Nashua is a city in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. As of the 2010 census, Nashua had a total population of 86,494, making it the second largest city in the state (and in the three northern New England states) after Manchester. Built around the now-departed textile industry, in recent decades it has been swept up in southern New Hampshire’s economic expansion as part of the Boston region. Nashua was twice named “Best Place to Live in America” in annual surveys by Money magazine. It is the only city to get the No. 1 ranking on two occasions—in 1987 and 1998.
The eastern boundary of Nashua is formed by the Merrimack River, and the city is drained by the Nashua River and Salmon Brook, tributaries of the Merrimack. The Nashua River roughly bisects the city. Pennichuck Brook forms the northern boundary of the city. The highest point in Nashua is Gilboa Hill in the southern part of the city, at 426 feet (130 m) above sea level.
Nashua Fire has 176 full-time members and is responsible for 31.9 square miles (83 km2), protecting a population of 87,259. In the city, there are six stations. There is one fire chief, one assistant chief, and four deputy chiefs. The department has six engines, two ladder trucks, two spare engines, one spare ladder, two hazmat trucks, and two forestry trucks. Nashua uses private ambulance AMR (American Regional Ambulance). The department has 5 fire commissioners. The commission has overall responsibility for the policy decisions, promotions, discipline, hiring and terminations. The fire chief reports directly to the commission. Their responsibility is to also work with Fire Administration with planning and prioritizing the department budget.
Nashua has three main commercial districts. Centered on Main Street near the geographic center of the city, Downtown Nashua is the oldest of the commercial districts, featuring commercial, entertainment, and dining venues, near historic commercial buildings and homes as well. Recent plans have incorporated the Nashua River into the design of a pedestrian-friendly walkway. The downtown Nashua Riverwalk is a large, public/private venture funded through the use of tax increment financing (TIF). Amherst Street (Route 101A) is located in the northwestern part of the city and is a large thoroughfare with commercial centers along both sides. The South Nashua Commercial District, centered on Daniel Webster Highway near the Massachusetts border, is anchored by the Pheasant Lane Mall, attracting many people from Massachusetts taking advantage of the lack of sales tax in New Hampshire.
The city is home to a number of technical firms, including Nashua Corporation, which took its name from the city and river. Nashua Corp. was a leading producer of floppy disks through the early 1990s, making the Nashua name well known in the world of personal computers.
Defense contractor BAE Systems (formerly Sanders Associates), computer firm Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and software company Oracle Corporation are the largest representatives of the high-tech industry prominent in the region. The Boston Air Route Traffic Control Center is located in Nashua.
The city recently completed building what many locals call the “Broad Street Parkway”, a major highway development that connects Exit 6 of the Everett Turnpike to the city’s downtown area (“Tree Streets” neighborhood), with the goal of easing traffic congestion and opening up Nashua’s old mill-yard as part of the city’s economic development. Work on the project started in May 2011 and was completed in 2015. The new parkway provides a third crossing of the Nashua River and a way for traffic to avoid Library Hill, a busy downtown intersection. The idea of a road connecting Broad Street with Hollis Street within the city had been discussed since the 1960s.
The city is currently working with Renaissance Downtowns, a Plainville, New York development company, to develop a mixed commercial and residential development on 26 acres (11 ha) of city- and privately owned land off Bridge Street. A riverfront location and proximity to downtown have made the site attractive to developers. The property is 1⁄2 mile (800 m) from Main Street and lies along the Nashua and Merrimack rivers near Veterans Memorial Bridge, the eastern gateway to the city.
There are two hospitals in Nashua, St. Joseph Hospital and Southern New Hampshire Health System.
The city has a daily newspaper, the Nashua Telegraph, which is printed in neighboring Hudson, New Hampshire. Nashua also has two weekly newspapers, The Broadcaster and The Hippo. Hale Global’s Patch Media has a local-news site in the city, Nashua Patch. Nashua radio stations include WGHM 900 AM (ESPN affiliate), talk WSMN 1590 AM, back on the air after going dark in January 2005, and 106.3 WFNQ, a classic hits station owned by Nassau Broadcasting Partners. WEVS 88.3 and 90.3 serve as the stations for New Hampshire Public Radio.
One television station is licensed to Nashua. WYCN-CD, an ATSC television station branded as WYCN tv13, is owned and operated as an independent channel by OTA Broadcasting (BOS)LLC of Fairfax, VA. The programming on WYCN-CD is free over-the-air virtual channels 13.1 and 13.2 of entertainment with a mix of regional information. The City of Nashua also provides three channels of PEG Access television. Nashua Government TV can be found on Comcast cable channel 16, and Nashua ETV (Educational Television) can be found on Channel 99. The City of Nashua also contracts out the operation of its Public Access Channel (Access Nashua) to Community Media Services group. Access Nashua can be found on Comcast cable channel 96. All three Nashua PEG Access channels also stream their content and offer video-on-demand through the City of Nashua website.
Nashua has had a series of amateur, semi-professional, and professional baseball teams. The Nashua Silver Knights, part of a summer collegiate league, is the city’s current team. The Nashua Pride, a Can-Am minor league baseball team, played at Holman Stadium from 1998 through 2008, then changed to the American Defenders of New Hampshire in the 2009 season. The Defenders were evicted from the venue in August 2009, however, because of non-payment of rent, and moved to Pittsfield, Massachusetts to become the Pittsfield Colonials. Before the Pride, Holman was the home stadium for the independent Nashua Hawks; the AA Nashua Pirates; the AA Nashua Angels; and the A Nashua Dodgers, the first racially integrated professional baseball team in the 20th century.
In collegiate sports, Nashua is home to the Daniel Webster College Eagles, who compete in the New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) and the Rivier University Raiders, who compete in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC). The Spartans Drum and Bugle Corps (1997, 1998, 2004, and 2007 Drum Corps International Division II World Champions) is based in Nashua.
Content courtesy of Wikipedia.org