The Ad Hoc Budget Committee of the Nashua Board of Aldermen met on June 12, 2026, to receive presentations from the School Department and Community Development Division. The School Department presented capital project needs, including roof replacements, paving, security upgrades, and a facility master plan. Community Development presented on the city's hydroelectric facilities, covering power generation, operating costs, debt service, and required fish passage upgrades. Key discussions centered on the condition of school buildings, the pending Herman Study on potential school closures, the financial viability of the hydro facilities, and the need for further meetings to finalize a capital plan.
Sean Smith, representing the School Department, presented an overview of capital needs. The district manages over 2 million square feet across 382 acres, with approximately 9,700 students and 2,400 staff as of October. He highlighted four schools (Bicentennial, Dr. Crisp, Mount Pleasant, and New Searles) that were renovated at least 30 years ago—the typical interval between major renovations—and are now due for significant work.
Community Development Director Matt Sullivan and Sustainability Manager Deb Chisholm presented on the Mine Falls and Jackson Mills hydroelectric facilities. The presentation covered power generation history, expenses, revenues, regulatory requirements, and proposed capital upgrades.
| Scenario | Jackson | Mine Falls (downstream + turbine replacement) | Total | |----------|---------|-----------------------------------------------|-------| | 1: Traditional Turbine + Fish Passage | Upstream & downstream fish passage | Downstream fish passage + traditional turbine replacement | ~$33 million | | 2: Fish-Friendly Turbine | Upstream & downstream fish passage (as above) | Fish-friendly turbine replacement (no downstream fish passage needed) | ~$27.5 million (savings of ~$5 million) |
The $3 million and $17 million figures for Mine Falls are placeholders, not engineering estimates. Fish-friendly turbines are new technology (only two installations in the U.S.); five or six New England hydro facilities are evaluating them. If feasible, fish-friendly turbines would eliminate the need for downstream fish passage because fish can swim through safely.
Okay. Sometimes it's just phone won't do it. Okay. Apologies. Uh starting over to calling the role. I I have Mayor Donchess recorded as being president. Uh uh President Wilshire, I do not believe is in attendance at the moment just yet. I have uh Alderman Clemens. I don't believe Alderman Clemens is here just yet. Uh Aldwoman Kelly. Uh Alderman Clee. Here. Uh Director Photo is uh sends her regrets, she's absent this evening. Director Sullivan here. And Director Cummings is present. I didn't add the golden rod. I apologize if you put that in the meeting. All right, so we have a quorum. Um and uh we will I'll begin with tonight's presentation, so I'll turn it over first to um uh Mr. Cummings, who I believe is going to bring or believe we're gonna bring uh Mr. Smith forward, right? Uh that the school department. Uh that's correct. Uh uh Mr. Mayor, we have two items that we're gonna hear this evening. We have the school department and we have community development. Um, and I believe community development's uh specifically gonna speak to uh hydro operations. Uh, but if we could start with schools first, I would appreciate it. And we have uh Dr. Andred. Um Mr. Smith and the president of the school board here. So with that being said, Miss Mayor'd like to hand it over to uh Sean Smith to lead us through the discussion. Also school administration buildings. A little over two million square feet, three hundred and eighty-two acres of land. Roman as of October was a little bit over 9,700 students, and approximately 2400 staff. Next slide, please. This may be a little bit hard to read, but these are all the schools. Rather, the year they were built at square footage. I highlighted four schools. Bicentennial, Dr. Crisp, Mount Pleasant, and New Searles. Each of those schools was renovated at least 30 years ago. And you talk to anybody in the industry, 30 years is about as long as a school should go in between major renovations. That happens to be about the time a lot of the major systems start to fail, be they roofs, mechanical systems, pavement outside, that sort of thing. So those uh schools are always on our list moving forward. Next slide, please. Just give you a little bit of history of what we've done very recently with the money that we've allocated through deferred maintenance. We completed resurfacing on the North High School track. We paved a portion of the North High School, starting up where DPW left off on Titan Way.