James Ravan was recently chosen as the new Ward 1 alderman. Courtesy photo/Nashua TV

NASHUA – In an 11-1 vote, the Board of Aldermen recently chose James Ravan to replace Stephen Chess as the city’s Ward 1 alderman.

Chess resigned from his position last month following the birth of his second daughter.

During his interview on May 20, Ravan said he moved to Nashua in 1980, then to Lowell, Mass. and returned to the Gate City in 2020.

“We were away for seven or eight years but we came back because I love Nashua,” he said.

Ravan now has a Friday radio show with his wife, State Rep. Susan Elberger (D-Nashua), called “Susan and Jim Talk Nashua.”

Despite working in information technology for a number of years, Ravan said “even the technical jobs are people jobs.”

“There’s a road that we could walk and the question is can we get everybody on the same road, if we can do that then we win,” he said.

Ravan also called attention to the board’s recent decision about whether or not to construct a homeless resource center at 14 Mulberry St., adding that the matter was a “hard problem.”

“The question is where’s the road and can we get everybody on it, right now we haven’t

done that,” he said.

While campaigning for the Ward 1 seat in 2023, Ravan learned that property taxes and traffic are the two big issues for residents in that part of the city.

“Ward 1 is a suburb,” he said. “It’s almost a bedroom community except for Amherst Street where we have all our businesses.”

Ravan also lauded the work of the Nashua Police Department and Nashua Fire Rescue.

“Our fire and policemen are the backbone of the city,” he said. “Without them, we’d have a lot of trouble. They are very good at what they do and they are as professional as it comes.”

Frederick Teeboom and Atlant Schmidt were also interviewed to represent Ward 1.

A two-time alderman-at-large, Teeboom expressed confidence during his interview.

“I’m the best qualified candidate, no question about that,” he said.

Teeboom said he had been a strong advocate for a spending cap and in 1993, it was added to the City Charter following the municipal election that year. However, he said Mayor James Donchess, Corporation Counsel Stephen Bolton and then-Chief Financial Officer John Griffin “managed to corrupt the cap” and it was discontinued in 2018.

“The cap is effectively expired,” said Teeboom. “My number one priority is to get the spending cap back to the people of Nashua.”

Teeboom said he also sponsored and promoted the Broad Street Parkway.

“I worked with the National Regional Planning Commission to reduce the design to two lanes and cut the project by about $40 million,” he said, adding that a technology center was planned that would offer high-paying jobs.

However, he said, Donchess foiled that plan by focusing on housing rather than jobs.

“It failed the objectives,” Teeboom said of the parkway. “What they’re doing now is building nothing but housing.”

Turning his attention to the Nashua School District, Teeboom said he would push to reduce the number of administrative positions and would close Mount Pleasant Elementary School.

“Mount Pleasant is falling apart,” he said.

In response, Ward 3 Alderwoman Patricia Klee took issue with Teeboom’s subjective opinion of Mount Pleasant.

“Your immediate attack on Mount Pleasant shows a very bias,” she said. “Consider Broad Street (Elementary School) has less students than Mount Pleasant does. I didn’t see you saying we should close Broad Street because it has less students.”

Speaking about the city budget, Teeboom said he would only allow a three percent increase over the prior fiscal year.

“I would eliminate supplemental appropriations which are mainly intended to bypass the spending cap,” he said. “I would terminate losing projects like the city’s hydroelectric operation.”

He said he would also request tax rate projections, adding that this was a practice under former Mayor Bernard Streeter and was accurate to within one percent.

Schmidt, a 40-year resident of Ward 1, said he would attend the meetings of other boards and would have no issues working with the other officials in the horseshoe.

“This isn’t unique in my life,” he said. “I’ve often encountered situations where I have to work with people I don’t agree with. We discuss, we reach agreements, we reach accommodations and we reach some compromise that’s acceptable to everyone or acceptable to enough people.”

In addition, Schmidt said he served on the Board of Education for four years, has a background in computer science and is a proponent of shared learning.