Update: All Public Participation at Special Town Council Meeting on April 14 Will Be Virtual
Photo: public domain
Special Town Council Meeting on April 14 Will Consider Motion to Rescind Borrowing for the Jones Library Expansion Project
Notice from the Town of Amherst, received April 14, 2025.
As Council President has determined that, due to the extensive public interest and limited capacity in the Town Room, the meeting tonight will allow only Councilors, Trustees, and staff to attend in person. All other members of the public are welcome to attend virtually.
Time: 6:30 PM - 10:30 PMLocation:
For Town Councilors, Jones Library Trustees, and Staff ONLY: In person: Town Hall, Town Room. 4 Boltwood Ave. Amherst, MA 01002
Zoom: https://amherstma.zoom.us/j/86958537235
Phone: (646) 876-9923; enter webinar ID 869 5853 7235
Original article follows.
The Amherst Town Council will hold a Special Meeting on Monday, April 14, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. “to consider the financial costs and risks of the Jones Library Expansion and Renovation project and to vote on rescinding the two appropriation and borrowing authorizations for this project.
The meeting was called by Councilors Cathy Schoen (District 1), Jennifer Taub (District 4), and Bob Hegner (District 5) under Section 2.6 d iii of the Amherst Home Rule Charter which allows special meetings of the Town Council to be called by three or more councilors, for any reason.
In their call for the meeting, Schoen, Taub, and Hegner indicated that they intend to make the following motion:
Move to rescind Appropriation and Borrowing Order FY21-06C an order that approved and authorized bond authorization for $36,279,000 and to rescind the 2023 Supplemental appropriation for the expansion and renovation of the Jones Library, said sum to supplement the amount appropriated under the Town Council’s April 5, 2021 Order Approving and Authorizing Borrowing of Funds for the Expansion and Renovation of the Jones Library, $9,860,100 (December 18, 2023)
They added, “We further instruct the Town Manager not to sign any contracts that would commit the Town to proceed with the project until after this requested Special Town Council meeting has occurred and a vote to rescind has taken place.”
As of this writing, an announcement of meeting has been added to the Town Council webpage but has not yet been posted to the calendar. As soon as that occurs, this report will be amended to include the Zoom link. An agenda has not yet been posted to the meeting packet.
Rescind !!!!!
I attended yesterday’s town meeting (April 14). It left me with a profound sense of sadness that I just can’t shake. Again and again, I heard praise for our community. There was confidence that community members would come through for the library project, honoring earlier pledges, as they always have. That the fund raising target would be reached, that more aggressive fund raising could be done. The sentiment was that, in the current situation – more than ever – a library is needed. It would be a community center serving all.
But what I see happening in our community is that USDA has cancelled $440, 000 worth of food deliveries from the Western Massachusetts Food Bank, that there are 132, 000 people in the area (four counties, including Amherst) that rely on food assistance, that the Amherst Survival Center is desperate for donations to make up for the recent funding losses. Our community has not come through with eliminating food insecurity in our town. What immigrants most urgently need is not English classes in a brand new library, but legal help. And I have yet to see homeless families offered shelter in a library. It’s just not true that in the current situation – more than ever – libraries are needed.
Do we really want to build a top-of-the-line library at a time when many in our community don’t have a home, don’t have enough to eat, or have to live in fear of being deported? If we need to do fund raising for community projects, aren’t there other priorities?