NASHUA – Often a city official will view the fruits of his work – be it a public building, park or street – with a sense of pride.

Barbara Pressly, however, looks on one of the fruits of her labor with embarrassment.

“It has bugged me for 22 years that I supported something that is so unattractive,” said Pressly, who is now serving her second stint on the board of aldermen.

Two decades ago, Pressly was one of the board members who backed the creation of the band shell in Greeley Park. The structure, intended to be covered with a flowing tent-like material, was never finished because money ran dry.

Bad aesthetics are only part of the problem.

In the ensuing years, residents of Swart Terrace, Berkeley Street and other streets near Greeley Park say they’ve suffered from high-decibel, incessant noise from concerts staged at the park’s skeletal band shell.

The source of some of the noise, residents say, has been the woofers and tweeters from the cranked-up sound systems of amateur rock bands, who sometimes have played day-long shows to a handful of youthful followers.

Now, the board of aldermen seem poised to take action. What action, however, remains uncertain.

At the behest of residents, the board of aldermen this spring took a stop-gap measure by approving an ordinance that bans amplified sound from the park except for Summer Fun programs and groups or individuals who before March 23 had booked an event.

This past week, two pieces of legislation have been introduced that take a different tack to fixing the noise problem. Also this week, the board received the results of a study by a nine-member committee the mayor appointed to study the issue, and also a “minority report” by a committee member and park neighbor who believes the recommendations endorsed by the majority of committee members don’t go far enough.

The majority report’s recommendations included establishing a maximum level of 80 decibels as measured 25 feet from the stage. It also recommended that events be limited to no more than two hours of amplified music.

The minority report, written by Tracy Pappas, a Swart Terrace resident who is also on the city’s Board of Public Works, recommended that amplification should be restricted to the band shell’s “hardwired amplification and speaker system without the use of additional outside amplification equipment.”

That would, in effect, restrict music concerts to using what some have described as the band shell’s acoustically mediocre P.A. speaker system.

Alderman-at-Large David Deane introduced an ordinance on Tuesday that essentially would make Pappas’ recommendation law.

Aldermen likely will discuss the recommendations of each report as legislation wends its way through the approval process. Meanwhile, many residents are left with the impression that no one is certain how to give the park abutters relief without curtailing use of one of the city’s most beautiful and best-used public areas.

Alderman-at-Large Pressly admits to not knowing what short-term fix might be best. “I really don’t know. I’m not sure anyone knows,” Pressly said.

Pressly, however, has her eye on what she hopes will be a longer term fix.

She introduced an ordinance that creates two expendable trust ones, one for private donations, the other for city appropriations, to be used for completing the band shell.

On July 29, Pressly will host a discussion scheduled for 7 p.m. in the City Hall auditorium. The purpose of the meeting is to bring people from the city together to talk about how to raise money to complete the band shell.

She hopes among those attending will be architects who could suggest a cost-effective and aesthetically pleasing design for completing the structure.

Mayor Donnalee Lozeau acknowledges there are competing issues, pitting public use of the park against concerns of neighbors, and the aesthetics of the band shell against the concern about noise.

“When the band shell was built, there were plans for it to look incredibly fabulous, like the Opera House in Sydney (Australia),” Lozeau said. “Barbara Pressly is going to work diligently to make that happen.”

Lozeau admitted that she’s “pushing back” a bit against the specifics of Pressly’s legislation because she’s not fond of the city being in the position to collect private donation checks.

Pressly said she doesn’t know how much completing the band shell will cost, but she hopes it’s less than the six-figure amount some have estimated. “I have no idea how much. That’s what we need to find out,” Pressly said.

Technological advances made since 1988, when the band shell was approved, might have lowered the cost from the 1988 estimate of $150,000, she hopes.

In fairness to Pressly and other city officials back then, the design for the band shell was the winning entry in a contest. It was architecturally beautiful, Pressly recalls, though she believes the design itself has somehow gotten lost over the ensuing years.

The history of the band shell is outlined in the report of the mayor-appointed Greeley Park Amplified Use Committee.

It might takes years to raise money needed to cover the band shell, Pressly said. Even then, it’s uncertain if a covering will solve the noise concerns, she concedes.

“I’m not a sound expert,” Pressly said. “But logic tells me with a structure that has an open back and sides, sound disperses in the wrong direction.”

“The bottom line here is, we’ve got dueling interests,” Lozeau said. “One piece if it is, make it a beautiful band shell because it’s not a beautiful band shell and it never was finished.”

That it never was completed is a concern especially for the Rotary Club, which worked to create the band shell 20 years ago, Lozeau said. “And then we have the sound issue,” Lozeau said.

Lozeau did a small part to improve sound by directing parks and recreation staff to point the speakers forward. At a concert early in her tenure as mayor, Lozeau said she noticed that the speakers were pointed out, not to the front where the audience was sitting.

Any permanent solution to the noise problem should include two aspects, Lozeau said.

The schedule for park events should be predictable, with consistency in days and times of use, as a courtesy to neighbors, she said. Also, any use of the band shell should be by permit only, Lozeau said.

Patrick Meighan can be reached at 594-6518 or pmeighan@nashuatelegraph.com.