Letter: Jones Expansion Financials Still a Mystery for Town Council and the Public

by Art and Maura Keene

The following letter was sent to the Amherst Town Council on November 21, 2025

Thank you to Councilors Pam Rooney, Jennifer Taub, and Cathy Schoen for asking for better reporting on the library accounting at Monday’s (11/17) Town Council meeting. Sadly, they did not receive an adequate response to their requests.

We note that Councilor George Ryan made two claims at that meeting that appear to be unsupportable. We ask that you continue to push Ryan (a member of the Jones Library Building Committee) and the Jones Trustees to back up their claims with accurate and timely reporting. The town government and town residents have a right to know what is going on. The council should insist on timely and accurate reporting, such as it received throughout the Elementary School Building Project (see also here).

Ryan claimed that the Jones project is ahead of schedule and that “everything is copacetic,” but offered no supporting data in the packet. And how could he, or anyone else, possibly know?

To know if the project is on schedule we would need a detailed construction schedule showing milestones that have been reached and tasks remaining. So far, the OPM has failed to provide such a document in spite of requests from the building committee.  Such a document was provided early on in the elementary school construction and was revisited at each Elementary School Building Committee meeting. As far as we can tell, no one aside from the contractor knows precisely what the schedule is for the Jones project.

If everything is copacetic (i.e. in excellent order), that would include being on budget. In order to know whether the project is on-budget we would need a cash flow analysis that documents what funds are coming in (including from the Capital Campaign), what funds are going out (including detailed invoices paid for change orders), and what payments are expected and when. We know that the roof is over budget so it would be helpful to know where any savings were achieved. There has not been a cash flow analysis or expense projection for the project since November of 2023 (see also here) and clearly, those two-year-old projections no longer obtain. In spite of demands for an up-to-date cash flow analysis, none has been forthcoming.
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We ask the council to demand more from the Jones Trustees.

Art and Maura Keene

Art and Maura Keene are residents of Amherst’s District 3. Art Keene is Managing Editor of the Amherst Indy. Maura Keene is a staff writer for the Amherst Indy.