Letter: Correcting the Gazette’s Misrepresentation of My Letter to the NEH
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The following letter was sent to the editors of the Daily Hampshire Gazette on April 23 in response to an article they posted on April 23, about a letter the author sent on April 21 to the National Endowment for Humanities, with the subject line, Waste in NEH Infrastructure grant CHA-292057 Jones Library Humanities Center.
I write to correct inaccuracies in Scott Merzbach’s piece headlined “In letter to Trump, DOGE, Jones Library opponent seeks cancellation of grant for humanities center in building.” I am the opponent.
For starters, the letter was sent to neither DOGE nor the Trump administration. It was directed to the Inspector General of the National Endowment of the Humanities and to the Congressional DOGE Caucus which describes itself as a bipartisan group of Representatives leading government efficiency initiatives. Amherst residents have described the $46.1 million Jones Library renovation-expansion as a boondoggle, a white elephant and a vanity project. I wouldn’t think that a citizen questioning the wisdom of investing such an excessive quantity of public funds is worthy of a hit piece.
Merzbach’s report implies that I wrote on behalf of a group of project opponents. As should have been clear from my signature, I wrote the letter on behalf of nobody but myself. The Gazette would be better advised to report on multiple instances of the Amherst Town Council President writing advocacy letters on behalf of the Council without the group’s authorization.
I am not the first to suggest that the Civil War Tablets would be more appropriately housed in an outdoor shelter where they are available to be viewed when the library is closed.
I learned about the construction bid protest after listening to the recent Jones Library Trustees meeting, and do not know who is behind it.
The story has the effect of painting me as a racist, anti-DEI, Musk-supporting MAGA Republican. None of these are true, as I took pains to point out in my letter.
I have no qualms about highlighting mismanagement, waste and deception associated with the proposed library project.
The Gazette should stop acting as the public relations arm of the Jones Library Capital Campaign and focus on balanced, fact-based journalism.
Jeff Lee
Jeff Lee is a resident of Amherst’s District 5.
thank you Jeff for your courageous letter regarding the financial realities of the expansion/demolition project. you more than anyone understand the fiscal risk to the town taking on these project without guarantees by the Jones Library board. I kept hoping our town manager and town council would exercise common sense regarding the ill conceived project. with so many other excellent libraries in our valley (that I have personally borrowed books from) there has been no need for an expansion or demolition of our library.
I also would not have written the letter that Jeff Lee wrote. But I do want to note the obvious: that he has been on top of the Jones Library fiasco, from big picture to line items, for a long time. I was disappointed but not surprised that the Town Council and Town Manager voted that the cloudy maneuvering and dubious math and credible threat were acceptable. I predict the most likely scenario will not be pretty. I can imagine that Jeff’s outrage was even more outrageous, motivating him to take this next action. I can also imagine that it serves the fiercest library supporters, who formed a political action committee based on that issue, to now conflate all kinds of things, from that someone would turn to Musk/Trump for a solution (misconstruing purposely, I think); or blaming “naysayers” for saying “nay” for good reason, when people who should have said nay would not.
I also think the Gazette article was unclear and unbalanced, and I told Scott Merzbach that too.
Jeff Lee is the furthest away from and not MAGA! He’s a sensible, rational do-best-things possible guy. What he’s writing is his view and likely the correct one of how best to improve not overkill the Library.
Bob Weiner, former Amherst resident and fmr White House and Congress staffer
Sometimes one just has to roll over occasionally lapses and just move on in favor remembering all the good things they out number. I’m sure we can all relate to snafus in our own bios.
Let’s please put JL behind us and move on to coping with the bigger crises. It’s a done deal that rolls on from its own momentum. It’s just wonderful that the proponents are citizens who don’t have to worry about the ability to pay Amherst’s very high taxes.
I never read the Gazette letter, but it does seem the congressional DOGE group is very similar to writing to DOGE itself so the results are unfavorable for the town. It just seems this project was overly delayed and could have been finished much earlier without all the expensive debate and lawsuits brought on by those who protested it. Perhaps we as a town can learn from this protracted process of dissent and get things done once the council approves so we can go on to fully fund things like public works which desperately needs an increase in funding.
Thanks for your comment, Pamela. Without rehashing the history, I would say that the proponents share responsibility with the opponents for the many delays of the library project.
As to why I wrote the federal government asking them to cancel or at least clarify the status of the NEH grant: It’s because I believe that spending tens of millions of tax dollars on creating the 9th largest public library in Massachusetts in a town as small as Amherst, as poor as Amherst, with as heavy a property tax burden as Amherst, and with as many more mission critical needs as Amherst, is wasteful.
We agree Jeff. Thank you for your courage, despite the blow-back we are sure you expected.