The Nashua Board of Alderman met on Tuesday, October 14, 2025 at 7:30 PM in the Aldermanic Chamber with 14 members present and one absent. Mayor Jim Donchis and Corporation Counsel Steve Bolton were also in attendance. The meeting covered the closure of the Mohawk Tannery transaction, multiple ordinances addressing homeless encampments, the Daniel Webster College property, and a range of routine approvals. Public comment included testimony from individuals experiencing homelessness, clergy, business owners, and police officials.
The regular meeting of the Board of Alderman to order on Tuesday, October 14th, twenty twenty-five at seven thirty PM in the Aldermanic Chamber, which has been duly noticed in two places, including the city's website, in accordance with the requirements of RSA ninety one A. Prayer will be offered this evening by City Clerk Dan Healy, and Alderman Tibetan will lead us in the pledge to the flag. Alderman Jelly. Here. Alderman Tebow. Yeah. Alderman Clee. Here. Alderman Dowd. President. Alderwoman Kelly. Here. Baldwin Wilshire. Here. Fourteen present, one absent. Also joining us this evening is Mayor Jim Donchis and Corporation Counsel Steve Bolton. Mayor, did you wish to address the board this evening? Um yes, thank you, Madam President. Well, I wanted to start with some good news, which is that last week the tannery transaction uh will closed. So we are officially on record that uh that uh transaction is completed. And of course, for those who haven't been following this uh closely, the tannery, Mohawk Tannery was an operating tannery up until about 1984, and then uh since that time in the last 40 years has been a polluted site uh contaminated with tannery waste. And uh we were never able to find the funds, find the uh necessary parties to get that cleaned up over all these years. But now, thanks to the efforts of many, including all of you uh on the board of Alderman, uh we have uh I think achieved a major result. Uh we we've been working on this for a long time. I think our first meeting with the EPA was about 1917, so that eight years ago. Uh but I want to thank a lot of people for 2017. Pardon? 2017. 2017. I made that mistake last time, too. I don't know. I've been watching stuff about World War One, so I think I have 1917 in my mind. 2017, about eight years ago. And um, as you as you know, uh as a result of this uh uh transaction, we are ultimately going to see a cleanup of the site uh along with 500 units of housing, uh approximately half of which will be rental and ultimately uh condominiums, uh and much of that will be affordable, and there will be a considerable contribution to the uh to the affordable housing trust fund. Uh but we owe thanks to a lot of people, um, first the Board of Alderman, but uh also to the EPA who is contributing some millions of dollars to make this uh possible. Uh our housing authority, uh the state of New Hampshire. Um locally, uh we had a lot of people working on this. Uh Celia Leonard, these are City Hall people, Celia Leonard, Tim Cummings, Megan Caron, uh, Sam Durfee, uh Director Sullivan, Liz Hanum, uh all of these uh people worked tirelessly over a long period of time, many, many, many meetings. And of course, we uh uh worked carefully with the developer Bernie Plant uh as well as with Blaylock Holdings, who is the uh the entity that was formed to do this, do this job. So the cleanup should begin in the spring, and that should take I don't know, a year or so, and then uh the construction of the uh housing will begin. Uh the city will also realize about uh well a multi-acre parcel for just of uh green space that uh is the southern end of this tannery parcel, which which will not be developed, uh, which we can use for open space and parkland. Uh next, madam president, I wanted to mention the nomination of um Ms. Mulholland, Diane Mulholland for the position of treasurer tax collector. Uh this is a nomination that needs to be confirmed by the board, so I assume it will be assigned to the personnel committee for an interview. But as you can see from Ms. Mulholland's resume, uh she has extensive government and tax collector experience from Lebanon from Derry, Londonderry, Claremont over a long career. So uh she's been interviewed by a whole by quite a few people here, and uh therefore I think is a uh strong will be a strong nominee and will do a good job as city treasurer tax collector. Uh Madam President, I did want to take a moment to address uh some of the implications, and there are many others that I could talk about, but for people in Nashua as a result of the efforts in Washington to reduce the health care subsidies for and now the government shut down, but to reduce health care subsidies for people on the Affordable Care Act. Over the weekend I spoke with Alicia McNichols. Now, this is a woman who is a Ward 9 resident, and I see Alderman Sullivan is uh on Zoom.