Is Bobby here?

And you are recording.

No.

Does that mean we were recording dead air?

Do we have to start over?

I'm gonna start the vo the vocal part over again just so that's on the record fully, because we were muted but recording the mute.

Um so we're calling to order a meeting of the human affairs committee on February ninth, twenty twenty six, um in the Aldermanic chamber, and it's been duly noticed in two places, including the city's website, in accordance with the requirements of RSA ninety-one A uh two Roman numero two.

Um we're going to do a roll call.

Um Alderman at large Shawna Kelly.

I'm here.

Alderman Thomas Lopez is here, Alderwoman at large, uh Amber Morgan.

Yeah.

Alderman Steven Chess?

Here.

Alderman Tim Sennett.

Here.

Um also in attendance is uh Alderman Johnson um and various city officials.

Um moving to uh our first order of business, um we need to elect a clerk.

So can I would like to hear nominations for a clerk?

Um I would like to uh nominate Alderman Senate as the Human Affairs Committee clerk.

Okay.

Um Alderman Morgan has made a recommendation has made a nomination.

Are there any further nominations?

Without objection, we will close the nominations.

No, you have to I have to make a motion to close the nominations.

Okay.

I guess if you're objecting, you can make that motion.

You need to make a motion.

I move to close the nominations.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

Nominations are closed.

Now all those in favor of Alderman Senate as clerk, say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Alderman Senate, please take your clerk seat up here.

And Deptism sustainability manager.

Um now we are uh opening up public comment.

Any members of the public wishing to speak on the issues we are planning that are on our agenda, please come forward.

Seeing none.

Um discussions and or presentations.

We have a presentation um, or more of an orientation, I guess, on C D BG home programs.

Good evening, Mr.

Chairman, members of the committee.

Uh good to see some of you again.

Hope to like to introduce myself.

I'm Mike Jungers, I'm the urban programs manager.

Uh I will give a very brief uh summary of the grant funded programs that are in my department.

And then I would like to invite anyone who has further questions uh to contact me and I'd be happy to go elaborate to your heart's content.

So the City of Nashua is an entitlement community under HUD, which means we receive community development block grant and home funds annually with a formula award.

Typically our awards are a little over 600,000 in CDBG and about 400,000 in home, and we're expecting a similar amount for this upcoming year.

Excuse me.

So these funds are intended to benefit low and mod um income families and households within the Nashua community.

And to that effect, we award grant funds to nonprofits for facility improvements as well as support their public services, and we have several programs for uh housing repair in different configurations to help support the Nashua homeowners.

The application process for this under CDBG is currently open and will be closing at the end of the month.

And we're expecting to present the committee by March 6th with March 6th with a uh a packet containing summaries of the applications and some technical scoring.

Uh this is the traditional way that we've done things in urban programs, and then by the end of April at the Human Affairs Committee on the 20th, have a uh uh scoring where we take notes and you guys decide who gets uh how much in funding.

Uh there are a few things that have come up lately related to the federal funding that have been challenging from the regulatory side of things and a lot of uncertainty.

And to that end, um a lot of our projects have been slow to get off the ground from for FY26 because our funding just arrived at the in the middle of December as opposed to the beginning of August, which is the typical time frame uh for HUD to get those funds out.

A couple of things, and I don't want to characterize this beyond just reporting.

Um there are uh a set of executive orders and rulemaking that HUD has come down with that are being revised and expanded even to this day that are requiring things that are somewhat challenging in that they conflict with some of the mission statements within the nonprofit community.

So to that end, as a way of just opening the issue slightly, uh this year's application process may be affected significantly by how these regulations are being received within the community.

We've already had um one FY26 nonprofit uh decline their award as a result of this rulemaking.

So as these things unfold, which are happening right up to the moment, uh I will do my best to communicate through memos uh to the committee about how I see uh the impact of this rulemaking happening in relation to our current application process.

So what we're going for is the minimal disruption and maximum benefit to the community uh while staying compliant within the rule with the rules.

Um a few wins though that we've had uh we have been streamlining some of our internal processes, and as a result of that, in December, um early December, we had two homeowners contact us without heating in their properties, and I'm extremely proud to say one took six business days and one took seven business days past them qualifying for them to have heat in their houses under our housing improvement program.

So just to clarify that was six and seven.

Uh it was six, yes, sir.

Six days and seven days from the moment they were qualified to make it through a HUD compliant procurement process, um, get contractors out there, get bids, get the job scheduled and completed.

So this is the type of thing where we're held up in one direction, we're trying to maximize the impact we can have through all available channels.

So, to that end, um, given this dynamic environment, I will be communicating in the future with some thoughts about how I see we could build in some additional flexibilities into how money is distributed within the community.

Um, but it is my absolute goal to make sure that that is done collaboratively uh with the interests of this committee and the board of aldermen in its totality.

But we may be asking for some additional flexibility, and I'm gonna thank you all in advance for your forbearance as possibly we might whiplash through a few possibilities and land on some way of doing the most good within Nashua.

Um just as a point of order.

I thought I heard you say earlier that you would have it for March 6th.

Um our next committee meeting would be March 16th.

Uh yes, Mr.

Chairman.

Uh let me clarify what I meant by that is we hope to provide to the committee uh for your review uh the information for scoring with the most time in advance of the next uh committee meeting.

Uh just basically as as much time as possible to look over what we have.

Thank you.

We do like time to read.

Yes, sir.

Any questions from the committee members?

Well, historically, the HUD process has been pretty complicated, and I feel like maybe getting increasingly complicated for the last several years.

Um, and your department has usually steered us pretty successfully through it.

Um so I I'm sure we'll be able to entertain any changes or challenges we need to do the best we can for our city of Nashua.

I appreciate that, Chairman.

Alderman Kelly.

Uh thank you very much.

Thank you for coming and get setting the stage for us.

I wanted to ask if you could give a brief overview of the goals that are supposed to help us when we get the projects in front of us.

I know we renew that every 10 years.

Uh if I'm to understand the question of the goals within the community, uh, the goals of the city to address the community's needs.

Is that I am blanking on the name of the piece that we work on, but we did it a number of years ago.

Maybe Director Sullivan could talk to it about it.

But it's like how we determine CDBG funds.

And maybe you don't know.

It's okay.

It's okay if we don't know.

Uh no.

Um I'll come up with it.

I think we usually do have a plan for the year.

If you they change everything, does that work?

Yes, Mr.

Chairman.

So okay.

So uh as I understand it.

Um the goal, the needs of the community have been assessed in our five-year consolidated plan, which this we're entering.

Yeah, I apologize for dragging you through that.

Uh, yeah, our consolidated plans, five-year plan, wherein this is entering into year two, uh, contained a lot of community outreach surveys, feedback from nonprofits, stuff like that about the identified needs within the community.

And from that, we drafted a set of goals.

Uh I have to say it wasn't particularly complicated given the type of feedback that we've received.

Uh it's homeless services.

Um there's a few things that are tied for a second, but in the in the memo that I that I put out there, it really was remarkable to see that this year.

Uh fairly similar uh relative scoring between issues, but everything went up substantially.

It became much more severe in the public's estimation.

Thank you.

So we haven't solved that yet.

We have any questions.

Okay.

All right.

Seeing none, thank you for your time.

Appreciate your presentation.

Thank you.

Um, we have next up.

I think these aren't two separate presentations, are they?

Project updates.

Communication.

Yeah, okay.

There's two bullet points, so I didn't want to make sure I didn't miss the presentation.

Um it did say we were gonna recognize Director Sullivan.

Did you want to say anything, Director Sullivan?

Uh nailed it.

Um so communications.

Uh communication has been received from Mike Junkers, Urban Programs Manager regarding fiscal year 2027 CDBG slash home annual action plan development.

All right.

Without objection, we'll accept this communication and place it on file.

Unfinished business?

There is none.

New business resolutions.

We have R 26006 relative to the acceptance of 20,000 from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation into public health and community services grant activity and HCF grant partner program.

I will make a motion to recommend final passage.

All right.

Motion is heard.

Would anyone like to come and present on that?

Hmm.

Any movement from the gallery here.

Uh, what is the will of the board?

Is that director bagley's?

Yeah.

You might be busy with the warming station.

Yeah, that's what I was gonna say.

Um if I may.

Yep.

Alderman Kelly.

Generally, we like people here to talk to them.

This is a fairly low amount of money that we are as coming from in the charitable foundation, and we know public health needs it, and very likely that is where Director Bagley is right now at the warming station.

So I feel comfortable voting on it.

Um but obviously we'll defer it to the rest of the committee.

I mean, I'll vote to refer it up to the alderman and accept it, but we'll just ask her to communicate to us more information.

It'll be up to the Alderman at that point as to whether they're really gonna complete it.

That's what I would want is for her to the very least possibly be there when we uh take a final vote on it.

Okay, so I'll outreach um Director Bagley, regardless of the outcome of the vote, and then uh we can at least provisionally uh recommend final passage.

Um I lost track of that thanks.

Um all those in favor say aye.

Aye opposed.

Seeing none, we will recommend final passage.

Um we have R2609 relative to the acceptance of eighty thousand seven hundred and ninety dollars from the State of New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services exotic species program and to authorize the transfer of matching funds.

I will make a motion to recommend final passage.

I see Director Chisholm is here.

Good evening, Deb Chisholm, sustainability department manager.

Um the uh resolution that you have in front of you is what has become now.

This is the I think this is the eighth time I've been here um requesting that you allow us to accept these funds in support of the city's um aquatic invasive species management program.

Um essentially what we do with those funds uh is we hire a contractor who gets out on the the Nashua River, um and this year we're we're also doing the mill pond behind Conway and the canal that leads from the mill pond um towards downtown.

Uh they'll be applying herbicides that are somewhat specific to the vegetation that is growing in the waters in in all three of those locations.

Um trapper that we've used, the state actually does uh all the of all of the legwork uh to hire the contractors, um which is great for us.

Um so very uh very qualified.

Um the funding this year is um coming part of the funding the uh for the Nashua River, which we uh applied the um herbicides to every year.

Uh that funding comes out of the sustainability department uh budget, general fund budget, um, and the funding for the mill pond and the canal comes out of the um minefalls uh trust fund account.

Um those two bodies of water are uh treated every other year until we hear otherwise, until uh that contractor comes back and says, Oh, you got a problem, you need to do it every year.

We stick with uh every other year uh treatment.

Um if you have any questions, I'm happy to happy to answer them.

I was just wondering if the um the species being treated for has been consistent over the past couple years.

I know I think for a while it was water chestnut.

The um the herbicide treatment is applied to get try to manage uh milfoil, Eurasian mill foil, curly leaf pondweed.

Uh we do also have uh water chestnut issue.

Uh we have gotten to the point where we manage that uh by hand pulling.

Um and as I say every year, I'm happy to reach out to all of you in July when we do that.

Super fun event.

Um but the water chestnut that I do believe that there is an herbicide treatment, but we are um the the city back in 2012 had hired on a contractor with an enormous um rake to get out there and pull it all out that way.

Very expensive.

That was a one and done, and we've since been managing it by by hand pulling ever since then.

Thank you.

Um and this was gonna be potentially presented uh tomorrow night.

So um respectfully, depending on how your vote goes.

Uh the um Donna has been very gracious to put a little spot um on the agenda for tomorrow night for final passage.

Um so uh giving her um and giving the um other board members um a quick synopsis of how things went this evening that will allow us to get final passage tomorrow night, which will allow me to get all of the paperwork signed and presented to uh the Department of Environmental Services by Friday.

Is Friday a particularly important deadline?

It is the deadline they have provided.

Uh once all of the uh recipients of this funding have the ability to secure it as they do.

Um there are several communities um and nonprofits that get funding uh for their bodies of water.

The um information then goes to governor and executive council for final um approval.

So it's better the sooner we can get it to them the better.

It's like a game of dominoes where then it stops and goes to Concord and then goes back.

Correct.

Okay.

And the deadline is Friday the 13th.

All right.

Um so we have the motion on the floor.

Any further questions or comments?

Um obviously I know exotic uh sorry, not exotic, uh, invasive species are bad.

You're absolutely right.

It is the exotic species program.

Yep.

Uh can you just speak a little bit to the uh it's it sounds like a silly question, but the the negative impacts of the invasive species that um are within their own.

Oh sure.

Um and it does sort of depend on your body of water, but say for instance on the Nashua River, we have some zones that are very heavily infested with mill foil, and that what that does is it blocks the sunlight going through the water to provide um the ability for other plants that are not.

I mean, it's kind of like um you know, invasive species that are growing in your garden.

It blocks out the light and it blocks the habitat for other uh plants to grow.

So um it also because it becomes so thick, it takes up some of the oxygen out of the water, which is um uh important for fish and other and other species.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

All right, any further questions?

Seeing none, all those in favor say aye.

Aye opposed.

All right, thank you for your presentation.

This will go before the board.

We'll do probably an oral report and we'll see what the board does.

Thank you.

Just a quick note that Alder Woman Kelly was absent for the vote.

Okay.

Do you want to put the suit up?

All right, new business ordinances?

Tabled in committee.

None.

General discussion.

It's our first meeting of this committee.

Um so um if people have general topics that they want us to be addressing or exploring, please feel free to reach out and send them to me.

Um I try to have regular reports on uh public health issues that might be affecting um you know the board of Alderman, particularly, like the warming station or uh the planned resource center.

Um I also invite nonprofit organizations that are doing work that might be relevant to this committee at some point to step forward if you'd like to present and give us an idea.

That way committee members are more educated on what is what an organization is doing in what context in which they're coming before our board.

So um those are things that I regularly do.

Um and then towards the summer and fall, we have tried to do um interviewing city staff um such as um code enforcement um and environmental health to make sure that we are all fully literate on what we can tell our constituents when they run into things that are related to housing that might be seasonal, like heat, hot water, uh pests which tend to show up a lot more in the fall when it gets warmer um inside than outside, so they come inside.

Um so those are some things that we we will generally plan to do um in addition to the legislative business.

So if any committee members have things that they think should be on our agenda as a presentation, then feel free to just reach out to me.

All right.

That being said, um public comment.

Any members of the public wishing to make public comment?

Seeing none, remarks by the alderman?

Uh Alderman Log?

Morgan?

Morgan, that's okay.

Formally known as I thank you for uh for giving us a little bit of context as to um what we can expect in in our future meetings.

Um and I did want to say a quick thank you to our code enforcement.

I had reached out um regarding an issue uh that a resident had had that they were nervous um to bring forward to their landlord or to code enforcement, and they were able to walk me through it and get that person the paperwork that they needed so that they could hand it in.

Um so it is uh and it did have to do with inadequate heating.

So thank you Alderman Lopez for giving us their preview on what's to come.

Um any other aldermanic comments I would just like to comment on the passing of Paul McLaughlin.

Um he was a former president of Neighborworks who has come before our board.

Paul's been in this chamber.

Um I know NAB works is struggling with this his unexpected loss.

Um they do a lot of good work in the community and for our city.

So I just want to express that our thoughts are with them.

Seeing no further comments, can I get a motion?

Oh Alderman Kelly, sorry I was looking for move to adjourn.

Uh all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed we are adjourned at 725.