Pennichuck issues proxy to city officials, aldermen, in anticipation of first city-owned shareholders meeting in March

NASHUA – Who will vote the city’s share as Pennichuck Corp.’s shareholder is still a mystery, but a company director had at least one prediction for its annual meeting – the first as a city-owned company – next month. “It won’t be short and sweet,” said Pennichuck board of directors Chairman Jay Leonard on Friday, as the board discussed procedures for its first annual meeting with aldermen since the city acquired Pennichuck for $152 million more than a year ago. According to corporate structure, the annual meeting is the one piece of Pennichuck operations required of the shareholder, and is slated for 9 a.m. March 23 at the Radisson Hotel Nashua. The city, which paid $29 a share for Pennichuck stock, for about 4.7 million shares totaling $137.8 million, is that shareholder and aldermen must choose one representative to vote the city’s share as the so-called institutional owner of stock. Who that will be is still up in the air; it could be the president of the Board of Aldermen or it could be somebody else. It could be the mayor, but Mayor Donnalee Lozeau currently sits on Pennichuck’s board of directors for a two-year term, effectively nixing that idea. Aldermen likely will take up the issue during its Pennichuck Water Special Committee meeting slated for 7 p.m.