place where we can’t expand our fleet with those same type of vehicles, we wouldn’t have to. But I would like to think that by the time we’re looking at more vehicles, there not only still is money available but because the demand is growing because of this Diesel Reduction Act, that the vehicles will be more affordable. I think every once in a while we have to go out on a limb with an investment in something that could really pay good dividends both to our community at large and/or our budget, and I think this is one of those instances. I would really appreciate the committee’s support in this initiative. Alderman Clemons Two questions for you Mayor and I don’t know if you have the answers off the top of your head, but maybe you can get back to me on it; what are the lifespan of these vehicles and I guess the other question is what kind of expertise does it take to fix them if they break down? Human Affairs – 11/29/10 Page 6 Mayor Lozeau Well the lifespan of these vehicles is 25% longer than the diesel ones we have today. Alderman Clemons Okay. Mayor Lozeau Our youngest truck right now is 10 years old. We have 16 trucks in our solid waste department, we have 6 that are off the streets right now that have failed inspection or are beyond repair for any assorted reasons. Our superintendent and the staff at solid waste is pretty remarkable making sure that trash and soft yard waste and recycling are getting picked up in spite of those challenges. As far as the expertise to fix them, Manchester Community College right now has a program for mechanics to certify them in CNG repairs. We are working with the Nashua Community College to see if we can do the same thing here and get our staff certified in fixing them. There is not a significant difference between the engines it is just the difference between diesel fired versus CNG, but the same engine parts are being used in these vehicles so the learning curve isn’t quite so steep. Also the Federal Transit Authority is really supporting communities changing their transit buses over. We may have an opportunity to piggyback on some of that not only for the gas station, but for a repair bay because we have looked at our bays at our streets garage and there is some retrofitting that would need to be done. It is really just a ventilation thing, nothing more than that. We’re pretty confident that we will be able to do that. It is about a three month turnaround to build a gas station, but it could be up to 6 to 8 months before we can get the vehicles in, which is why you see us keep moving this process forward. This also has to go to Governor and Council so we’re trying to get it on their agenda so that we are not delayed in getting out trucks ordered. Alderman Clemons Thank you. Mayor Lozeau You are welcome. Chairman Wilshire Are there further questions? MOTION BY ALDERMAN LAROSE TO AMEND R-10-71 IN THE TITLE AND BODY BY CHANGING THE DOLLAR AMOUNT FROM THREE HUNDRED FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS ($350,000) TO FOUR HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS ($400,000) MOTION CARRIED MOTION BY ALDERMAN LAROSE TO RECOMMEND FINAL PASSAGE AS AMENDED Human Affairs – 11/29/10 Page 7 ON THE QUESTION Alderman LaRose I think the City is going in the right direction. We are being proactive instead of reactive. I think it is a good sign that we have good management in the city. I am looking forward to seeing this come to fruition. I think it will be a good deal for the taxpayers and the citizens of Nashua. Chairman Wilshire I agree Alderman LaRose. Alderman Sheehan I know the other night I had a lot of questions and similar to Alderman Clemons’ concerns with repair. But the other concern that I had had was having the only gas station for a very long time and long distance around. He had assured us that they had six trucks that can come in and backfill that. Being an early adopter I think in this instance is a very good idea. I think it is very good for the environment on top of everything else that was said and the exhaust so I do support this. I would like to see our transit adopt this as well and be able to have the flow of income from getting a percentage if we do open it up to other people to buy fuel here, which he had mentioned. I think this could be a great opportunity to be an early adopter and have it be a revenue source. I do support this. Alderman Clemons I am hopeful as well that it works out. I think when you have an opportunity where you can try something like this out at the same cost essentially that you would pay to do things under the normal way of business I think it is always smart to try to do that. Whereas these trucks last, according to the Mayor, 25% longer than usual we’re definitely getting our monies worth. I think it will be a good test to see how this works out and whether or not we want to move more of our fleet this way. It will be interesting to see how it turns out, but I certainly will support it. Chairman Wilshire Is there further discussion? The motion is to recommend final passage as amended. MOTION CARRIED Chairman Wilshire Thank you Mayor. Mayor Lozeau Thank you very much. Human Affairs – 11/29/10 Page 8 R-10-75 Endorser:Alderman Arthur T. Craffey, Jr. Alderman Michael J. Tabacsko Alderman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja Alderman Jeffrey T. Cox AMENDING THE USE OF FISCAL YEAR 2008 COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT FUNDING BY GREAT AMERICAN DOWNTOWN MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS TO RECOMMEND FINAL PASSAGE ON THE QUESTION Chairman Wilshire Thank you. The motion before us is to recommend final passage, and I see that Sue Butler from Great American Downtown is in the audience. I have a few questions if you would like to join us please. Sue Butler It was funny when you said 2008. Chairman Wilshire Well that is the money from the arches that was approved… Sue Butler Right before I started. Chairman Wilshire Yes. Sue Butler Believe me I had plenty of questions about the arches for a long time. I am actually relieved to finally get it to a different point. Do you have questions for me or should I kind of go over what… Chairman Wilshire Why don’t you go over what you have and then I have a couple of questions because I know we have had a couple of façade programs here in the City in the past, and I would like to hear your perspective and then have a few questions about how that might work with what we have done in the past. Sue Butler Sure. From what I am aware of the last time there were any facades done it was Fortin & Gage. First thank you for having me, I appreciate it. Fortin & Gage and UNUMS were the last two facades that were done downtown and they were done through a grant through PSNH. It was a $5,000 grant. They basically I think Human Affairs – 11/29/10 Page 9 they just gave them each $2,500 to use towards their façade. My past experience is with Manchester’s façade program. My old office used to run this for many years and then they eventually transferred it to the city so that it was citywide. The idea behind a façade program is it is actually a job creation program on many different levels. It is a job creation program because people who are, whether they are redoing the whole front of their building or re- doing just the front whether it is windows or whatever, they get involved with hiring architects, engineers, laborers, and then ultimately long-term goal is that once the façade is fixed up more people are drawn to your business, which means you are busier which means you have to hire more help. So it is kind of a long cycle, but there is immediate job creation and then there is down the road job creation. In doing a program like this it is a matching grant program. There is a lot of flexibility with the amount of money. I know right now there is about $41,000 left in that. When I was in Manchester we did $2,500 for merchants, $5,000 for property owners, and then I think that was reduced. I think they had started at a higher number and then it was being used pretty frequently so they had to reduce the numbers. It could be, I know Paul Foden from Fodey’s Tavern has contacted me he purchased his building and needs some serious funds to help. We could be granting him $10,000, $15,000. Frankly if there are only 4 takers in a year because ultimately I would love to re-approach this every year and ask for the money every year and continue to offer this program downtown. There are a lot of businesses that need work and the major properties need a lot more money. $2,500 is really just a drop in the bucket for someone who owns a building that is worth half a million dollars or a million dollars. Like I said there is some flexibility there. My initial thought is $2,500 for merchants, $5,000 for property, but that could be written any way you want it. There are some requirements; they need to have a certain length on their lease so you don’t give it to someone who has a month-to-month lease or a one year lease, you try to grant it to someone who is actually going to stick around, and some of the investment that we have made we are going to see it come back into the downtown. Chairman Wilshire Can I interrupt for just a second, as someone who has been downtown for a certain period of time, is that one of your criteria like a business that has been here for 6 months or a year or someone who is just buying a business and wants to do it and then closes up their shop in 3 months and, you know what I mean? I am kind of concerned about how that… Sue Butler Obviously if someone breaks their lease you can’t avoid that. I know that is how we ran it in Manchester is I think we said a minimum 2 year lease they had to have on their business. So obviously if they had been there for a while it is a little different than someone who is brand new. They have a major challenge up there in that people aren’t as sensitive to design in their downtown, and I am always amazed between the two cities and say we are very lucky that most of the people when they do their storefronts and their signage down here they really understand they are on a Main Street and they build it for Main Street they don’t build it for D.W. Highway. Chairman Wilshire And Nashua’s downtown is a little smaller than Manchester’s downtown and it seems like they get it here. Human Affairs – 11/29/10 Page 10 Sue Butler You are 100% right. I always tell my old boss that and say I feel very lucky that I don’t get nervous every time someone new gets in that Coca Cola is going to come in and make a new sign for someone and give them a sign for free as long as their logo is in there and you get a terrible sign. That is part of that because you just want to encourage it. You certainly don’t want to be giving someone money and they close up shop in 6 months. Certain times people are going to break their lease and that is unavoidable, but you want that long-term investment. You can’t reimburse on sweat equity either so I can’t be a shop owner and say well I spent 40 hours painting the front of my 20 x 20 store and get reimbursed. It is a job creation program so you are supposed to be there actually, they get approved through you first, they get the design approved through you, and then they submit all of their paid invoices to you, and then you reimburse them. Chairman Wilshire To you being who is you? Sue Butler It would be to me. Chairman Wilshire Okay. Sue Butler That is nice too. That makes sure that other people are being hired to do the work. Chairman Wilshire Do you have a written plan for this? Sue Butler I do have something back in the office. I can certainly e-mail that to you. Chairman Wilshire I would like to see what the criteria are. I know in the past the façade program that was in place in 1997 had a questionnaire of sorts that said are you current with your city on your taxes, that kind of stuff. To me that makes sense; if they are getting city money from another pocket of money. I just don’t know what your plan specifically outlines. Sue Butler I know that the form I have currently it asks them about how many employees they have and what their total investment is. Another thing they are concerned about when you do a program like this is typically people Human Affairs – 11/29/10 Page 11 don’t just spend money on the façade, then they also go spend money inside so it is nice to see that maybe by the City contributing $5,000 to a business they actually ended up spending $25,000 on their business and improving it. That is another part, but also the employee tracking that is a big part of the CDBG. Chairman Wilshire That is one of the HUD requirements is job creation for low to moderate income people, which is what makes this money eligible for this kind of program. Sue Butler I would be happy to forward all of you the paperwork I have. Chairman Wilshire I would like to see what the criteria are… Sue Butler And it can be modified too. Chairman Wilshire One of my concerns is if you are saying you can give one business $10,000 or $15,000 and then another business comes along and you say well we can only give you $5,000, I would like to know what the criteria is for someone who gets $15,000 and for someone who gets $5,000. Sue Butler Right and I guess I didn’t explain myself well there. What I meant to say is that you decide right from the beginning so it is set at the beginning when that paperwork is there so for example the program that I used to do it was $2,500 and $5,000. There wasn’t anybody getting $10,000. Chairman Wilshire Okay. Sue Butler So that is what I was saying is that if we look at the money we have now and if there was a chance that we could maybe get it next year maybe we say okay we have a couple of new property owners, Rich Lannan just bought my building, I know he has a lot of work to do to my building. We might say hey between Paul Foden and Rich Lannan and one other property owner they could eat up that money pretty easily or we say well look on West Pearl Street there are so many merchants who need work on West Pearl Street maybe the money is better spent saying let’s keep those amounts low and reimburse more people. Chairman Wilshire That is the kind of thing I like to see; what is the actual plan, what is going to be allowed to these merchants? I know that in the past the façade program it spelled things out a little bit more. I am not saying it has to be exactly like this. Certainly there is some flexibility. Current in all tax obligations to the City of Nashua, number Human Affairs – 11/29/10 Page 12 of tenants, office/retail/other, proposed work, and then it goes on to talk about the whole program. I was hoping that you were going to come in tonight with something in this vein that we could really digest. I think it is a good idea, I just don’t know that I am comfortable with what your plan is. Sue Butler Sure. Alderman Sheehan I have a lot of interest in this as well. I know Fodey’s is in my ward and their neighbor also needs a lot of work. I know that Community Development had a program like this previously as well and the Urban Program Manager managed it and the Japanese florist I think on West Pearl Street had taken advantage of it with best retail practices. My concern is with the lack of detail and moving it from Community Development out into a third party vendor without a lot of detail so I think I would need that before I could move forward. But in talking with the Director of Community Development, she had some really neat pictures of that corner completely redone, and we are doing Chandler and Paul is doing a lot of work on Fodey’s and the owner of the next building, Director Hersh has a beautiful picture of that all redone and it looks amazing. And we are looking at Canal Street and trying to redevelop that. We want to do Main Street. We are at junctures, and if you are looking at the Broad Street Parkway and coming into Factory Street it is all brought into this area that we have not made the best of it. I know that property in particular has gone from $350,000 assessed value up to $1.3 million assessed value. I don’t know if perhaps that is part of the criteria, how much is it worth versus how much of an allowance they would get for it with the matching programs. Sue Butler No. Like I said I think that there is some flexibility here. I know what I worked with before, but that is kind of what I wanted to talk about with you is if you are comfortable with it we could set higher parameters. It could be up to $5,000 for a merchant and up to $10,000 for a property owner. Like I said I didn’t know kind of what you guys were looking to see out of this. That is why I didn’t bring it to you. I apologize. Chairman Wilshire That is fine. I think it is a work in progress. We can hold this until we get what we need. I like what they had on here before minimum cost of work and maximum grant amount. It kind of said the minimum cost of the work must be $1,000, maximum grant will be $7,500, and it outlines a lot of things that I would like to see for your plan. Sue Butler Sure. No problem. Chairman Wilshire And it doesn’t have to be identical to any of this, but I think some of these things are good to know. Sue Butler I think what would be good is if I can send this to all of you and maybe there might be something… Human Affairs – 11/29/10 Page 13 Chairman Wilshire Give you some feedback on our ideas. Sue Butler Right. Maybe I am missing something or maybe you like something that is on there that wasn’t on the other one and we find some nice mesh. Chairman Wilshire Did you send us the Manchester information or maybe Carrie did, but I only seem to have the Nashua one here. Sue Butler I think Carrie might have sent that to you because that is the one that I have in my office. Chairman Wilshire The ones I have are the Nashua ones. I think she might have sent me the Manchester one, but I don’t seem to have it. I apologize. I think if you send along what you have, you can send it to me and I will copy to the committee and to Alderman Craffey since he has been the sponsor of this. We can work out some details and try to come to a plan that works for all of us. Sue Butler Like I mentioned, I would love this to be a program that you guys feel really comfortable with that you like that we are the ones who are doing this, that you see that it is well thought out and that it goes through design review and it is really making some changes downtown so that if we approach you on a yearly basis and say what do you think and you say yup this is a good project we want to keep funding this project, that is my ultimate goal is that you think…I think it is better for us to collaborate than… Chairman Wilshire I tried to get some historic data from Urban Programs, but you know Carrie is fairly new and so there is not a lot of historical data there from here. I was trying to figure out how many merchants actually utilized this program and how successful it was. But it sounds like what you did in Manchester was… Sue Butler It was very popular up there. I think they allocated about $70,000 a year and they went through a lot of it every year. Chairman Wilshire Wow, that is big money. Well it is a bigger downtown. Human Affairs – 11/29/10 Page 14 Sue Butler Like I said when they started off they started off with larger numbers and then they eventually…and then eventually they spread it citywide because once they found that downtown was pretty strong they had neighborhoods on the west side that really needed some attention so they started doing this kind of neighborhood development with the funding. It is a cool program it really is, and it is a great aid to the merchants because there are a lot who are out there who getting something like this where they are thinking about either revamping and say oh would love to do this I just don’t have enough or I would love to do this, but I just have enough money for this. To know that is there and then that propels them. I was driving down West Pearl and just as I turned down to Elm I noticed Ikebana’s and said gosh the front of her store is so dark. West Pearl is so dark and that is such a safety issue on its own, but even just having stores with their own lighting on them makes a world of difference. There still needs to be some other safety things addressed, but that would be a great thing to be able to …I wouldn’t doubt Antoinette wouldn’t take advantage of something like that. Alderman Sheehan She has. Sue Butler Of lighting? Alderman Sheehan The program. She is the one that used it that I was familiar with. Sue Butler Oh yes the program yes. I remember you saying that, but I could see her saying ooh I could do lighting too? Anyway I will be happy to send that along to you and please just give me your input. Like I said I would like to have this be a program that you guys are all very comfortable with, and if you are happy with the way we run it, if you approve it and you like the way we run it maybe it is something that we can repeat. Chairman Wilshire Okay if you wouldn’t mind forwarding to me like I said and I will forward to everyone here… Sue Butler Sure. Chairman Wilshire And for the record, Alderman Melizzi-Golja has joined us. Thank you for being here. Alderman Sheehan Would you entertain a motion to table this them for more information? Human Affairs – 11/29/10 Page 15 Chairman Wilshire Yes. Alderman Clemons If you would allow me to just ask a couple of questions first if that is okay. Chairman Wilshire Absolutely. Alderman Clemons This might go to the sponsor or anyone I guess who could answer this; originally it was $50,000, now the available balance is $41,000. Do you know what the $9,000 was spent on? Alderman Craffey Engineering fees. Chairman Wilshire For the arches? Alderman Clemons Engineering fees for the arches? Alderman Craffey For where they were originally going to go and then when they finally got the money and were going to do it again they found out it was all miss-marked so that is why she is coming in to ask for the façade program instead of the arches program. Chairman Wilshire I actually like the façade program better than the arches. Sue Butler In all honesty I like it too and I think it would create a lot more jobs. I look at arches as they are really pretty, but it is what you do when everything else is fixed. It is something that was decided on before I started and then if course I inherited all of the issues that came along with it. I had a lot of people say what happened didn’t you mark the sidewalk out before you applied for the money and I was told by the people who had worked on it that yes they had but unfortunately when they realized just the size of, once the things had been engineered and the drawings, it wouldn’t have gone where it would have been okay to dig so then they had to re-mark the sidewalk that would actually work with the size of the footings, that wouldn’t work. There were so many utilities under the sidewalk. It is such a nightmare under our sidewalks. They said every side street, we Human Affairs – 11/29/10 Page 16 had every side street checked by DigSafe and they said same situation on every corner downtown, there is just no getting around it. They said you could do it, but we would have had to come up with so much more money to try and make it happen. Alderman Clemons I can remember Great American Downtown, I don’t know if it was you Sue or who it was, but it was my first year on the Board I believe came forward with more money for the arches and I can tell you that I was against it then and I don’t agree with it now. I agree with you that it is kind of one of those things that it is nice to have, but when you are in the times that we are in you need to do with the money that you have things that help other people. I just think this re-programming of the money goes a lot more in the way of doing that. My other question I guess is what are the…now I know that there are a lot of strict requirements as far as job creation and documenting that. Is that something you intend to work with the Urban Programs Department on? Sue Butler Definitely. That would be my responsibility to stay in touch with her and on a yearly basis go back and review with the businesses who took part and see where they are at. Alderman Clemons Okay because one of the things…if this is something that like you say we are going to be doing in the future, part of something that I would be interested in looking at is when the next request came in for this type of money is to see how many jobs were created, but not only that but how many different firms did how many different things on how many different properties, how many people were involved, a real nice breakdown of basically everything. That is something I think that will show either the merits or in the event that isn’t a worthwhile cause it would show that as well. I feel though that this is going to be something that is going to benefit downtown, but it is nice to have that backup. Sue Butler I am a numbers girl. I totally agree with you and am already just picturing something in my head as you were mentioning that. I think there is another way of just modifying that form is really just talking about who did you hire, how many people, that kind of thing. I think there is really some interesting details that we could get into just right from the start beyond just how many staff do you have. A lot of those they would say what did you have done and it would be a little too general in the jobs created, but it would be really interesting what if you had to hire a painting company and you had to hire an engineer, and then how much money went out to each one. You could really see how much of that money went right back into the economy. Alderman Clemons And that is the key. Sue Butler Yeah. Human Affairs – 11/29/10 Page 17 Alderman Clemons That is the key to showing the success and I would be very interested in that. If that could be a part of the process that would be great. Sue Butler Sure. No problem. Chairman Wilshire I got an e-mail today from Carrie Schena the Urban Programs Manager and what she says is the proposed façade improvement program must meet a HUD national objective to be an eligible activity, which in this case is benefiting low and moderate income persons criteria; job creation or retention, 51% of jobs created or retained must be made available or held by low to moderate income persons. This number can be aggregated across all businesses assisted under this activity. The Urban Programs Department will work with GAD to ensure documentation of all jobs created/retained, and that those jobs are held/available for low to moderate income individuals. I asked the question and that was the response I got. Sue Butler And I think it is kind of safe to assume that most of our retail positions the salaries they pay put people right into that job category. Does anybody else have any questions for me? Alderman Melizzi-Golja Just to agree with what Alderman Clemons said I think it is really important that if we are hiring a painting company that they document who it is that they have actually working on that job and I think that is going to be the nitty gritty detail because you might hire a big company that paints all over Southern New Hampshire but to document that the person who worked on this job meets that criteria because the company itself and the owner of the company may not, but knowing that they have a contract for this job they may say we are going to keep this guy or we are going to hire this guy because we project work. I think that is part of the nitty gritty in terms of the people who are hired to work on this project that people are going to have to commit to keeping that kind of detailed information. I think that is what you were speaking to Alderman Clemons in addition to the people who work there or get hired because of expanded hours or increased business. Alderman Clemons Correct. Chairman Wilshire Sue did you do this program with CDBG funds in Manchester? Sue Butler Yes. Human Affairs – 11/29/10 Page 18 Chairman Wilshire So you must have some experience already with having to document these types of things. Sue Butler Yes. And the beauty of this is that these things don’t come in 10 at a time. That is a nice thing and they take a little while and it takes a little while for all of the paperwork to come back in. It is not one of those overwhelming projects because you are right it is kind of the nitty gritty thing trying to find out if Nashua Wallpaper did a paint job and they had a guy working in it how much was he being paid to do the job. I understand what you mean by that. Fortunately like I said it is not something that is horrible. It is also something you can easily call a company and say how much is that guy paid an hour. We have to report this and if you want to get your bill paid… There is that understanding. A lot of companies have worked with these kinds of funds. CDBG funds are pretty common across the country for being used for these purposes. Chairman Wilshire The documentation isn’t always as easy as it seems though. Sue Butler Right and that is why I am glad I have Carrie because she really understands what she is doing. It was funny I had sent her the paperwork for Manchester and she said oh this is great; this is a great template to work off of. Obviously she understood all of the industry lingo better than I do. Chairman Wilshire And we know from her e-mail that she will be working very closely with you to make sure these criteria are met and that we are following the HUD guidelines and meeting the HUD objectives. Sue Butler And I think just speaking as a downtown person for me my goal in the organization is we have been an event organization for a long time, I really want to be a lot more than that. I really want to be a true downtown organization. Downtown organizations get involved. We just did the riverwalk addition three years after, we just finished that. They get involved with public safety they get involved with these beautification projects these façade programs. There are so many things that we could be doing on a broader scope that we just never have the staff or the time for. There are a lot of things in the office that we are kind of just getting caught up, getting our budget up to shape, that took a couple of years to finally get that going strong. I am very happy to report that we are once again running in the black, second year in a row for the organization. I was at a meeting a year ago with a bunch of non-profits, there were 30 or so of us there, and they said how many of you have had a better year financially this year than last year, and I was the only one who raised my hand. A lot of it just came down to better money management in the office. Our stroll is projected to raise an additional $10,000 more than last year. We had all of our performers donate their performances this year. That is something I really think they should be, it is a non-ticketed fundraising event. But it took several years. The year before I came on they spent $18,000 on entertainment. That is eating right, and the organization was $27,000 in the red. Can’t have that. You can’t keep an organization alive, and I remember after I was hired they said well if you keep running it this way you won’t have a job in two and a half years, and I said well I would like to be employed so… Human Affairs – 11/29/10 Page 19 Chairman Wilshire That is motivation. Sue Butler Exactly. I said let’s work on this budget. We have been able to do that. Anyway my point being as a downtown person I really want this group to be a lot more than what we are, and I think there is a lot more that we can be doing. I was talking to someone in recycling the other day about trying to talk about starting a really good recycling program downtown. We have so many restaurants that create so much garbage and so many bottles that are just being thrown away, and it is such a shame that is not being sent to a better place. That is really something I am really excited to just talk to somebody about and see what we could maybe get started. I really fell like that is more of my role to work with whoever in the City is kind of spearheading this and then I can kind of help get behind it and cheerlead it and do what I can. Chairman Wilshire Thank you. Sue Butler Thank you for having me. Chairman Wilshire Are there further questions for Sue? Thank you very much. Sue Butler Thank you. MOTION BY ALDERMAN SHEEHAN TO TABLE R-10-75 PENDING FURTHER COMMUNICATION WITH MS. BUTLER MOTION CARRIED R-10-76 Endorser: Mayor Donnalee Lozeau Alderman Michael J. Tabacsko Alderman-at-Large Ben Clemons Alderman Arthur T. Craffey, Jr. Alderman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja Alderman-at-Large Barbara Pressly Alderman Kathy Vitale RELATIVE TO THE ACCEPTANCE AND APPROPRIATION OF AN ADDITIONAL $54,232 INTO SPECIAL REVENUE ACCOUNT #341-6457 “FY 2011 EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS GRANT AMENDMENT” FROM THE STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS TO RECOMMEND FINAL PASSAGE Human Affairs – 11/29/10 Page 20 ON THE QUESTION Chairman Wilshire The Mayor did leave us a little blurb on this on our desks. It was additional money. We had accepted this grant back in May and the State ended up having more money for this. The City is in line to get $54,000 more. It is to support the public health emergency planning in New Hampshire. I think it is good to have more money for that. Alderman Craffey Always good to have more money. Chairman Wilshire Always good to have more money that is right. Is there discussion on that motion? MOTION CARRIED NEW BUSINESS – ORDINANCES –None GENERAL DISCUSSION Chairman Wilshire We do have this memo from Carrie Schena regarding all of the CDBG ongoing projects. I had asked her for an update on where the projects are, what the status is. I am going to open the floor to questions if anybody has questions about any of these projects that you would like to discuss. The things that go back to ’07 like we have one on here for Southern New Hampshire Services $20,000 funds allocated toward the cleanup of the Riverwalk near the Cotton Transfer Bridge, no activity. I appreciate that there is no activity, but I don’t know what the proposed plan is at this point, if that is still a viable project, or if that money can be reallocated to new projects. Those are the kind of questions we could ask. I am not really sure, unless anyone has any information about that. Alderman Clemons I don’t have any information actually about that, but I was wondering about the Rail Trail and the lights that were supposed to be put on there. I haven’t seen them have you Alderman Craffey? Alderman Craffey I have not either. Alderman Clemons That was supposed to be done by now. I was under the impression that… Alderman Craffey Before I came on the board it was supposed to be done. Human Affairs – 11/29/10 Page 21 Alderman Clemons I know that last year we had added money to that because they needed an additional amount; I guess there was some kind of issue with… Chairman Wilshire $6,700 additional that we allocated correct. Alderman Clemons I guess my question, and I don’t know if anybody here can answer it, but maybe if you could ask Director Hersh, what is the status of that because it is definitely still dark on the Rail Trail. Chairman Wilshire I will inquire Alderman Clemons. Alderman Clemons Thank you. Chairman Wilshire You are very welcome. You are right, and that has been out there for some time. We did allocate some additional money, and I haven’t been on the Rail Trail, but if it is still dark we need to find out why. Alderman Clemons If I remember the discussion that we had and one of the concerns that I had at the discussion this year for the additional $6,700 was well we allocated this and then PSNH increased the price. I had asked the question are they going to increase the price again. I don’t know if that is actually what ended up happening, but if that is the case that the price went up then I think that you are absolutely right going back to your original point where have money that is out there, well what is it going to cost for us to seal the deal here because the price just can’t keep going up on this. We need to be able to do something, and if there is money that is being held out there by folks who aren’t going to use it that is a project that needs to get done and it has needed to get done for a long time. It has been almost six years now. You are absolutely right I think we need to look at what is out there and what are our main priorities that we know that there are things that we need to do. I guess it all kind of relates. Chairman Wilshire In her memo, she does state that the FY05 Rail Trail Park referred to Parks & Recreation to obtain bids, install prior to winter. This memo came out a month ago. If they are still not up, it is almost winter; they only have a few weeks left. I will inquire Alderman Clemons and see what the status of that is. Alderman Clemons Thank you. Human Affairs – 11/29/10 Page 22 Alderman LaRose The other one is FY08 the Southern New Hampshire $20,000. Chairman Wilshire Right that is the one I just mentioned. Alderman LaRose Right but then in FY09 they got another one. Is that the same $20,000 or is that an additional $20,000? Chairman Wilshire It looks like an additional $20,000 to me, but I will inquire about that as well. If it has been out there since FY08 why is nothing going on. It says no activity. I think there needs to be some discussion about why that money is being held and if it is not going to be used we can re-program that to something that is needed. Alderman LaRose That must have to do with the potential of doing the Stabile project on Front Street. That is what that has to do with. Chairman Wilshire Yes, but if there is no activity and there has been no activity for a couple of years when are they going to do it. I guess that is the question we could ask. Alderman LaRose I think that money should be allocated and then if something in the future happens, a development happens, then we look at it again. Chairman Wilshire Are you saying you think this money should be re-programmed to another activity? Alderman LaRose Yes. Chairman Wilshire Okay. I will ask the question. Alderman LaRose When we do the budget next… Human Affairs – 11/29/10 Page 23 Chairman Wilshire Coming up in the next few months. If they are not going to use the money we should be able to re-program it towards something that we need at this time. I guess what I will do is I will go through and see any of them that are just sitting there kind of stagnant and find out if there is nothing happening can we re-program that money. I will have that discussion. Alderman LaRose It is the same thing with the Nashua Association for the Elderly. They have $5,100 left; will be used for capital costs at Senior Center. What does that mean? Chairman Wilshire Right and it has been five years so if they are not going to use it. It is still money in our coffers; we still have the money here. That is the thing when we allocate money to these projects, if they don’t use the whole thing the money stays with us. But now they are saying well we might use it. Well if you are going to use it come back to us at another round of funding and in the meantime we will re-allocate this to a project that we need to do now. Alderman LaRose Nashua Youth Council is the same thing. Although they did do some work I know that on the building because in FY07 they had $45,000 and they have a little more than $3,800 left. But then in FY09 they got another $45,000 and it says see FY07 description. I guess they had some kind of a long-range plan, but they don’t seem to be doing anything. Chairman Wilshire They had a long-range plan, and I think the plan was just enormous, it just was going to cost so much money that they haven’t really delved into it yet, but I can certainly ask the questions and … Alderman LaRose They have two rentals. Chairman Wilshire Right. Alderman Melizzi-Golja With that, under FY07 for Nashua Youth Council it says bids are due 11-4. Now there is another note down here where the actual year is there so is that 11-4 of 2010, 2009? If we could get clarification on that and if the bid was received. Chairman Wilshire I will ask. Human Affairs – 11/29/10 Page 24 Alderman Melizzi-Golja And also the Dental Connection for their roof; out to bid, bid due 11-4-2010, has that been received. That is under the FY11. Chairman Wilshire Oh that is a current year. I am not as concerned about the current year stuff. Alderman Melizzi-Golja But do we know if they are even moving on that? Chairman Wilshire I can ask. Alderman Sheehan They are. They needed the roof. It wasn’t elective. Alderman Melizzi-Golja I’m just wondering if they have the bid or if we are going to be looking at something. Chairman Wilshire I can ask. If they said it was 11-4, she prepared this before 11-4 so I will ask the question. Is there any other discussion on this? I will ask the questions, I will ask her if there is anything that is not active what is the plan, are they going to move forward or is it money we can re-program. There is no sense in money just sitting out there waiting for something to happen especially five years worth. Alderman LaRose I just find some of these things like last year when we did this stuff and like when we visited the Tolles Street Mission they were biting at the bits yet they haven’t done it yet. I can understand they couldn’t do anything until July 1st, but it seems to me that when July 1st came I would have been knocking at the doors and getting bids. Chairman Wilshire $13,625 yeah. Alderman LaRose Interior projects will be addressed this winter. Chairman Wilshire Which is their electrical. Human Affairs – 11/29/10 Page 25 Alderman LaRose I just find it odd, you have some money and you don’t go out and do the job. If I needed a roof repair I didn’t wait and wait. Chairman Wilshire Okay. Alderman Clemons To come from a different point of view, I don’t mind that so much that they waited for the thing, I guess what concerns me more is when a year and a half or two years goes by or even the next year comes and they are asking for more money when they haven’t spent the original money. That is when my concern comes. If they are working on a project and the project gets done in the spring it gets done in the spring, but if they are coming to us this spring and this one still hasn’t been done then the question is well what is going on. I kind of give them the benefit of the doubt, but I certainly understand where you are coming from though because they were kind of chopping at the bit when they came to us. Chairman Wilshire When we start doing our next process or reviewing applications we will have our meeting on what the status is of projects, invite these people in, and say what are you doing? Before that I will get more clarification from Urban Programs. Is there any other discussion? ADJOURNMENT MOTION BY ALDERMAN LAROSE TO ADJOURN MOTION CARRIED The meeting was declared adjourned at 8:00 p.m. Alderman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja Committee Clerk