OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Nashua Board of Alderman Special Meeting Summary (Dec 9, 2025)

Board of Aldermen MeetingsWednesday, December 10, 2025
BodyNashua, New Hampshire
SessionBoard of Aldermen Meetings
DateWednesday, December 10, 2025
StatusFILED
Video Record

STREAMING COPY IN PREPARATION — RECORDING AVAILABLE FROM THE ORIGINAL SOURCE

Transcript — Verbatim
0:00

Special meeting of the Board of Alderman to order on Tuesday, December 9th, 2025.

0:04

It's 7.03 p.m.

0:06

in the Aldermanic Chamber, which has been duly noticed in two places, including the city's website in accordance with the requirements of RSA 91A.

0:15

Tonight the prayer will be offered by City Clerk Dan Healy and Alderman Gaveo will lead us in the pledge to the flag.

0:20

Almighty God, we have the high honor and the serious duty to manage the affairs of our beloved city.

0:27

Fill us, oh God, with a spirit of unity and understanding, which enables us to face our multiple problems with a serene mind with justice and charity for all, so that any and all decisions made by us will always be for the betterment and greater happiness of all our fellow citizens.

0:45

So help us God, Amen.

0:47

I pledge allegiance to the United States of America.

0:54

One nation under God in Justice for all.

1:07

Let's start the meeting by taking a roll call attendance, please.

1:10

Alderman O'Brien.

1:12

President Aldwin Greg.

1:14

Here.

1:15

Aldwin Ran.

1:17

Here.

1:20

Baldwin Gobello.

1:22

Here.

1:28

Baldwin Clemens.

1:30

Alderman Clemens had a work commitment.

1:32

He won't be here this evening.

1:34

Aldwin Senate.

1:36

Here.

1:42

Here.

1:43

Baldwin Clee.

1:44

Here.

1:46

Baldwin Dowd.

1:47

Present.

1:48

Alderwoman Kelly.

1:51

Baldwin Wilshire.

1:53

Here.

1:53

13 present, two absent.

1:56

Thank you.

1:57

Also joining us this evening is Mayor Jim Delantis and Corporation Council Steve Bolton.

2:02

Communications.

2:03

Communication has been received from Laurie Wilshire, President, Board of Alderman regarding calling a special board of Alderman meeting on December 9th, 2025.

2:12

Update on Holiday Stroll.

2:14

It being no objection, I'll accept the communication and place it on file.

2:19

Discussions and or presentations.

2:22

Update on Holiday Stroll.

2:24

I'm going to recognize the executive director, uh, Alyssa O'Mara, to give us presentation.

2:36

Hello, Alyssa O'Mara, uh, Great American Downtowns, to Bruce Street, Nashville New Hampshire.

2:41

I don't know if I'm supposed to do that, but go.

2:44

Um, thank you for having me today.

2:46

I'm just here to give an update on how the stroll went this year.

2:49

So my clicker is not working, but you can see this lovely photo of Santa doing a ribbon cutting.

2:56

Um I'm sure you don't need it, but there is a brief history on the next slide.

3:01

Uh just about the stroll.

3:02

Obviously, it began in 1995 as a small community gathering.

3:07

It has since grown um each year exponentially, and we are actually second largest community event in the state of New Hampshire, right neck and neck with the daily totals for the Deerfield Fair, only uh surpassed by Laconia Bike Week every single year.

3:22

So those are great, some great numbers.

3:24

Um it's always held on the Sunday Saturday after Thanksgiving, and what started as just uh Santa Claus and Mrs.

3:33

Claus leading a candlelit procession from City Hall to the Tree at the Hunt Building has become live performances, vendors, food trucks, and many other things.

3:43

Um this year we added a number of new items.

3:46

If you want to go to the next slide.

3:49

So uh first of all, our stats this year.

3:52

We had 20 food trucks, 22 non-food vendors, uh, 10 activities slash attractions, including multiple new ones.

4:00

Downtown retail and restaurants, we had 55 participants this year that were included on our map.

4:06

We had over 50 performances.

4:08

Our attendance was 24.9,000.

4:11

Last year's was 26.3.

4:13

Previously, it was at just about 28.

4:16

The year before that was at 30, so it has been declining over the last few years.

4:21

The hope of this year uh is that we did enough that next year's numbers will be much larger than this year's numbers.

4:29

The linger time this year did increase a good amount, which is great.

4:33

Normally people spend less than an hour and a half at the stroll.

4:36

This year they spent over an hour and a half, almost an hour and 45 minutes, which is fantastic.

4:41

We were really pleased with those numbers.

4:43

Um this year, we had our trackless train with three different stops on Main Street, the avalanche snow tubing slide at one end, book ending in the other side was an ice skating rink by Peddler's daughter.

5:00

We added some additions to the parade, including a gigantic tractor, magic sleigh, inflatable displays, things like that.

5:06

And of course, we moved the tree lighting from the hot building to the new riverfront pavilion stage.

5:14

This is just some general feedback.

5:16

We have been sending out surveys to all of the participants, vendors and sponsors and retail spaces.

5:23

I haven't gotten a lot of responses back quite yet, but you can see here there are a few.

5:30

Kendra from Ward 6 sent in a nice statement about enjoying it with her eight-year-old.

5:35

This is the second stroll she's been to.

5:37

She came to one five or six years ago and didn't enjoy it, and said this one made her want to come back again, which we love.

5:45

The Miss Teen New Hampshire had a great time.

5:49

Alison Silva from St.

5:50

Mary's Bank, Diane Gilbert, who plays Mrs.

5:54

Claus, and Emily Martitello from Public Safety also shared some of her feedback.

6:00

We did obviously adjust the footprint this year, in addition to just changing the location of where the tree is based on feedback from emergency management, from our police force, from the fire department, shortening the actual footprint of the stroll to just the river, excuse me, the railroad tracks by Canal Street to Santander Bank just before City Hall.

6:25

And then additional feedback, John Floyd manager from Paddler's Daughter and Paige Haltman, manager of Panucci's.

6:31

Basically, and I couldn't include all of the feedback, obviously, but from our restaurant spaces, we definitely heard that they felt there was lower numbers at their restaurants this year.

6:44

I think Paige did a good job of articulating that, you know, they were all at capacity all night long.

6:51

They all had lines out the door all night long.

6:53

Their numbers just were slightly lower, and part of that they attribute to the fact that our younger generations are just not drinking alcohol until two o'clock in the morning anymore.

7:03

So they felt that you know having things to do on Main Street was more important for the stroll than having a line wrapped around the building until closing every single night.

7:14

Do you want to go to the next one?

7:17

Just some feedback from social media.

7:20

People seem to really, really like the utilization of the riverfront.

7:24

We had so many photo ops.

7:26

People were tagging us all over the place in the iHeart Nashua sign, in the giant uh ornament that people could take photos in.

7:35

There were there was great feedback on the trackless train.

7:38

It was full all night long.

7:40

Uh, the riverfront in general, I myself was running around all night, but I heard people as I was walking around saying that they loved the new location.

7:48

I can tell you that the bands that were there on the pavilion stage were super excited.

7:55

Uh typically the tree stage is not always the most popular once the tree has been lit.

8:01

It is typically, you know, a little bit less attractive because there's nothing happening around it at the hunt building.

8:09

This year, no matter what time in the evening when you went by, that pavilion stage was slammed.

8:16

There was hundreds of people there all night long, which was fantastic for me.

8:21

Um, just given the fact that I've been on the stage at the tree stage before, having performed there, and it's pretty big bummer when you're one of the main acts and there's three people standing in front of you.

8:32

So good feedback all around as far as that goes.

8:36

Um the ice sculptures were the only thing that people seem to have a hard time finding.

8:40

I'm not sure.

8:41

They were in bicentennial park, so you couldn't really miss them if you walked down the street, but we will, I guess, try to do a better job of putting that on the map next year.

8:50

Um that if you want to go to the next slide.

8:54

So, based on the feedback that we've received next year, especially talking to health and uh emergency management.

9:03

We're gonna limit the number of food trucks in addition to the feedback from the uh restaurants.

9:07

Food trucks will keep at around 12 to 14, uh, much less than our 22, or excuse me, 20 we had this year.

9:14

I am planning on attending a bunch of holiday fairs and festivals over the next couple of weeks.

9:21

I'm going to one this weekend to get more holiday vendors so that next year we can increase the number of retail vendors we have.

9:28

Unfortunately, I took this job in June, and uh there weren't, unlike the farmers market where I could go every day for five days to different farmers' markets.

9:37

There haven't been a lot of holiday events up until ours.

9:40

So we're gonna rebuild this year.

9:42

I have a few volunteers who'll be doing that with me, getting business cards trying to build that out.

9:46

Um we also would like to increase our number of attractions and rides because the feedback we got was having more things to do on Mean Street really was incredible for the families that came.

10:00

Um and I don't know if any of you participated or went, but that trackless train by the end of the night was just full of adults, uh, which was pretty fun to watch.

10:05

No one seemed to care.

10:06

Kids all the first two hours, the last hour a hundred percent just just grown-ups.

10:11

Um and the other piece of feedback that we got was the side streets, which we tried to utilize more this year.

10:18

We kept West Pearl Street open.

10:20

We had uh we had the police horses there as Santa's stables.

10:25

Um we had a ride that was initially supposed to be that you can see it right there, actually the berry go round.

10:31

It was supposed to be on Main Street, just to the left of West Pearl Street, due to the way the road closures worked and the timing of things, they ended up putting it on West Pearl Street, which the feedback from those businesses was that it seemed like the same as when we put a barricade up.

10:46

People thought that there wasn't anything happening down there.

10:49

So we're gonna work on that for next year, hopefully bringing some of the rides further down the street to encourage people to use those spaces and see those businesses down there.

10:59

And that's it's just a quote about you can skip that.

11:02

Picture of our riverfront and quote about cities.

11:05

That's really all I have.

11:07

We don't have a lot more as far as numbers go.

11:09

I'm sure there are questions based on social media and things that have come out.

11:14

Um what I will say is that in general, the feedback has been quite positive.

11:18

People who had negative reactions to uh the location of the tree, about I would say a majority of them were from people who didn't actually attend the stroll.

11:29

The feedback and the posts were just it's always been at the hunt since I'm 80 years old and it's been at the hunt since I have been alive, and that's wonderful, but they didn't get a chance to experience it there.

11:41

Um there were not enough lights with some of the feedback, so we are working on that.

11:45

We will have many more lights for next year's tree.

11:47

Uh it was our first time with a tree of that size, so I guess we underestimated how many lights a 25-foot tree needs.

11:54

Um but other than that, it's been really quite positive.

11:58

People enjoyed the the new attractions that we added, the food truck variety as opposed to just 10 you know fried dough trucks.

12:06

We tried to incorporate some other things, and the fact that we included every business and retail space restaurant, everything that was open was included on the map this year.

12:14

So people knew that they could stay longer because there were places to go get warm and spend some time.

12:19

So that's all I have.

12:22

Thank you for your presentation.

12:23

I would like to ask the fire marshal to come up and give us an overview from his point of view.

12:29

Don't go away, Alyssa.

12:34

Good evening, Mike DeVarney Fire Marshal.

12:36

Um just like to bring to light, I know there was some stuff in the paper and social media, uh, bringing it uh negative you know, light on the stroll.

12:44

But first, I'd like to thank Alyssa.

12:46

I know this is our first year doing it, but the coordination and communication that she provided throughout this process was top-notch.

12:55

Um so back to the the uh the articles that have been published on social media and in the paper.

13:02

Um I think some of that is the information is not so accurate.

13:08

Um with this process, we tell all the vendors what is expected both with the fire marshals, health, and and the city.

13:20

They're provided with documentation of what we expect of when they show up, what is gonna be inspected and what is required.

13:29

However, this year I think we had four four trucks and trailers that did not have one piece of of equipment.

13:38

So we had to compromise and come up with alternative safety measures.

13:43

So no matter how much you tell these vendors of what is needed, they still show up unprepared and put us as public safety inspectors in in a tight position to make sure that they get open.

13:57

So I think what the what I'm trying to get at is everybody that was involved in this, I think did a great job in trying to make this the best stroll it could be.

14:07

And I I commend everybody for that, and just want to let you guys know that.

14:13

Thank you.

14:14

Questions?

14:15

Good.

14:16

Does anyone have questions for Alyssa or uh farm marshal?

14:22

Almond Tebow.

14:23

Thank you.

14:24

Um probably more comments for Alyssa, but um the I mean I went, I thought it was great.

14:30

I mean, I've gone since uh the year after COVID when when the I think the 30,000 mark that you had mentioned, and uh I remember being a very warm day that that day.

14:39

So that could have been a lot of the 30,000 compared to uh how cold it was this time.

14:44

I mean, I thought, you know, you could put on the North Pole out there, and there's always gonna be some somebody that didn't like something that was different.

15:00

I spent a lot of time in Port and Gage and uh and Pennellies and uh Coffee and Kindness in the new bookstore, um, but it was dead down there, completely dead.

15:06

And so um I kind of felt bad for those businesses.

15:09

So I I get what you're saying about that.

15:11

Um I think I was concerned that not going up the street, not so much the tree as so much and I know the hundred buildings under construction, but utilizing anything that's on that part of the road.

15:23

Um and I know Pedler's daughter was right at the end.

15:26

I heard comments about the ice sculptures.

15:28

I couldn't oh there's no ice sculptures this year.

15:30

I'm like, no, they were there.

15:31

So they couldn't find them.

15:32

And uh I also heard a comment from someone that said they didn't know it was going on, which again, if you're in Nashua for the last 40 years or 30 years, 30 years, you know that we've had this.

15:43

Um there's new people that just move in and they would never know that you know that's maybe that's something we do.

15:49

Um so I guess how do we you know, how do we get that out there for people who are newer to the city that don't expect that that third, you know, that Friday or Saturday after Thanksgiving, we're having that stroll, right?

16:00

So how do we get that up?

16:01

Because we really don't have a paper that that gives good morning outside the inklink.

16:06

I don't want to disparage the ink links, but um you know, we don't get that hard copy paper in front of us every day that tells us, hey, by the way, there's a holiday stroll, and here's all the different things.

16:14

You have to go to the websites to get the maps and all that stuff and find out what's going on so they know if they should come on down.

16:20

And and before you answer that, just add a question so I don't have to ask another one.

16:24

Um the lines with the the um I guess the the slide was that do you think that was an issue where all that could be corrected in the future as well?

16:33

Yes.

16:34

Okay.

16:35

Um so to address the the first part of your question as far as like getting the word out.

16:40

Um I do have someone who works for me now.

16:42

Uh it's our first second employee in a long time, so I'm very excited about it.

16:47

Um but she's a PR specialist, so what I can tell you is that the union leader covered it, um, Hollis Brookline, the Ink link.

16:54

Uh the Telegraph was sent press releases for it.

16:57

I don't know that they actually followed through on anything with that.

17:00

WMUR did a small piece online about it.

17:03

Um they didn't go overboard this year, perhaps because they have covered it in the last few years and it has in been a little bit underwhelming in in the feedback that we've gotten.

17:12

Um I am happy for any feedback from anyone on how to get information out there, but we've sent I mean I started sending out press releases in October for this event, so there's only so much we can do as far as getting it picked up, um, putting it out there on all of the different town pages locally.

17:30

Um I think that perhaps there is a collaborative effort.

17:34

I know that the city shared through the Enjoy Nashua page um and it was on the city calendar, but we can work together.

17:41

I'll work with Kath, and we can try and figure out a way to get it a little bit more promotion.

17:45

I think that again this year the new attractions that we had, the hope was that that would build a little bit of word of mouth, and so next year it'll be easier for people to know that things are happening.

17:56

Um and then the snow tubing side for sure.

18:00

Um I have already spoken to the company.

18:03

They brought one tablet with them for waivers.

18:07

So uh their nine employees didn't have much to do because they had one tablet that was the only one that they were using.

18:14

So uh if we use them again next year and we had two companies that we were talking to, so we may go with a different one.

18:21

Um but if we do use them next year, they are well aware that if they have nine people, they need to have nine tablets so that people can sign really quickly and get moving.

18:29

Great.

18:29

Thank you.

18:30

You guys did a great job, by the way.

18:31

Thank you.

18:32

Anyone else all of Incle?

18:34

Uh thank thank you, um Madam President.

18:37

Um this is kind of probably for both of you.

18:39

Um I wasn't able to attend.

18:41

Um I think your number's probably down because it was very cold too, if I'm not mistaken.

18:46

Um, but I've heard really great feedback.

18:49

The only negative feedback I heard was something you addressed.

18:51

The tree.

18:52

Um, you know, maybe they said that they they couldn't get to it or see it, and I was like, well, can you see it from the bridge and so on, unlike where it was before.

19:02

And the other one is, and perhaps um the fire marshal can address this.

19:05

Um I've tried explaining over and over again why we didn't go past Canal Street.

19:11

And that was a big thing, and you know nobody likes change.

19:16

I shouldn't say that many don't like change.

19:18

And um, so when they didn't see it, they thought we had shrunk it down.

19:22

It's like, no, it was bigger than ever.

19:23

It just was shorter than that.

19:26

And I think the ice sculptures, people expected them to be at City Hall, and it was at the complete opposite end of it.

19:31

So I think that's why they couldn't find it, not just because it wasn't in an obvious place, but just because it was in a in a different place.

19:38

So um we did also just so that everyone knows, um, there were two info booths that had printed versions of maps with everything listed in addition to a virtual map that people could go through and click on every single item and zoom in and get exact locations and addresses down to like in front of Pompanousic Mills.

19:55

Like they could see every little detail.

19:57

Um and there were QR codes all over the place.

20:00

So hopefully, as I think I think again, it's new, right?

20:03

So I think having that as an offer as an option to be able to just scan a QR code to get them at.

20:08

Hopefully, next year people will be able to utilize that more.

20:12

Um, I'm happy to let Mike talk about the footprint.

20:14

Yeah, if I may, Matt.

20:16

Yes, just before you do that.

20:17

Um, I think also in the past there were volunteers that were handing things out throughout the stroll, and I think people were kind of expecting that they weren't looking for booths.

20:26

So not that that you should go back to doing what I'm just saying is that I think the expectations were just different.

20:32

I I love your idea, so I'm not saying do it differently, but yeah.

20:36

Most definitely.

20:37

Um, as far as the connection piece of it.

20:40

Um, I walked with Liz and Emily in August the first time to talk about our stroll route.

20:47

We used feedback from the fire department from the police department, uh, from DPW, from vendors and from business owners in order to change the stroll route that we did this year.

21:00

Um, in general, it is an awful cluster up there.

21:05

They have to reroute traffic the opposite direction down one ways.

21:08

There's always like split second almost accidents every single year.

21:14

Um, John Floyd, the manager of Pedlar's Daughter actually said that he preferred that Canal Street was open because it allowed his employees to get in and out.

21:22

Um, I did get that feedback from a few of the restaurants and retailers downtown that it was great to have that space.

21:28

Uh next year, and to be fair, this year our intention was to keep Santa at the hunt building and have police details for crossing the streets to have access to Santa.

21:40

But due to the um construction that was happening at the hunt, we weren't able to do that, so we had to do a last minute switch and bring them, bring him to the Center for the Arts, and I'm very grateful that they were able to house him for the evening.

21:50

But I did already let uh Rachel from Riverwalk and Paul from Fodies know that next year that will the intention is to have Santa stay at the hunt for the evening.

22:00

Um the only request from Amy at the hunt was that we not have music and Santa because it becomes a little bit cumbersome, people can't enjoy the music.

22:07

So next year it will be back.

22:09

But do you want to talk about it?

22:11

I'll just talk about uh you know a little bit of the like the railroad square and street.

22:15

It it does cause a problem with the buses, and I think it actually worked better this year where they're able to come and I think they picked people up right at Dunkin' Donuts and were able to loop around back to Home Stadium and bring people to and from more efficiently, and I think that was a well, it took people away from that area.

22:34

It still made it a lot easier for the buses and people to get there.

22:38

Thank you.

22:39

Alderman Moran, did you have a question?

22:41

Uh thank you, Madam President.

22:42

Uh, and my apologies.

22:44

I have been out of uh state, but what was the negative feedback?

22:48

I don't know it in regarding the yes, is this why we're here because we had to get a feedback or yeah, I'm happy to share that.

22:55

Um we had one food vendor who was new this year.

22:58

Um they applied through me through our normal process.

23:01

Um, my process for non-food vendors is actually a little bit more stringent because the city has such a strict process for food vendors, and any non-food vendors fall under my license.

23:11

So they applied in a normal way like everyone else.

23:15

There said they were from Guildford, New Hampshire.

23:18

They had done things at Milford events and hooks it and whatnot, um, gave me their list of food supplies.

23:24

They went through the process with the city uh through the health department and sent in their applications there.

23:29

They went through the city clerk and uh essentially they signed up for one spot through me, one trailer-sized space, which is what they also did through health and through the city clerk.

23:42

The day of the event, they had a full trailer set up.

23:46

In addition, they also had a large tent set up, which would not normally be a problem, except for that their applications for the city all said that everything was prepared on board the trailer, every single piece of it.

23:58

Their tented area, um, I believe was not a fire retardant tent.

24:03

It was oh, it was good.

24:04

Okay.

24:04

So the issue that I am aware of when I went by um was that they had initially been inspected towards the beginning of the evening.

24:13

Um their external, even though they had a tent that wasn't actually on any of their applications.

24:19

Environmental health was very nice and said, Well, we'll we'll check it, we'll work with you, let's figure it out.

24:24

Checked everything.

24:25

They had no external water source that was functional for hand washing or anything else.

24:30

When they did try to use the external water source and shut the electricity in the entire unit off.

24:34

So environmental health gave them an opportunity to correct that and said, We'll come back.

24:39

You'll be the last one, we'll go do everyone else, we'll check you again.

24:43

When they came back, it still was not functional.

24:45

Um, though the electricity wasn't shutting off any time they used the water, it was flooding out the back of the unit, and so every time they turned the water on, they were losing massive amounts, and they would have run out within a small amount of time.

24:57

Even with all of that, environmental health said, You're welcome to open.

25:01

We're happy to have you here.

25:03

You can still sell your food.

25:05

You just can't use the tent.

25:06

You have to use the trailer.

25:09

Um at the point that I arrived, there was a gentleman who was screaming obscenities in the street and yelling about Nashua and the event, etc.

25:19

Um, his business partner was screaming at the two public health officials.

25:24

Uh, they explained to me what was happening.

25:26

I talked to both of the owners and said, you know, I'm first of all, I'm happy to refund you your money because obviously you're having a poor experience, but also they have said that you can open, you just can't use this tent.

25:38

You have to use the grill inside your trailer.

25:43

Uh and they opted to not participate at all instead of opening that one side, and have since made quite a hullabaloo about it.

25:53

Um, they are looking for a lot of compensation in addition to my refund that I gave them, even though again no one told them that they could not open or could not participate.

26:03

So that's basically been the gist of it.

26:06

Thank you.

26:06

I I've been in working on the West Coast, so I didn't know anything, and I haven't been on social media really the last week.

26:12

So thank you for filming in.

26:14

You're welcome.

26:15

Alderman Semin.

26:16

Thank you, Madam President.

26:17

Um I um I did go to the stroll, I hung back.

26:22

I wasn't at the front for the ribbon cutting and all that.

26:25

But um I'd say the only issue that we experienced um with the new locale was um we had a um uh mobility device with us and getting into the new park and the unfamiliarity of it.

26:40

We got pretty deep into the park until we realized oh, we can't get any closer to the front here, there are stairs and go all the way back and around.

26:47

But um, that aside, unfortunately, I have been on social media and I've seen um some of the responses.

26:53

And and one thing I've seen a lot that I wanted to ask you about because it's made its way to my email to my phone.

26:59

Yes, is um there were some churches that alleged that they were not allowed to participate this year, and I just want to give you the opportunity to speak to that.

27:08

Um Alderman Thibodeau actually emailed me about this, and we uh I addressed it with him earlier this week, but um we did have the same process for every single nonprofit or religious organization.

27:20

There was an application on the application, it was very clear that priority would be given to organizations that were giving had some kind of children's activity due to the fact that we adjusted again based on feedback where our nonprofits were.

27:35

Previously, all of the nonprofits were right in front of City Hall in a giving area, and what we had received for feedback was that once the stroll strolls, no one goes back there, and they are wasting their time, they're just there for three hours with no one coming to talk to them.

27:50

So, in turn, we decided to move them and sporadically put them throughout the other vendors between food trucks and activities and things like that in the hopes that as people were waiting for a ride, they would you know get information or do an activity there.

28:04

Um because of that, we had a smaller amount of nonprofit spaces.

28:09

Again, everyone was given the same application.

28:12

There were a handful of organizations, including a couple of churches that were not selected because they did not have any kind of activity that they were doing.

28:22

They just wanted to be a presence and hand out paraphernalia and pamphlets, which is fine.

28:27

It's just not what we were looking for in this year of trying to rebuild and rebrand and be active.

28:33

Um, I also would just like to say that there were multiple organizations of religious faith that were involved.

28:39

Uh, St.

28:40

Patrick's Church, the Church of Good Shepherd, uh, Main Street Methodist all had activities, music were included on the stroll map.

28:48

There was nothing that was exclusionary about anything that was religious.

28:52

It simply came down to activities.

28:54

A couple of organizations came back after I said, you know, the committee has reviewed these because we did have a committee, and you know, please apply next year with something that's a little bit more of an activity.

29:04

They did come back with activities, but at that point we'd already submitted our information to the city, and it was too late for me to make any changes.

29:11

The additional piece I'm sure is that a lot of people have made comments about the witches that were promoting um being Wiccan.

29:19

Uh, what I can say about that is that broomstick adventures is a is a small business, LLC.

29:25

They are not any kind of church.

29:27

They make lotions and uh candles and sell jewelry, and they paid full vendor price for a vendor booth for their LLC retail space.

29:38

They were not promoting any kind of doctrine or tradition of any kind, no one was excluded for that.

29:44

Um I don't really know what more to say, other than there were multiple churches involved, and it came down to who had activities for kids.

29:53

Just a follow-up.

29:54

Yes, well, thank thank you for that.

29:56

And that was, I mean, very thorough and very clear.

30:00

Um I just um I wanted to follow up and just to be clear for anybody who may be listening.

30:04

Sorry.

30:05

An activity that they could provide.

30:06

Sorry.

30:07

Something as simple as a children's craft, anyway decorating, anything like that.

30:11

Anything.

30:11

We had some organizations that offered up face painting, some that had some kind of coloring thing.

30:17

So yes, any kind of activity.

30:18

I mean, we've been going with a kid for years, so you know we would we always knew that if we went into one of the churches, we could color some of it's um and just to clarify also that was for any non-food non-retail vendor.

30:31

It was not just nonprofits that were included in that.

30:33

Um if you the only people who were not required to have an activity were people who were sponsor organizations that were sponsoring the stroll, and they still had to have some kind of giveaway that they were also giving away.

30:45

So it everyone had something that was participatory for this event.

30:49

Thank you so much for that.

30:50

Alderman Moran.

30:52

Thank you, Madam President.

30:53

Um, does Great American downtown not consider a prayer a children's activity?

30:59

Um I don't really think that I have a an opinion on that.

31:03

I can absolutely bring that to my board of directors, but it sounds like you guys made a decision on it, but thank you.

31:11

Anyone else?

31:16

Yeah.

31:17

So I just want to clarify because I know you had mentioned um about the tent.

31:21

And on their application for the vendor license, they did indicate a tent.

31:25

They just said a 10 by 10 tent would be there.

31:28

They didn't specify what it was, so I just want to make sure that that's clear because I know that that vendor, particular vendor, has been emailing the city a lot, so I just want to make sure that we have that right.

31:39

We do we did have a stipulation on the license that they need to pass the uh uh food inspection, the health, environmental health inspection on the day for the vendor license to be uh applicable for the for the day.

31:54

So we did have that stipulation.

31:56

Um but again they don't say what they're using the 10 for.

31:59

They didn't say that you know they'd be serving food or whatever outside of the area, but um I believe that would probably be a public document, and I know they the that particular vendor has been sharing it, so I just want to have it out there that the application did say mention a tent, but we also had the stipulation that health had to go out and inspect and you know give them the okay to actually open on the day because they didn't have the inspection prior.

32:27

It was a one-day vendor license where um vendors can get a license, you know, for the whole year, they can get it for a day.

32:37

They chose for the one day, which typically then has all the inspections on that day, and that's kind of what they run into if there are any issues that you know if they wait to for the inspection on the day of they could potentially run into issues like they did have uh just to piggyback on what you had said.

32:58

He did also uh the owners were showing the photo that they submitted, and I can definitely say my personal opinion of that photo that you would never know that the tent was included in their food preparation setup.

33:10

The image was of the trailer with a very small section of tent in the corner.

33:14

One would assume they were trying to focus on the trailer, not on the extra tent that was there.

33:23

No, it's all set.

33:24

Thank you very much.

33:25

Appreciate the uh the update and the uh all the events.

33:30

Thank you.

33:31

Thank you.

33:35

Madam President, I'd like to make a motion that the December 9th, 2025, special meeting of the board of Alderman be adjourned.

33:43

Motion is to adjourn.

33:44

All those in favor say aye.

33:46

Aye opposed.

33:47

We are adjourned at 7:36 p.m.

33:52

Josh.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Arts And Culture█████████████████████████████████████████████50%
Public Engagement████████████████████████████31%
Procedural█████████████████19%
Summary of Proceedings

Nashua Board of Alderman Special Meeting: Holiday Stroll Update (Dec 9, 2025)

A special meeting of the Nashua Board of Alderman was convened on December 9, 2025, at 7:03 p.m. to review the outcomes of the 2025 Holiday Stroll. The session focused on attendance statistics, public feedback, logistical adjustments for future events, and specific vendor compliance issues. President Alderman O'Brien presided, with Mayor Jim Delantis and Corporation Council Steve Bolton present. The meeting addressed both the positive reception of the new riverfront location and concerns regarding accessibility, business impact, and misinformation. The session concluded at 7:36 p.m. without further discussion.

Consent Calendar

  • Accepted and placed on file a communication from Laurie Wilshire regarding the calling of the special meeting.

Public Comments & Testimony

  • General Feedback on Attendance and Logistics: Attendees noted a decline in attendance (24,900) compared to previous years (28,000–30,000), with Alderman Tebow suggesting weather and Alderman Kelly citing cold temperatures as factors. Alderman O'Brien noted that while some business districts remained "dead," others were bustling. Alderman Semin highlighted accessibility challenges for individuals with mobility devices at the new park location due to unexpected stairs.
  • Vendor and Business Concerns: Alderman Moran raised concerns about negative feedback received from the public. Alderman Semin specifically queried whether the movement of non-profits to the periphery had negatively impacted foot traffic, noting that some businesses felt the footprint was smaller than previous years.
  • Religious and Cultural Participation Misconceptions: Alderman Semin raised concerns about allegations that churches were barred from the event. Alyssa O'Mara clarified that organizations were not excluded based on religion but were prioritized based on offering children's activities. She stated that organizations offering only pamphlet distribution without an activity were not selected to align with a new "rebranding" effort.
  • Specific Vendor Disputes: Alderman Moran inquired about a specific vendor dispute. Alyssa O'Mara and Fire Marshal Mike DeVarney detailed a situation where a vendor attempted to use a tent not described in their application, lacked a functional water source, and caused a flood, leading to their decision to withdraw after being offered a partial participation agreement. Alderman Semin clarified that the vendor's application did mention a tent but did not specify its use for food preparation.
  • Fire Marshal Safety Oversight: Fire Marshal Mike DeVarney commended the event coordination but noted that four food trucks arrived without required safety equipment, forcing the city to implement alternative safety measures. He expressed satisfaction with the overall coordination despite minor pre-event vendor non-compliance.

Discussion Items

  • Event Statistics and Performance: Alyssa O'Mara reported 20 food trucks, 22 non-food vendors, 10 activities, 55 retail participants, and over 50 performances. She noted that while total attendance dropped, the average linger time increased to nearly 1 hour and 45 minutes compared to the usual 1.5 hours.
  • Location and Footprint Changes: The event moved the tree lighting to the Riverfront Pavilion Stage and shortened the footprint to the area from Canal Street to Santander Bank to improve traffic flow and public safety. Alderman Tebow and Alderman O'Brien discussed the "cluster" of traffic on Railroad Square and the benefits of the new route for bus access.
  • Rebranding and Non-Profit Allocation: The Board discussed the decision to limit non-profit spaces and require activities. Alyssa O'Mara explained that previous non-profit locations at City Hall were underutilized; the new strategy placed them between vendor rows to ensure engagement. Alderman Moran asked if a prayer could be considered a "children's activity," to which O'Mara responded she would take it to her board but noted the decision was based on the nature of the activity.
  • Promotion and Marketing: Alyssa O'Mara acknowledged that despite press releases to the Union Leader, Hollis Brookline, the Telegraph, and WMUR, coverage was limited. She proposed a collaborative effort with city officials for future promotions and noted the hiring of a PR specialist to assist. She also noted that word-of-mouth from new attractions (e.g., the trackless train) is expected to boost awareness.
  • Operational Adjustments for 2026: Plans were outlined to reduce food trucks to 12–14, increase retail vendors through outreach to holiday fairs, add more attractions (specifically the snow tubing company, which had insufficient tablets for waivers), and move rides further down the side streets to boost visibility for businesses like Paule's Daughter. Alderman O'Brien confirmed that Santa will return to the Hunt Building next year due to completed construction.
  • Accessibility and Signage: The failure of some attendees to locate the ice sculptures in Bicentennial Park and the confusion among new residents regarding the event's date were attributed to poor signage and lack of hard-copy distribution compared to previous years.

Key Outcomes

  • No formal vote or motion was taken on the update, but the presentation and discussion served as a final review of the 2025 event.
  • Actioned Directives:
    • Food Truck Limitation: Reduce the number of food trucks to 12–14 for 2026.
    • Vendor Recruitment: Increase recruitment efforts for retail vendors through holiday fair outreach.
    • Attraction Expansion: Increase the number of attractions and rides, specifically addressing the need for more tablets for the snow tubing company.
    • Route Optimization: Encourage movement of rides further down side streets to increase visibility for peripheral businesses.
    • Marketing Strategy: Initiate collaborative promotional efforts between the event organizers and the City of Nashua.
    • Santa Relocation: Relocate Santa and the lighting ceremony back to the Hunt Building for 2026, subject to the Hunt's request for no music near Santa.
  • Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 7:36 p.m. following a motion by Alderman Kelly.

Meeting Transcript

Special meeting of the Board of Alderman to order on Tuesday, December 9th, 2025. It's 7.03 p.m. in the Aldermanic Chamber, which has been duly noticed in two places, including the city's website in accordance with the requirements of RSA 91A. Tonight the prayer will be offered by City Clerk Dan Healy and Alderman Gaveo will lead us in the pledge to the flag. Almighty God, we have the high honor and the serious duty to manage the affairs of our beloved city. Fill us, oh God, with a spirit of unity and understanding, which enables us to face our multiple problems with a serene mind with justice and charity for all, so that any and all decisions made by us will always be for the betterment and greater happiness of all our fellow citizens. So help us God, Amen. I pledge allegiance to the United States of America. One nation under God in Justice for all. Let's start the meeting by taking a roll call attendance, please. Alderman O'Brien. President Aldwin Greg. Here. Aldwin Ran. Here. Baldwin Gobello. Here. Baldwin Clemens. Alderman Clemens had a work commitment. He won't be here this evening. Aldwin Senate. Here. Here. Baldwin Clee. Here. Baldwin Dowd. Present. Alderwoman Kelly. Baldwin Wilshire. Here. 13 present, two absent. Thank you. Also joining us this evening is Mayor Jim Delantis and Corporation Council Steve Bolton. Communications. Communication has been received from Laurie Wilshire, President, Board of Alderman regarding calling a special board of Alderman meeting on December 9th, 2025. Update on Holiday Stroll. It being no objection, I'll accept the communication and place it on file. Discussions and or presentations. Update on Holiday Stroll. I'm going to recognize the executive director, uh, Alyssa O'Mara, to give us presentation. Hello, Alyssa O'Mara, uh, Great American Downtowns, to Bruce Street, Nashville New Hampshire. I don't know if I'm supposed to do that, but go. Um, thank you for having me today. I'm just here to give an update on how the stroll went this year. So my clicker is not working, but you can see this lovely photo of Santa doing a ribbon cutting. Um I'm sure you don't need it, but there is a brief history on the next slide. Uh just about the stroll. Obviously, it began in 1995 as a small community gathering. It has since grown um each year exponentially, and we are actually second largest community event in the state of New Hampshire, right neck and neck with the daily totals for the Deerfield Fair, only uh surpassed by Laconia Bike Week every single year. So those are great, some great numbers.

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