Public Comment: Jones Library Fiscal Assurances – How Will That Work?
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The following public comment was submitted to the town’s general public comment portal on April 16, 2025 and is reposted here with permission of the author.
I would appreciate hearing more about how it would all work, if the library project does increase in cost enough that the library board needs to use the endowment. Would it not seriously damage the operating costs of the library, meaning the library is out of business? Does the town then take over the library building? Is the town in any way obligated to operate that building as a library?
Town attorney Lauren Goldberg from KP Law stated that “should the project costs exceed the funding available, the endowment would be tapped. If trustees reneged on this, the town would be responsible for paying the contractor.” I don’t think the Town Council or Town Manager adequately discussed how that would all play out.
It does seem we are now about to see how reality happens, and I hope it all works out, but I have to say I think the risk analysis by Amherst’s leaders was inadequate, leaving the public uninformed about what’s behind door #2.
Ira Bryck
Ira Bryck has lived in Amherst since 1993, ran the Family Business Center for 25 years, hosted the “Western Mass. Business Show” on WHMP for seven years, now coaches business leaders, and is a big fan of Amherst’s downtown.
“ but I have to say I think the risk analysis by Amherst’s leaders was inadequate, leaving the public uninformed about what’s behind door #2.”
Just seemed too much like gambling Ira. Especially with so many other needs. This building certainly did not have to be so grand. It will be tough to take care of. What’s behind door #2 is an override. Town manager has made that clear numerous times. Hope is it doesn’t come to that because not everyone in Amherst is rich.
You ask a penetrating question, Ira: “Is the town in any way obligated to operate that building as a library?”
If the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) provides a construction grant, the answer is yes, the building must be used as a public library facility for at least 30 years from the date at which the project gets a certificate of occupancy. See Title 605, Code of Massachusetts Regulations, section 6.05 (d)(2).
The MBLC has already provided $2.7 in construction grant money for this demolition/expansion project.
Once upon a time, I’d have been confident in citing to that provision of the MBLC’s Public Library Improvement Program regulations, and would have been sure that the MBLC would require the Town of Amherst to keep Sam Jones’s fireproof public library as a public library for the girls and boys of Amherst for the full minimum of 30 years.
The regs however empower the MBLC to allow an exception to this requirement. I think that we all know what the MBLC is likely to do. I am now confident that the MBLC would let the Town of Amherst do whatever it took a mind to do with the building, whenever it wanted to, regardless of the effect on public library services in the town or, for that matter, on historic preservation.