Opinion: Time to Say No to More Town Money for the Jones Library Expansion Project

On Thursday, February 5, the Community Preservation Act Committee (CPAC) is scheduled to continue its deliberations, and possibly vote, about its recommendation on how to distribute $3.1 million for FY27. Their preliminary figures included $577,000 for the Jones Library building project, which would represent 20% of the total budget for a project that ranked 15 out of the 16 applicants this year. CPAC still has to whittle down their recommendations as they are about $1.6 million over budget at the moment.

Reasons NOT to Give the Jones Library Project Any More CPA Money

• CPA funds cannot be used for a project that violates the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards on Historic Preservation, as this project does.
  
• CPA funds cannot be used for a project when debt has already been authorized for it, as is the case for this project.  
  
• The Amherst Historic Commission recommended against using CPA funds for items already included in the project budget and construction contract –  this is true of both the windows and the interior woodwork and exterior trim.
  
• $1 million of CPA funds has already been given to this project for work on Special Collections and has already been spent during the demolition phase of the project. 
  
• Members of the Town Council and the Town Manager have said that no more town money would be committed to this project.
  
• This project is happening whether or not it gets any more CPA funds – the same is NOT true for many of the other applicants.

A Divided CPAC
Three CPAC members have been advocating for CPA funds for the Jones Library Expansion Project: Chair Katie Zobel and at-large members Ellen Keiter and Timothy Neale. Neale has stated that he intends to participate in decisions about the Jones Library application despite having been involved in fundraising efforts for the project. He said, “I mentioned earlier that I am not recusing myself. However, the committee and the public needs to know I was very involved with the fundraising for the Jones Library and its support. I have no financial benefit from any decision I make regarding the Jones Library and I wanted to make that clear.” Personal financial benefit, however, is not the only issue when considering conflict of interest. Someone who has actively participated in fundraising for a project may not be able to act impartially in decisions around its funding, creating at least the appearance of bias to the possible detriment of other applicants.

 Zobel proposed the $577,000 figure based on the amounts listed in the application for the interior woodwork and exterior trim. However, this amount includes $147,306 of work that has already been completed, which even the applicants have admitted should be deleted from their request.

Conservation Commission representative Jason Dorney and at-large member Bob Saul have recommended that no CPA funds be allocated for the project. Planning Board representative Angus McLeod had given the project the lowest possible ranking (1 out of 5) and expressed concern about how bonding for the proposed amount would impact future years’ CPA budgets. Recreation Commission representative Jonas Cox ranked the project 2 out of 5 but did not weigh in on the discussion about the preliminary figure. Housing Authority representative Marc Barrette joined CPAC in January 2026 and has not participated in the rankings or discussions to date. 

Amherst Historical Commission (AHC) representative Robin Fordham has stated that she would not participate in anything regarding the Jones application because she is employed by the Massachusetts Historical Commission (MHC). She said, “I am going to be recusing myself from discussion and voting around both projects (the Jones Library project and the Civil War tablets project) as they’re related to the Jones Library which has business still with MHC.” Unfortunately, no arrangement had been made to have another member of the AHC participate in CPAC deliberations for these projects, leaving the AHC with no vote on these projects in the ranking and no way to provide CPAC with clarifications and perspective during their deliberations on two of the applications in the historic preservation category.

Time to Course Correct 
As the CPAC continues its deliberations this week, there is still time for the committee to provide complete and public answers to all of the questions and concerns raised. Most importantly, it can make the decision to not give any more money to the Jones Library Expansion Project and to instead fund projects that are clearly worthy of and appropriate for CPA funding, and that very well might not happen without them.