Not One Penny More? Jones Library is Back, Asking the Town for Even More Money
Photo: Daniel Foster /Flckr.com. (CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED)
By Mickey Rathbun and Maria Kopicki
Back in 2023, Town Council President Lynn Griesmer pledged that the town would not spend a single penny more on the Jones Library demolition/expansion project than its $15.8 million share. The library is now calling the town’s bluff, asking for over $1.4 million in FY2027 Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds: $1.35 million for construction expenses and $75,000 to move the Civil War tablets from the Bangs Center to the library basement. This is in addition to the $1 million in CPA funds that the town granted to the library project in 2021. That would bring the total amount of town spending on this project to $18.2 million in principal payments alone (39% of the total cost) while dropping the library’s share to 27%. That’s a lot more town pennies.
The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) has committed $15.6 million for the project estimated to cost $46.1 million. That leaves $13.8 million promised by the Jones Library Trustees, of which they have delivered less than $5 million, even while paying a professional fundraising group. The library’s application describes this grab for a second large sum of Amherst CPA funding as “an important component of our overall fundraising strategy.” This “strategy” – soaking Amherst taxpayers for more money – was never mentioned to the public or to the Town Council when it took votes on whether to increase the borrowing for the project by $10 million in 2021. Nor was it mentioned when the Town Council was reassessing whether to continue with the project in 2024, or when the Library asked for numerous extensions from the MBLC. Does the library intend to execute this same “strategy” in future years?
Town CPA funds come from a 3% surcharge on local property taxes and a variable contribution from the state. In other words, most CPA funds are Amherst taxpayer dollars. CPA funds are intended to support affordable housing, historical preservation, and open space/recreation projects. This year’s 16 requests total over $7.5 million. Over the past six years, the CPA has approved an average of $2.2 million per year. If the library were to receive the $1.4 million it seeks, that would leave only around $800,000 to fund all the other CPA requests that include $1.1 million for affordable housing initiatives, $2.5 million for recreation and open space projects, and $2.2 million in historic preservation work. Servicing the debt on the $1 million in CPA funds already approved for the library project will consume approximately 20% of the total CPA debt service; the additional requested funds would increase that to around 40%.
That Amherst taxpayers are already being asked to take on a significant portion of the library’s share of the project does not bode well for the future. Long before the Town Council agreed to let the project go forward, it was clear that the Library Trustees would not be able to raise their share of the project expense. In light of the library’s current CPA request, it’s clear that the Town Council exercised extremely poor judgment in letting the project move forward. With town elections being held less than two weeks from now, voters deserve to know how prospective Town Councilors plan to respond to the library’s request for more CPA funds.
Mickey Rathbun and Maria Kopicki are residents of Amherst.
sin vergüenza
I seem to remember someone telling me at some point that a “sinvergüenza” is more than just someone who has no shame. It’s the person who, seeing that there is one piece of something left on the plate at a dinner party, will not hesitate to take it for themselves, and won’t bother to ask if anyone else would like it.
So yeah, Ira’s found the perfect word.
What chutzpah!
Why not just call the JLTs’ bluff?
Here’s a modest proposal:
• first, let the JLTs think more carefully about their request (“go to their rooms without their suppers”);
• next, the JLTs can to go, hat in hand, to the deepest pocket in town (hint: a it’s a short walk southward);
• and if that deep pocket can’t spare ~.00025=1/4000 of its endowment, then tell the JLTs to ask “their friends” (or borrow it themselves, putting up their own real estate and pensions as collateral).
A decision is made to make significant changes to a beloved public building. The proposed changes are sold as improvements necessary for the functioning of the structure. Many see the undertaking as an overly ambitious and unnecessary vanity project, rife with unnecessary flourishes. Plans are vague, historical preservation questions abound, and the public input is muffled. Demolition is begun, leaving a gaping hole in the structure, exposing what’s left to the elements …. OOPS! it’s going to cost more than the initial estimate, but the public is left with few options other than coughing up money and continuing.
Sound familiar?
Except, for better or worse, Amherst doesn’t have corporations and wealthy mega-donors trying to curry favor….
I hope no one is surprised by this. Will there ever come a time when our town council will say enough is enough? This library project is an Amherst Forward supported project. I urge the voters to find out who AF is endorsing and vote for someone else.
The town council is a puppet whose strings are pulled by Amherst Forward. Might as well tack on a ballroom to the Jones Library.
To the town Council and concerned citizens,
Remember your pledge “ not one penny more” for the Jones Library. No CPA funds.
Thank you for honoring your pledge.
We need funds for other dire projects and up coming needs as Washington cuts funds for numerous programs. Also watch how health insurance premiums are rising = increasing needs in town and for town employees. Our school struggles are only going to rise.
Wow. The commenters above are right. The Jones leadership and Trustees truly have no shame.
Isn’t the town still waiting on millions that the library promised to hand over by now? And weren’t they trying to ditch the mahogany woodwork just a few months ago? And now they’re asking for more town money to pay for it? SMH
I hope the CPA committee tells them where to go with this request.
Not only is the Jones Library’s request a shameless return to the public feeding trough, it fails to comply with Community Preservation Act eligibility requirements.
The law states that “with respect to historic resources, ‘rehabilitation’ shall comply with the Standards for Rehabilitation stated in the United States Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties codified in 36 C.F.R. Part 68;”
An April 2024 letter from the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Historical Commission lays out unequivocally how the Jones Library renovation-expansion fails to meet five of the ten Secretary’s Standards.