Accomplished in Gardner MA

Complete Interview: Listen on any Device. CLICK PLAY. ( You can also listen to each separate segment by scrolling down below.)

Aesthetic Improvements

Question: We’ll start with Aesthetic Improvements. Mayor Nicholson, what can you tell us about what people can see with their eyes when they look around Gardner?

Mayor Nicholson: If you’re looking around the Downtown, you’ll start to be seeing a lot of improvements that are in that area already. Between the new lights that have been strung between the Victorian light posts, the fountain that’s been installed in Bullnose Park, the new fountain that’s being installed as we speak over an Orpheum park, on top of our new raised flowerbed with new plantings along the fence. That’s out there too to give it more of that hometown feel. Pretty soon well see work being done over in the Maki Park area. We’ll have a 3 terraced location over there with a new outdoor stage, a permanent concrete cornhole facility and some outdoor seating opportunities as well. And that’s just in the Downtown alone. As you go over to South Gardner, you start to see some things spruce up for the summertime. We’ll have the American flag hanging on the Victorian light post as you go through, similar to what we see on Nichols Street around Memorial Day. The planter boxes and flower pots have been placed out around the City. So you’ll start to see a lot of those going out there too. And the aesthetic improvements that we have going on in the City, those are the small things that make a big difference when you add them all up together. And that’s been one of our main goals here that we have.

Question: Now, one of the things that you’ve done is you’ve had some initiatives with respect to storefronts and improving those. hat can you say about it?

Mayor Nicholson: So we are working right now with the Commonwealth Vacant Storefront Program. Last year was the first year that the City was designated a Vacant Storefront Revitalization District for both the downtown and the Timpany Boulevard corridor. What this does is allows us to attract more businesses in. And we let them know that if they are filling a storefront that was vacant for more than 12 months, they qualify for a $10000 grant from the city and then a $10000 tax rebate from the state as well. So that does help bring people in. We’ve got 2 businesses right now that fit this mold that have are going to be submitting applications to the state for this designation. Aleksa Fashion over on Main Street, immediately next to the Blue Moon Diner and Perry Swimming Pools, which will soon to be opened over in the Timpany Crossroads area, next to Clearview Dermatology and Verizon Wireless.

Question: What challenges does a small city like Gardner face in terms of making aesthetic improvements that you’d like to do?

Mayor Nicholson: I think the biggest challenge, believe it or not, Werner is getting out of our own way. It’s showing that Gardner is capable and has the potential to be a great city that really stands out. And you don’t have to go to these cities or towns along the coast for this hometown feel. You can get that right here in your backyard. But its getting out of the mindset of this isn’t how things were done before, This isn’t, that’s just not Gardner. And showing that it may not be Gardner today, but that doesn’t mean it cant be Gardner tomorrow.

Alert Service

Question: The City of Gardner has made advancements in keeping its citizens informed and alerted to potential danger and important happenings. What can you tell us about that?

Mayor Nicholson: Our Code Red system is something that we try to utilize a lot as a way to really get information out to the public. If there’s something immediate going on. This is what we use whenever there’s a snowstorm coming and we need to let people know about a parking ban. Its also what we utilized throughout the winter storms that we had regarding power outages that were occurring, regarding different ice events that happened before in the wintertime that were here. It’s our immediate way of letting people know what’s going on, be it a water main break, a storm coming, public safety incident, things of that nature is what we really use to get that out there in an immediate fashion. But we also utilize our local media stations, Gardner Magazine, The Gardner News, WGAW, all of our press partners that are out there. Our City’s YouTube page is still very active in getting the actions of government into the comfort of peoples homes, so that they can see what we are doing in City Hall on their behalf each and every day. At the same time we continued our video on demand service through our cable television department. That way they have some of the older videos that are up there as well, that they can pull back from. There’s a lot that we can do and that there’s more we should be doing too. And I think growing our social media presence is a goal that we have in the future. But really making sure that our website, our social media platforms up to date, our YouTube has the latest videos that are going on. And keeping in constant contact with our partners in the media and the press to make sure that as much information we can give to the public is going out as possible

Question: Now, in the event of an emergency, can you tell us how emergency management works in the city of Gardner?

Mayor Nicholson: Yes. If there’s an emergency going out right now, the first person I normally hear from is one of the 2 chiefs, the fire chief or the police chief. They will normally loop both myself and our emergency management director, Paul Tapolski, in on the situation. We’ll over the phone, figure out how best to handle it. If it’s a long term situation, like what we had with the power outages that caused people to be without heat for an extended period of time, those conversations really have everyone at the table in terms of how are we planning on moving forward – With shelters, with food services, with warming centers, Those are long term plans. If there’s an immediate situation that comes up, some of those things can be handled directly by the chiefs or myself. If we expect this to be a short term situation. But for the long term situations, where you have those natural disasters or long term planning involved, that’s when we bring everyone to the table for those.

Amenities Betterment

Question: Contributing to a sense of place are the amenities a City provides. What has Gardner done to add to its list of amenities for residents and visitors?

Mayor Nicholson: One of the things that you’ll see when you drive around the City now is that one of the amenity increases that we’ve done is really invest a lot into our parks and playgrounds around the City. If you look over at the Bailey Brook Park area, the new 5 years and under playground should be completed by the end of this month and should be open to the public, fully opened by, ‘I’m going to guess early to mid June this year. At the same time, we’ve done a lot of work over in our other parks and playgrounds. With Ovila Case, we’re getting new basketball courts. There’s a new pickleball court being constructed over in Bailey Brook to add something new. The new fitness court that’s’ been added next to the Dernalowicz tennis court over at the Gardner High School location. There’s so many new additions that are in the pipeline as well. When you look at rear Main Street and the new water features and amphitheater seating. That are being planned to be constructed within the next 12 to 18 months. The small things add up. And that’s the thing is we want to make sure were not leaving a corner of the city untouched. And that everyone feels like there’s some work being invested into their neighborhood that they call their home, not just in one spot of the City.

Benefitting Arts

Question: The City of Gardner is increasingly becoming an even more art-friendly community. What are Gardner’s accomplishments with regard to the Arts?

Mayor Nicholson: The first thing that comes to mind when it comes to seeing how we’ve benefited the arts is our reinstitution of the elementary school band program, where we have over 200 students now participating in that program, to the point where we can’t have a single concert on one night, just because there’s so many students that one don’t fit on the stage, and 2, their parents don’t fit in the crowd. So that’s an excellent problem to have, the one that I wouldn’t even call a problem, that we now have students really expressing themselves on the concert stage. At the same time, utilizing things like the Williams Rockwell Foundation funding and different city funds, that we’ve been able to implement new art programs in our school directly. Either through a new art teacher at the elementary school, through new enrichment programs in our other schools, purchasing a new Kiln for the high schools ceramics classes, new drawing tables at the middle schools, new art display cases for art shows. And that’s just in our schools. Now you add that the city is working with GALAa, the Gardner Area League of artists, for a potential location in Gardner, once the School Committee votes to declare some of our old school buildings as surplus, and the city takes full ownership of those from the superintendent department. The new public opportunities that we have, beginning with the mural over underneath the route to railroad bridge over behind Hanaford. That will be completed this year, with the other half being done shortly. As well as some other new murals that will be painted throughout the city as well. It’s something that we want to show people that you can be creative and you can find yourself here, no matter if its on a sports field, on a stage, behind a canvas or behind a paintbrush, or just going out in the city and finding a place that you can find yourself in. Because other people have chosen to express themselves and give those new amenities that are there. That’s the goal that we have here.

Blight to Promise

Question: The Chair City has recently had success in turning blight into promise. What has Gardner specifically accomplished?

Mayor Nicholson: I think the biggest thing weve been able to accomplish In terms of transitioning blight into promise is with our downtown. If you look, Twenty two buildings have been purchased by new owners within the last 12 months. And that’s saying something. And that’s only using 12 months of data on this. If you want to add another year onto that, you can add the Rome building that the city purchased over on the corner of Main Street and Willow. You can add other different properties that are there. But now these buildings have money being invested in them for the first time in decades. I think the last time some of these buildings saw money put towards them was when their deeds were filed in the 80s by an absentee landlord. So the fact that were able to turn that around now and have this positive future, not only helps our visual appeal and Gardner not only helps our tax base by improving the image of these. The valuations of these properties, but it also actually helps the city financially in the long term. One of the questions that gets asked every year by Standard and Poor and Moodys when they issue our bond rating, is what work is being done in the City. And how are you revitalizing your rundown areas? And if that is a factor that determines our bond rating, that determines how our citys finances go moving forward. Its something that should always be one of our top priorities, is transitioning blight to promise. Added on to that too is making sure that the city does not become our next absentee landlord. And that’s why one of the goals that I have had is as we take ownership of these problem properties, getting them out for sale as soon as possible through an RFP process. That we can make sure we know were going to get redeveloped through the contracts that come from those processes. But were not sitting on them and waiting for them to further deteriorate on our end. And we saw that with the factory over on Stuart Street, the old Prospect Street School in South Gardner, and several other properties throughout the City.

Question: Now, you actually had an initiative that you partnered with one of the city councilors on, in order to do something about blighted buildings in the City. Can you tell us once again about that?

Mayor Nicholson: Absolutely. Councilor George Tyros and I jointly proposed an ordinance that gave our building department and our health department a little extra teeth to go after these properties. Not only to make sure that our problem properties are being addressed, but also to prevent the further problem properties from coming to place. And if we can prevent a problem from existing before it even comes forward, now, were burning that candle on both ends of the sticks, and really getting rid of that problem altogether. When I was in Washington DC, I mentioned this program when I was in a meeting with Congressman Jake Achincloss, and he kind of reminded me that when he was in graduate school, or, excuse me, when he was in college, one of his professors mentioned a, he jokingly called it a Paw Patrol activity. And Paw Patrol playing a name off of the kids TV show. Putting assets to work and finding ways to find these underutilized properties. And finding new ways to think outside the box to bring them back up to their full, most effective usage. Rather than a rundown place that people are embarrassed to see and talk about when they think about their home.

Question: Now, tell us specifically, what teeth does that give you when you have a particular building. Let’s say everything looks wonderful in Gardner, but then you get another landlord who doesn’t take care of something What does this ordinance give you as far as teeth to address the problem?

Mayor Nicholson: It gives the building department and health department, in certain cases, the authority to write a citation and require that a property owner fix certain things to certain standards, be it not boarding up windows for a certain amount of time, broken glass in the area, things of that nature. And if they’re not done by a certain timeline, there are fines that are issued on a daily basis until the property is fixed. And if the fines are never paid, we can then lean those against the property. And it basically becomes something that the City can go after the courts for that if it needs to. In the end, we can actually go after the property owner for ownership of the property, but that’s never our goal. Our goal is to hope that we have enough enforcement activity through the threat of finds and the fines themselves, that the problem just gets fixed

Question: So the goal basically is to not to have the City in a position again where you have blighted properties. Is that correct?

Mayor Nicholson: Yes, and that’s everything that’s in line with the current building code and the health code. So for instance one of the things that’s in there is if someone’s grass is over 6in long, excuse 6in long, the health department can site that property owner until the grass is mowed. And that’s because its mosquito mitigation policies within the state. When you have high grass you likely have more areas of pooling because the grass makes it so the water can evaporate as quick, which means more mosquito growth could happen. So those are some things that are actually in state law, in the state health code that we can cite for the local basis as well. Same thing with boarding up windows, over a certain amount of period. It becomes a public safety issue at times. If a brick wall seems to be falling, like we saw at the Rome building. Or before Candor Realty purchased the Aleksa Fashion building, the previous owner had some issues with scaffolding over there. Those are public safety concerns that the building department can cite for under the building code. So were just utilizing the tools that we have finally to our advantage here in Gardner.

Boosting Athletics

Question: People love their teams and Gardner is no exception. However, Gardner has several reasons to be proud. What can you tell us of accomplishments on the athletics front?

Mayor Nicholson: I think our biggest and most prominent team this past year, with our cheerleaders going to 2 different national championships, placing in one, and then coming in first with the Judges Choice award at the second fall event. They’ve been someone who I’ve been very proud of and have really been good ambassadors of the Chair, City, across the nation and across the state as they compete. And that’s what our students athletes are, they’re ambassadors for our school system, to these other locations around the community. And additionally from that, our basketball teams did excellent this year. Our hockey teams made it to the state finals at one point. This is something that we’ve really invested a lot of time and effort in, and our coaches are doing what they can to make sure our students build these positive memories here in Gardner To aid them with that, we’ve completed the construction of the Watkins Field facility, with the new bathroom concession stand being completed just last month. Renovations have been done to the LaChance Gymnasium at Gardner High School and Landry Auditorium at Gardner High School. The practice fields have all been redone. So there’s a lot the city’s done to support those. And I really can’t thank our athletic director, Dan Forte, enough for the work and the time and the effort and the care he brings to the job each and every day, to make sure our students have what they need to be successful and make those memories

Question: So specifically, what is Gardner doing differently to be so accomplished in these areas?

Mayor Nicholson: I think as we finally realized that we need to invest in ourselves, and you hear this a lot when you’re taking, you know, financial literacy classes, when you’re, you know, here life planning classes and things of that in college and in high school. That the first person you should invest in is yourself, because that’s how you better yourself, you make yourself more marketable for things in the future, be it if you’re taking a class, if you’re getting a certification or things of that. Now lets take that on the macro level and put that into our roles here in the city. If we invest in ourselves, we give people a reason to invest back in up. Because they know that that investment will pay off in the long run, because we’re willing to work and partner with them. And that’s the biggest thing. If we feel like City Hall is this closed off, bricked up building in the middle of downtown that is removed from what’s going on in the community, then no one’s going to want to in Gardner and make that their investment. But if we can show were willing to go out there and work with them and bring them to where they need to be, then that’s when you build those true partnership connections out there. And its how we really get to where we need to be.

Question: Is that why, for example, there was a focus on what some might think is a very small issue, but it turned out to be a big one. The uniforms for the cheerleaders and for other members of the teams?

Mayor Nicholson: Yes. It’s one of those things that if you’re in decades old uniforms that, you know, have, Have their useful life with them and the wears and tears just cant be repaired that much anymore, you don’t feel proud of the work you do. And whether it may be a self consciously or something that you may not even realize. That there’s just something about the confidence boost you get from looking uniform across the board, let alone showing that you’re representing something that says your city’s name on it. As you go out into these other locations. And that’s why we got the cheerleaders, the uniforms, that’s why we got the Gardner High School band new uniforms a couple years ago. Particularly in places like now. Where after the COVID 19 pandemic, we didn’t have the opportunity during the pandemic to fundraise as much as we did. So our finances were low in terms of our booster club fundraising That would normally go to paying for those uniforms. At the same time, the cheerleaders are graded in these competitions on their uniforms. And how uniform they look amongst each other. The quality of the uniforms, the way they’re upkept. And if those are things that our students are now being scored on, that’s completely outside their skill set, And solely on how much the community is willing to invest in that team. I think that doesn’t represent Gardner on a larger, bigger scale either. So that’s why well do what we can to make sure that were investing in our students when we can.

Business Growth

Question: The City of Gardner has accomplished successes in Business Growth. What can you tell us about your process, interaction, and can you give us some numbers?

Mayor Nicholson: Absolutely. I’ll start with the numbers. In 2022 we opened 33 businesses in Gardner and so far in 2023 were at 7.And we know there’s at least 4 more down the pipeline. What we do is we really just go out and show people Gardner. If you’re picking up the phone call. And sometimes its as much as picking up the phone call and calling these businesses and asking if they are willing to expand, asking if they thought of looking in Gardner before. A lot of the times though its we go out and try different places. We hear about a coffee shop that opened in Holden. So lets go visit, see what its like, see the experience first hand. And if we run into the owner there, introduce yourselves, give them a business card and be like, we’d love to have you in our city. Its those smaller personal interactions that have the biggest bang for your buck in the long run. Where they show you, showed them from the start that you’re willing to work with them by coming out and actually trying to get them yourself. And that’s something that people really appreciate, especially in the business community. So that’s been one of our biggest success stories and ways that we’ve been able to help get people here.

Question: Now, you have somewhat of 1/1 contact team, don’t you. So when a business comes to town, you kind of steer people in the right direction?

Mayor Nicholson: We do, we do. If they contact me, we’ll, normally send them up to our city economic development coordinator, Jessica DeRoy, to see if she can find them a location in Gardner or work with them, try to get them where they need to be. All of that is conversations that she will be having. And then I’ll follow up with them a little later to make sure that they don’t think they’ve fallen completely off the wagon. And they are still on our radar here in the Mayor’s office.

Question: What about the team that gets together with the businesses?

Mayor Nicholson: We do have a team up in community development for sure. Myself and Colin in my office. There’s a whole lot of people who are checking up on them, even the building department, to make sure that if they have a plan in place, is something that they’re able to do in their location. Working with our brand new building commissioner, Tom Zupa. And one of the things that were going to be launching on our city’s website and viewpoint permit right now, is what’s called a letter of intent form. Which means if you’re interested in the property and Gardner, you can fill out this form now and it will be reviewed by the zoning officers, mainly our building inspectors, to see yes, you can actually do that with that property or no, this is, your ideas are good, but that might not be the best property for you, maybe look at these instead. So that’s one of the ways were really helping work with our businesses. To make sure that from the moment they express interest in Garter, they have the full support of all of us in City Hall.

City Transparency

Question: These days we all know that YouTube is a popular platform used by many throughout the country. And yet, Gardner is among just a unique few in the nation with weekly Mayor’s Updates and consistent meeting availability. What else can you tell us about what Gardner has accomplished with regard to transparency?

Mayor Nicholson: I think its something that has always been a goal of us here in City Hall, and something that I have said multiple times too, is that the work we do here each and every day is work that we’re doing on behalf of the residents who put us here into these positions, be it either by voting for people like myself and the city council, or by paying our salaries with all of our other employees who are here, Through the property taxes and the other money that’s being spent here in Gardner. So that’s why we want to make sure we are as transparent as we always can be. that’s why the mayors updates exist. We’re always looking for new ways to get information out to the public. We’re constantly trying to keep up to date on our social media platforms and our City’s website. We have an open checkbook function on the City’s website right now where you can see where every penny that is spent by the city, is spent if you go to that transparency tab on the City’s website . These are all things that were doing to make sure people know how were keeping our fiduciary responsibility to our taxpayers here, how were working to build them a better community and what’s going on around the city. Because if you don’t know what’s happening in your own backyard, then we aren’t doing our job here in City Hall.

Question: So what is the roadblock to other cities and towns in the rest of the country from doing things like Gardner is doing them?

Mayor Nicholson: You know, I don’t know, because it really doesn’t take that much effort to do this. If you’re already getting the work done on the back end, there’s no reason you can’t share that with the public. I think there’s there may be a concern about how much time it takes or what needs to go into getting that out there. But you’ll see, you’ll notice once you start with those things its really not as bad as it sounds. And its really quite a light lift to do for a lot of rewards

Question: Well let me ask you this. Last year when there was an issue with taxes and you proactively got information out there so that you could explain the situation, how things work in the state of Massachusetts, did it not actually make your life easier and the work easier because you got less calls because you informed people ahead of time?

Mayor Nicholson: Oh absolutely, 100%. And tha’t’s one of the reasons why if you can get out in front of an issue, absolutely get out in front of it as quickly as you can. Because the amount of calls we expected to get versus what we ended up getting as a result of the way that the statutes related to the way the taxes had to be given last year, was tremendously lower than what we thought it was going to be. And that’s because people already had the information. We got the postcards out to the public, We got the Code Red calls that we have, the informational videos put out. It’s something that we share the information and people just understood. And that really helped us out.

Question: When you get together with other mayors from other cities, do they give you information as to the types of calls and the number of calls that they get And can you compare that to Gardner?

Mayor Nicholson: Yes. You can. We share that on occasion. Each community is different, so it is a little different here and there. What I can say is different for sure when we get together with officials across the country is how they have access to the public, asking questions. There are certain communities that are only appointment based rather than having an open door policy like we have here at Gardner City Hall. There are certain communities that close their doors on a certain day of the week to allow employees to catch up on efficiencies. And are only available by phone. Which is absolutely okay in the way that work gets done at City Hall. So long as you make sure you are still picking up that phone and really keeping up to date with what the public is out there as just ways to get your message out to the public and show what’s going on in City Hall is the biggest common factor among those conversations and is sharing ways that that happens that’s the best way to describe that.

Community Events

Question: As a community, Gardner often forges unique partnerships with the private sector in helping community events occur. What can you tell us about the City’s successes in offering Community Events and what projects are in the works which will further make these possible?

Mayor Nicholson: We try to have as many community events as we can, because in those gathering spaces, when the community can come together, that’s’ where people really find the fun in the City. So we’ve done the Food Truck Festival. I was lucky enough to start that when I was in my first year as the executive aide for former Mayor Mark Hawke. And that’s continued now and just continued to grow each and every year. And then we partner with a lot of the private organizations, like Gardener Square 2, the Greater Gardener Chamber of Commerce, on different events like the sidewalk sale, the different outings that take place, the fabulous Fall Festival with the Gardner Festival Committee, the October Fest and the Chair Luge. And people just find those fun. And that’s a way for families to get out or friends to get out and just enjoy Gardner. And see Gardner in a different light than the normal I’m driving to work every day feeling that you get sometimes. And that helps people realize what we have in their backyards some days, too. One of the things that’s coming up soon is with the Kendall Pond Betterment Association, The fireworks potentially coming in the end of June. We have a concert that’ll take place on the front lawn of Gardner City Hall at the end of June with a band known as Seven Day Weekend. Well have some food trucks available as well, as well as some beverage services. Both adult and any aged drinks will be available there as well. Those are all things that were just trying to find new ways to find people to connect with the City. And when you make those fun memories here, that’s what you take with you. And that’s what makes Gardner your home rather than just the City you live in.

Easy Voting

Question: There’s a lot of talk around the country about voting accessibility, and frankly, problems. Somehow, however, the City of Gardner has accomplished success in making voting an easy process. What’s the secret?

Mayor Nicholson: And I think this goes back to what we talked about earlier, Werner, where it’s getting the communication out there from the start. If people have questions on, you know, I want to be able to early vote, I want to be able to mail and vote.I want to know how to do this, how to do that. Where is my polling location. What times are the polls open on Election Day. We’re always going to issue that information upfront from the start. The new Votes Act has made it so that we are required to do mail in balloting for all local elections. The only difference between local elections and state and federal elections right now is that we aren’t required to do in-person early voting. So answering those questions on especially where we may have a special state primary election or a special state Senate election this year, with the recent resignation of Senator Ann Goby. Finding out now that we have a state election and a local election, what process needs to be done, what way and when will those elections. And we know the municipal election will take place the first Tuesday of November. We don’t know when the states special election will take place yet. But when we find out, well get that information out as early as possible. And when you do that, people have an understanding of what to do. And that’s the best thing we can do

Question: Specifically, If Gardner only had one polling place, people will have to wait longer to vote. But Gardner has a larger number of polling places for a city of its size. What can you tell us about that?

Mayor Nicholson: So by state law, we are required to have a polling location either in every ward or in a ward adjacent to it. So the most Gardner could go down to is 2. Because of the 5 wards that we have. You can say that there are words and precincts adjacent to each other in at least 2 of those locations. But what we’ve done is we’ve made it so that every ward in the city has their own locations, so that people don’t have to travel far for one. And like you said, we want people to vote. If people are going out to vote on their lunch break, they’re not going to spend their entire time waiting in line and still not be able to eat. And if that’s if they get to the ballot box within the time they have for their lunch break. If people want to vote, they should be able to vote. And we should make it its easy because were American. And that’s the thing is that’s the tenets that our whole country was built off of.As people having a say in how the government runs, and who their elected leaders are. And they shouldn’t have any roadblocks in the way of doing that. So that’s always going to be a priority that we have.

Question: By having more polling places, how much does that increase the cost of voting at each election?

Mayor Nicholson: We spend about $15000 per election we have here. If its a state election, will actually get reimbursed that funding from the state. If its a local election, that’s borne by the city. It adds a couple of personnel here and there to be our wardens, our clerks and our different poll workers that are there and the officers who do the details at each location. But it’s worth every penny. And just to make sure that people have that right that’s guaranteed here in the United States, just to go out and vote. It makes things easier for people to do it. It gets makes the elections more efficient and easier to run. Because when you have a smaller ballot count per polling location, there’s less of a margin for error that comes there. Because rather than having all 5 locations in one. And having to deal with all of that with one set of staff, you have a larger staff counting a smaller portion of the overall amount of balance that are turned in. So it really makes it more accurate and effective in your practices that are there. So it really does help in the long term.

Question: Well maybe they’ll adopt some of Gardner’s policies on a national level.

Mayor Nicholson: Lets hope. Lets hope. Gardner is always willing to be the trendsetter.

Elder Concerns

Question: Every population ages. And the City of Gardner has its share of older citizens. What has Gardner accomplished in addressing elder concerns?

Mayor Nicholson: Its one of those things that we deal with on a consistent basis here because we want people to have access to what’s going on in their communities and to the amenities that are here in their backyard. One of the initiatives that were currently undertaking, working with Director Ellis at the Gardner Senior Center and the council on aging members, is making Gardner what’s called a dementia friendly community, an age friendly community, and an alzheimer’s friendly community. And what that means is we’ve gone through and we’re self auditing the city as to what needs to improve, what needs to be better. How can we make these places more accessible and livable for these people in these populations that are, you know, built Gardner. And that’s the thing is that we’re carrying on their legacy and the torch that they left us. We want to make sure they are still able to share in the community that they built. One of the reasons why one of our goals is to move the senior center from its current location at the old PACC on Pleasant Street to the former Waterford Street school building. Because it’s a single floor. We have a lot of people who can’t utilize the senior center right now because its a multi floor building, and people just have a hard time on stairs. And while there is an elevator there, some people don’t use elevators too because of their own mobility issues. So its one of those things that were doing what we can to make sure the greatest amount of the population is able to utilize our services. What is the method to make the community more memory friendly,

Question: When you talk about alzheimer’s and dementia, what do you actually have to do to make the community memory friendly?

Mayor Nicholson: So there’s actually a program that we’re working with through the state’s office of Elders Affairs. There is different trainings for our first responders so that they know how to handle the patients who call, who are dealing with alzheimer’s and dementia. There’s different ways that community messaging can go out to help with those issues. There training for staff at the senior center, making sure people at the senior center and our different outreach organizations know what resources are there. That if someone is looking for help and they are a patient with either dementia or alzheimer’s, they know where to send those people to try to find that information that’s out there. This is something that’s very near and dear to my heart. I lost my grandfather to alzheimer’s disease, and I’m named after him. And it’s one of the reasons why I sit on the board of the Worcester County Alzheimers Association. Is because there’s a lot we need to do to make it so that these peoples family members are here. But its not just those patients too, but their caretakers. Dealing with someone who’s in that situation is very mentally taxing, very energy draining. But its something you do because they’re your loved ones, your family, your friends, your relatives, your neighbors. And so its not only getting the resources for those who are in those situations, but their caretakers as well.

Question: Do I hear you saying that whats most important is making a proactive effort in these areas?

Mayor Nicholson: Absolutely. Always. If we can be proactive rather than reactive, then we’ve done our job.

Educational Achievements

Question: Recently, the City of Gardner has been commended for its achievements in education. From physical buildings, to teachers, to its programs of instruction, please elaborate on what Gardner has accomplished.

Mayor Nicholson: One of the biggest things that I can say about our educational achievements in Gardner is back, I mean, 2 years ago, for a decade before that, Gardner was considered a level 3 district by the Massachusetts Department of elementary and Secondary Education. Now there are 4 levels in which the state’s department of education grades a school district at, with 4 being the worst. And that if you reach level 4, the state takes over your district in receivership when level one being the best. For years, Gardner was stuck at a level 3 district. Our test scores just weren’t there. This year were up to level one. We’ve completely skipped level 2 altogether and gone up to a level one district. We’re no longer being monitored. There’s ways that we’ve improved. Our test scores are back up. And its because we’ve been willing to invest in our students and give them new ways to learn their education, be it through the innovative pathway programs that we’ve done. And I call those trades for nontrade schools. We do those in manufacturing, in nursing, in woodworking. We’ve begun programs in fire science now as well in our computer and it those are all ways that our students can get industry credentials in the regular curriculum, and then really updating that curriculum to make sure it meets a modern 21st century learning environment and modern 2023 education that’s there. And by doing that, weve set our students up for success in whatever field they choose to go to in the future

Question: What advice would you give to other cities on how to do this?

Mayor Nicholson: I think the biggest advice is that your schools are your biggest asset. If you cant invest in your future, then why bother going out to find new businesses. Why bother going out to help the housing production in your locations. Why bother fixing the roads. Because if you don’t have the investment made in your younger generations and give them a reason to want to stay. Then your population is just going to continue to go out and you’re not going to be as sustainable or nearly as successful in the future because you’ve just lost all of your future planning

Fiscal Responsibility

Question: Doing it once is difficult. Doing it twice almost impossible. But the City of Gardner managed to have a perfect Federal audit 3 years in a row. Your team seems to handle finances very well. How did you do it?

Mayor Nicholson: First off, I cant do this all by myself. ‘I’ve got to give a big shoutout to our city auditor, John Richard, who just is an amazing person and were extremely lucky to have him on our team here in Gardner. Same thing with our city treasurer, Jen Dymek, our city purchasing agent, Josh Cormier, and our city successor, Chris Kumar. That team there is the top notch team that we could have here if you there was an Olympics from municipal finance, they’d be getting the gold medal every time. But a lot of it comes down to the simple communication aspect of it. If we’re meeting once a month to go over everything as a group, myself and that team, to see where we are, to see where the budgets going, to see what procedures need to be followed. And if there’s stuff that comes up in between, were having those special meetings or those smaller one on one phone calls in between, to make sure that people are following what they need to follow the laws that are put in place. Specifically through DOR and the inspector generals office. DOR being the Department of Revenue, the inspector generals office oversees our purchasing procedures, all of those things. If were meeting what we need to on the local level, and preemptively making it so the state doesn’t have to come back and correct us, then were doing what we need to. And when you get used to dotting your eyes and crossing your t’s as part of regular practice, all of this becomes second nature, and that’s how we get to where we are.

Question: Well, all that just seems to be common sense, but not everybody is doing it. What specifically is Gardner doing that it’s doing so much better.

Mayor Nicholson: I think, again, it just comes back to communication. Having worked in other locations and heard stories from other places. It feels like a lot of departments feel like they have to operate in silos. But what you do with that is Causes that disconnect where that’s where things fall to the cracks. But if you have a more cohesive unit, you’re dealing with those issues head on before they become issues. And that’s how were able to stay afloat.

Future Planning

Question: Achievements require planning. So somewhere along the way, Gardner developed a process which had led to success. What can you tell us about how Gardner plans for the future?

Mayor Nicholson: A lot of our plans are going to be starting this year. If you look at the amount of housing production we have, particularly in the downtown. The work on Rear Main Street, the new businesses that we’re bringing in the community. Investments were making by the little pocket parks. And also the different just small things to make Gardner look better. What were hoping to do is attract people here that never thought of Gardner before. To get those people who when they heard of Gardner before, either saw a sign on the highway that’s the Furniture Capital, or just looked at the weather map and saw the dot where the most amount of snow fell in the wintertime. But what we do now when we make these investments that we are, And set forward these plans, is make it so that Gardner is a household name or a name that people realize that. Oh I’d like to go visit here because of this. Or I’d like to go to this restaurant or this business. Or I would like to see this event or the chair luge happening next week. Lets go because tha’ts crazy enough that it drew my interest into it. Thats what our future plans are meant to do, is to show people who Gardner is. And market ourselves to those places that don’t know who we are.

Question: Gardner, Massachusetts. Where everyone has a place at the table..

Mayor Nicholson: Exactly. And if you have any questions, you’re always welcome to pull up a chair.

Improving Recreation

Question: People often choose where they live based on a number of factors. The City of Gardner has accomplished successes in improving recreation. Please give us all the details.

Mayor Nicholson: Alot of what we’ve done before is we’ve added a new walking track around each of our parks and playgrounds. That most of these are at least 1/4 of a mile long. To get people out. That way, if some kids are playing in the playground park, the parents could do something else. The dog park is something that we’ve recently been working on here. And while there’s still some improvements we need to make for that, those are all on our radar. The new playground over at Bailey Brook Park. Feedback from that was that we have a lot of places in Garner for basketball, why not try something different. So that’s why we tried pickleball. And now we’re getting requests for racquetball. And its one of those things there too that were just looking for people to tell us what they’re looking for and how can we get those here in Gardner. Its how we got the pickleball court. It’s how were getting the disc golf course that’s currently under construction by the Pearly Brook reservoir. There’s different things that were adding to make it so that if anyone has any interest in Gardner, they can go there. If its generally working out, check out the fitness court at the High School. If you like tennis, the Dernalowicz tennis courts at the high school are still all available there too. If you like basketball, go to Pulaski Park. There’s some great basketball courts there. Or the new basketball courts over at Ovila Case Park. We talked about pickleball, we’ve talked about disc golf or frisbee golf. What else can we do, because we just haven’t thought of it yet. So if you have any ideas, were always willing to take.

Question: Now I’d like you to tell me if my analysis is correct. With education, there’s a focus on everywhere from preschool to adult. In recreation, you have things from all ages From preschool to adult. The curriculum is everywhere, from the younger ages to when they graduate. Is the common thread that you’re just trying to focus on, like, each detail?

Mayor Nicholson: I mean, yeah. It’s one of those things that if you live here in Gardner, you should feel like you have someone paying attention to you. If you only focus on one demographic or one area of the city or one subset of the population, you’re leaving out so many people and so many stories that make Gardner what it is. If you open a book and you’re missing a page, you’re going to notice it when you’re reading. And that’s what we’re doing here, too. Make sure you’re not missing that page so you’re not missing all of that that’s there. It makes it so you get a more enriched, vibrant, lively and wholesome experience for everyone in the community, not just one person or the other. So we’re constantly thinking, who is missing, who is not at the table. Who haven’t we thought of lately. How can we get them involved and how can we make it so that they feel more at home. And that’s the basis for all of our decisions.

Question: So what process is in place to actually constantly review recreation in Gardner? Is there a formal process Or do you just get together and just assume that you’re going to try to reinvent the wheel every once in a while?

Mayor Nicholson: We like there’ s a group of us that does get together once a month. I mean try to meet with all of my department heads at least once a month in a group of 4. So 1/4 of them are getting together with me every Thursday. And it depends on what quarter is meeting that week to determine when that happens. But what ends up happening in the end is a lot of it comes from public feedback we get. And someone see the project happening somewhere and they be like, that’s great that that project happening there, but how do we get this now. And have you thought about this. Have you thought about that. Thats how the skate park came to be even too, because we never thought about having a skate park at one point in time. And then we got the funding for it. And now we’ve got looking for grants out there to see how we can clean up some of the skate park, and then add on to it. Those are all things that just Its mainly public input that we get So that’s what were constantly asking for Just peoples ideas and feedbacks on what’s going on.

Infrastructure Upgrades

Question: When the water flows and the waste goes away, it’s literally accomplished behind the scenes. People simply don’t know about all of the infrastructure upgrades in Gardner. What can you tell us about infrastructure?

Mayor Nicholson: Well, a lot of the stuff you don’t see is because its underground. If you look at the amount of water pipes and sewer pipes that we’ve replaced in the last year, or 2 years or 3 years in Gardner, some of those are put in when President Grant was president, after the Civil War. And the fact that we have something that old in the ground still feeding our population is not responsible in my mind. There are so many things that have been updated and new technologies and things like that, that how can you expect something that old to still function with modern day technology. And that’s why we had so many water main breaks for a little bit, is because the pipes just reached their old age. So by replacing all of those water pipes that were put in from 1866 to 1933, we made it so we now have greater water pressure in the city, were not losing as much water to leaks and cracks in the pipes. And its really made it so that were saving money in the long term. So now we don’t have to worry about as much on our water and sewer budgets. With that too, there’s the infrastructure that we’re working on to get fiber optic cable connecting all of our public buildings together. On each utility pole, there is a certain amount of space that is dedicated for municipal use. So one of the things that we’ve been doing is increasing the amount of fiber optic cable that we have that connects all of our city buildings. What that’s been able to do is save us about 50 thousand dollars a year in phone bills that we have because now we can connect through fiber optic cable between our buildings. Rather than having each building have its own phone contract with Verizon and Comcast. And it helps us on our Internet costs, it helps us on our phone costs. And really what it does is it keeps our fiduciary responsibility. So we don’t have to use our taxpayer dollars to pay those bills, as much as we can use them to reinvest back in the community and community projects

Interactive Services

Question: Improving the availability of interactive services has been a goal you have publicly expressed. What has Gardner achieved in this regard and what do you see coming down the pike?

Mayor Nicholson: Well, one of the things that we’ve achieved so far, Werner, is through our viewpoint online permitting system, where we can bring the services of City Hall into the comfort of your home on a 24’7 basis. If you want to apply for a building permit, a health department, something in the clerk’s office, now that we’re going to do that with the dog licenses, you can do that from the comfort of your home. You don’t have to worry about your city hall open. How am I going to get there. What do I need for this. It’s all available right there online. By doing something like that we just make it so its easier for people. And that’s the thing is we want to make the processes here as easy as possible. No one wants to come to City Hall and get confused. But if we can make it so that confusion goes away because it makes a complicated procedure more understandable, then we make it so that people have an idea of why were doing what were doing as well. And feel like they can do it on their own. And hopefully well be able to integrate that into more than just those 3 departments that we have it.

Question: In the long term, when you do implement more interactive services, do you find that there is a greater compliance with people, for example, renewing their licenses on time

Mayor Nicholson: Absolutely. We definitely get a lot more in than when we have to use to mail everything out and do everything over paper. It just makes it so much easier.

Life Issues Headway

Question: Various issues often get in the way of people’s lives. Drug addiction, domestic violence, food insecurity, employment skills. Gardner has made some headway with life issues. Please tell us the what, who and why.

Mayor Nicholson: The main things that we’ve been trying to do here, too, is, again, make it that people feel safe here in Gardner. We’ve hired a prevention coordinator in our health department whose job is to work with our different substance abuse organizations. The Gardner Community Action Team, Alyssas Place, the AED Foundation, Gammha, all of those, and bring them together into the table and so that we can work as a cohesive unit and really meet the problem head on, so that we don’t have to catch up in the end. And if we can help prevent a problem while at the same time finding those resources. For people who are going through those issues, they feel a connection here and they feel like they can be safe and call this place their home. And realize that people just make mistakes sometimes and sometimes peoples lives get in the way and their decisions have long term effects. But we want to show that there’s a path forward and that the community is willing to stand with them. In terms of domestic violence, we funded a new domestic violence advocate over at the Gardner police station and will be filling that position soon. To make sure if someone’s going through a dangerous situation in their home lives, they have someone to go to for help. Because a lot of times people just don’t know what to do. And when you bring all of those things together and you find that people feel like there’s some form of relief. With food insecurity, we’ve done a lot of work with our schools to really make it so that our students don’t go hungry, offering a free breakfast, lunch, and dinner to all of our students at Gardner Public Schools, and continuing that in the summertime, so that if someone’s home life is just not in the best financial state, they don’t go hungry. There’s a lot of our students in Garden Public Schools = If they don’t eat at school, they don’t eat, And that’s not right. So we found ways to help get the nutrition to those students on a permanent basis. And it went even if they’re not students. Working with the CAC and with Growing Places. Future plans for a new food distribution location over at the Waterford Street School, soon to be community center, thats what were trying to do there too. And in our employment skills, we’re constantly working with Mass Hire and the Wachusett Business incubator. With our economic development office here at City Hall. That if someone’s looking for a new skill or a new way to better themselves. Or even just resume writing skills. We’ve got resources for people to reach out to

Medical Advancements

Question: Gardner is fortunate to be in a part of the country where excellent medical care is possible. And, Gardner as a small City has accomplished successes in this category. What can you tell us?

Mayor Nicholson: Heywood Hospital is currently in the middle of their expansion in their Surgical Pavilion. This will allow them to increase their surgical capacity by about 60% by allowing them to have new operating rooms that are state of the art and really have more recovery rooms there. Right now the operating rooms at Hayward Hospital were constructed in the 1960s and can’t fit modern surgical equipment in there. But what this also will do now is allow people to not have to travel to Worcester or Boston for certain medical procedures. And get those here in Gardner and really open up a new medical market that people just haven’t had access to here in the North Central Mass and the North Quabbin region. Over on the other side of Gardner, the Community Health Center has the new location that they are opening in the city. That will have family and medical practice, dental practices, mental health counseling and urgent care services. Opening that up to not only Gardner and South Gardner, but also the smaller towns that are in that area. Hubbardston, Rutland, Barre. And just creating a new resource there. And what it does is it makes Gardner the hub for all things, whether it be grocery shopping to medical support to dentists visits and everything in between. And it really just helps people have the services they need for a healthy lifestyle right here

Planet Awareness

Question: We all strive to be “planet aware.” And the City of Gardner is no exception. What specifically falls in to the “accomplished” category with respect to Gardner and Planet Awareness?

Mayor Nicholson: One of the things that weve been trying to do lately is really help reduce our carbon footprint and be more green in the actions we’ve been doing. We’ve applied for a couple of grants and we’ve gotten a few for new electric vehicle charging stations. With the latest being installed at the department of Public Works building at 50 Manca Drive this past week. That was funded through a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency. At the same time, one of the things that were currently looking on is increased solar capacity in the city. Placing solar on the roofs of our public buildings. A potential solar canopy over the Knowlton Street parking lot. What that does is allow us to drop our energy uses on our city side, Not only saving us money, but also being more environmentally friendly. Working with the Keep Gardner Beautiful organization we’ve done our cleanup events, but they do a lot more than just pick up nips every now and then. But working on them now on creating a pollinator garden at some location in the city, that’s still to be determined. To really help not only diversify the plant life that we have here in Gardiner, but also make it more sustainable for the different bee pollinators and the different other pollinator insects in the area. It’s something that just helps us be more environmentally friendly and aware that Gardner doesn’t live in a Silo. While we’re here in Massachusetts, we’re also here as part of a greater picture that we have to do our part in.

Question: How do you actually attract those bees? Do you put out a sign? Do you actually bring in some added bees? What do you do?

Mayor Nicholson: I don’t know. Were working on trying to find what the B hotline version of our code red call is. But once we find out, well be sure to let you know that there’s a reason why Diane the blank goes by neon, and I think there’s a certain color scheme that has to go with it.

Public Safety

Question: The Chair City has focused on Public Safety in a number of areas. Regarding Public Safety, what has Gardner accomplished?

Mayor Nicholson: We’ve done a lot lately. I think the new fire apparatus that we purchased through the American Rescue Plan funding that we have. That will be a new engine, a new ambulance, and a new rescue truck. We’ve started saving for a new ladder truck. We’ve purchased new cruisers for the police department, most of which have been hybrid vehicles that also meet the requirements for what a police officer needs. In terms of speed and durability, capacities and things of that. We’ve got, We’ve reinstated our canine program with Rocky and Officer Willis. There’s a lot that we’ve done here at the drone that we now have in terms of really helping our public safety, and is just thinking, how can we make things better for our officers. One of the biggest pieces of technology that’s been helpful for the officers in our Investigations Bureau is the new device that if we run into a situation where there’s drugs involved, we can now scan the packages with this device without having to open the package, and it will tell you what the substance is within the package. That way were not having any contact with the substances that are there. If there’s fentanyl, there were not having any worry of any contamination with the officers. It’s just something that finding what new technology ways makes it safer and more effective for our officers to be a part of.

Supporting Music

Question: They say “music” makes the world go round, and it certainly has a pleasant sound. From private to public, Gardner’s support of music is increasing. What would you like to tell us?

Mayor Nicholson: You know Music is one of the things that’s very near and dear to my heart. As I’ve said several times, Werner, I found my closest friends through music programs that I had in school. But its also the universal language. And growing up in a bilingual family with my grandparents speaking Spanish on one side and speaking English on the other one, everyone understood music and everyone could enjoy a tune whether you knew what the lyrics were or not. And that’s something that I think really brings people together. But its also very emblematic of what my view is of how we work here in Gardner, but also just life in general. And not to sound too philosophical for a moment, but when you sit on a concert stage and you’re getting ready to perform with either a band or an orchestra, or something like that, no 2 instruments have the same musical alike, everyone’s playing a different line, everyone has a different melody, a countermelody, a harmony, a bass line for things of that nature, and if you play each line by itself, its as boring as it can be. But when you build all those differences together, and how they overlap with each other, that’s where you get that rich feeling that really pulls on your heartstrings and gives you that enjoyable feeling that really sticks with you. And that’s something that I think we need to take on a larger level with everything that were doing. And how we need to not work in silos here in City Hall. To how we interact with members of the public. And that’s one of the reasons why we’ve supported things like the elementary school band getting more resources and up to date equipment. For our music programs, With the 100 dollars zero free cash earmark we allocated to all of our 3 school buildings in terms of their music programs. Last year working with the Sousa Band to get them to perform in Gardner last year. Having the new live music events like the concerts in the parks, but also the Seven Day Weekend concert that we’re having, are just ways for people to get out and find some time and enjoy what’s going on. And that’s one of the reasons why music does make the world go around. Is it, we may not all like the same music that’s out there, and we may have a very wide variety of music that we find enjoyable, but there’s someone who likes some type of music out there. And whether it’s what you like or what someone else likes, music is something that can bring anyone together

Veterans Services

Question: Those who have served our country often have unique issues and unique needs. Apparently, Gardner Veterans Services has some accomplished successes, because it has forged agreements with other communities. What details can you provide?

Mayor Nicholson: Our new staff over in the Veterans Service Office, Because they’ve all changed within the past couple years. Have really been tremendous. You know, Phil Buso, who was our veterans agent since 2001, retired in 2021. And we thought, you know, he had left big shoes to fill. He had been here for forever. And then when Lynette Gabrella came on as our new director and we started talking about a regional veteran services office, she took it and she ran with it, and now we have veteran services for Gardner, Ashburnham, Westminster, Hubbardston and Princeton. And we’ve got a couple other communities that are interested in joining our district as well. And what it is that makes it so that people don’t fall through the cracks. Now what does Gardner get out of providing veteran services for Westminster, Ashburnham and all these other towns. Really its just a financial benefit for the city in the short term, because they do help compensate our staff members who are working with us. But the biggest thing that’s there is that there’s so many veterans in the area that in some of the small towns, where you can only afford an agent a couple hours a week, they fall through the cracks and they don’t understand what services they qualify for and earned. By putting on the uniform and serving our country that way, and by being in this type of a situation, we make sure that less and less of them fall through the cracks. This isn’t about money. This isn’t about how much we save and the veterans benefits we give out every year by getting more of them onto the VA system. This isn’t about how much were getting paid in a regional agreement. This is about making sure that someone who fought for us, who we may never know, is getting what they earned as their thank you. And thats the biggest thing that’s there. One of the things that were going to be launching shortly is a new veterans ID program, where someone can go visit the Veteran Services office and talk to Lynette or TAV or Cory, And, you know, sign up for this discount card, similar to the football discount cards that people see at different school districts. And when they fill out that information for that card, they also tell us, when did you serve. Do you know about this program that’s out there? Do you fit this criteria? And that’s how we can see if someone’s not getting advantage of some of the programs that they currently qualify for. And we can capture those people because they’re currently through the cracks, and we can bring them back, but also get them in a community sense, too, where they can go around to those different establishments in the city and see who would give a thank you for their service, be it through a discount here or through an extra program here or something like that. So it really is a symbiotic relationship that we have. Now, word must have gotten around that Gardner is doing something right with veteran services, or these other towns wouldn’t be interested in joining up with Gardner.

Question: What’s Gardner doing specifically Better than you might expect?

Mayor Nicholson: I think the biggest thing is we’re reaching out before people reach out to us. It’s something that again, people don’t know what they don’t know. And our expert should be the ones who do know. And by coming together in that way and really being the person to reach out there, you show people why they care. You show people you care and you show people why they shouldn’t be embarrassed to take a part of the programs that they’ve earned. Because that is some of it that plays into it that we see through some of the feedback that we get through some of those programs. But its what we do and its what they’ve earned. And its our thank you that we need, because well never be able to say thank you enough for everyone whos put the uniform on for us, for sure. And I got to give Lynette a shout out to our Director of Veterans Services. She was just invited by The Central Mass Grange organization to receive a quilt of honor, which is an award that the Grange gives out for all of her work that she’s been doing for the veterans in the region. And I believe later on this month or early next month, she will be receiving a citation from Governor Healey for the work that she has been doing as well, too. So were really lucky to have the all star team that we have here in City Hall

Question: That’s what you call accomplished success.

Mayor Nicholson: I think so, Werner. I think so

Wayfinding Focus

Question: When you come to a City, large or small, you like to find your way around. Can you explain Gardner’s accomplishments in wayfinding – signage and more, and what can be expected down the road?

Mayor Nicholson: One of the things that I think we’ve been the most successful with was bringing our own line and signs department into a unit of the DPW. That way we can do a lot more inhouse than rather than having to wait for an order to come in. But we can also do a lot more on demand. What we’ve been able to do with that is work a lot on our street signs, on our information signs that we have throughout the city, on the sandwich boards that you see in the area, on the banners that hang from the light post. Just different ways to get information out there. Now we did receive a grant from the state to study how were doing. And if there’s any improvements that we need to make. Some of the stuff ID like to do more on my end is if you go to the intersection behind Hannaford, you’ll see a Victorian post that has assigned boards on it. And we don’t have to have all of the different sandwich board a frames out there. That’s a recycled light post that was hit by a plow that we couldn’t repair as a light post. So we just turned it into a sideboard and that’s the way we recycle something like that to get it out there. And we had about 5 or 6 of those still in stock. So I’d like to replace some of the white sign boards out there with something like that. Just to make it look a little cleaner. And then work with the committee that’s being funded through the grant to see how we can improve our general wayfinding throughout the downtown, and throughout the city to make sure people know where they are and what’s going on in the city. Especially if they new visitors to the area.

Recognition by Others

Question: Mayor Nicholson, you personally have been singled out for a number of recognitions. You’ve even been to the White House a few times. As School Committee Chairman (a role you have in addition to Mayor) you know that Gardner’s Superintendent of Schools has also been sought out because of Gardner’s successes. What is Gardner doing so well that others are seeking out information so they can replicate its accomplishments?

Mayor Nicholson: I think its one of those things where Gardner stayed under the radar for so long that now there’s so much going on, and so much news coming out here that it drew people’s attention for the school district. Jumping from 3 to level 3 to level one, Like that. The different businesses that are coming in here, the success stories that were getting the number of investors that are now looking at Gardner, and they share their stories with other people and that network spreads there. That its just something that we jumped out of nowhere. And people are wondering how and how they can replicate that there too. And I think its a good position for us to be in.

Running for Mayor

Question: Mayor Nicholson, some might say, with a list of accomplishments this long, you’re already at the stage where higher office is a possibility. However, you have chosen to run again for Mayor of the City of Gardner. What else can you tell us about the accomplishments thus far and what you’d like to put on the list of successes in 2024 and 2025?

Mayor Nicholson: I’m very proud of the amount of work weve been able to get done here in the last 3 years. I didn’t expect as much to happen as has happened, because when I first took office, we were in the middle of a pandemic where we couldn’t have people in City Hall. And to see where we’ve come since then. I’m just, I’m humbled by the support that we’ve had. I’m excited about the projects that we’ve started the groundwork for, and Im proud of the work that we’ve been able to finish. I’m really looking forward to seeing a lot of the work on rear Main Street be done with the new event plaza, and the new residential structure that were hearing right now might have a rooftop restaurant component in that location. I’m excited to see some of the investments that well be able to make in the downtown, and the new businesses well be able to attract in the area. I’m hopeful that we can get something over in the South Gardner’s portion of either the former S Bent Site or the Garbose site. I’d like to hopefully see something like that, or at least see the marketing efforts pushed a little more on that side. And seeing new partnerships created with the private sector, or even with them. The community college now working with the Wachusett Business Incubator, whos now been taken over by the college as a new subset of the business department. There to see how we can better that in the future. There’s a lot that’s on the list that you sit down and you think of. We’ve really done a lot and there’s still a lot to do, and I’m really excited for it now.

Question: I did a little survey recently. I asked people if they thought that Gardner looked better than a couple of years ago. The results were 92% said yes. How do you feel about that?

Mayor Nicholson: It makes me happy. It makes you feel like you’re always second guessing yourselves in these positions, and you’re always wondering, am I doing a good job? Am I doing the something that benefits the most amount of people and has the most positive impact of the options that are there. And its things like that that really help reinforce that you’re doing something right. And like I said, I couldn’t be more thankful for the support, more thankful for the feedback that we get from individuals across the city, and just the encouragement that has been there as well too. Its just, Its really humbling and its really, I’m really grateful for it.

Question: So right now you obviously have a list of things you want to do. Are you at a stage yet where you’re taking more items off the list than you are putting on the list? Or are you still putting more items on the list than taking off?

Mayor Nicholson: There’s still a lot more I’d like to get done. I think just yesterday in a meeting I had with our DPW director, we probably added about 20 different things to the list. That’s there too. So were always adding to it, that’s for sure.