$ 273,000 UNRESTRICTED BEQUEST GOES TO PROPOSED JONES LIBRARY BUILDING PROJECT
Jones Library. Photo Art Keene.
The Jones Library Board of Trustees voted on June 5 on how to use two unrestricted bequests. A $1,000 gift from the Farnsworth Estate will be deposited in the library’s approximately $7,900,000 endowment fund. A $273,000 bequest from the Van Steenberg Estate will be used in its entirety for the proposed Jones Building Project.
Library system director Sharon Sharry suggested that the Van Steenberg monies be made the first official donation to the capital campaign, but trustee and treasurer Robert Pam reminded the board that a $1,000 check has already been collected, so this would be the second targeted amount for the renovation/expansion.
The trustees’ decision not to deposit the Van Steenberg Estate donation into the endowment seemed to contradict comments made later in the same meeting by Pam. He reminded the trustees that too much is being taken from the endowment and the Jones needs to return to a 4 percent yearly draw, the percentage withdrawn from FY 2016 through FY 2018. The FY 2019 budget projects a 5 percent draw. The 2020 fiscal year budget requires a 4.6 percent draw. Even so, under this budget programming will be cut by 50 percent and two full-time vacated positions will not be replaced according to Sharry’s 2020 budget report.
Pam asserted that an additional $2,000,000 needs to be added to the endowment for each additional 1 percent increase in the draw. This would mean that an additional $2,000,000 (or a total of $10,000,000) is needed in the endowment to continue such high withdrawals.
The Jones’s endowment is used to fund building maintenance, staff benefits (including health insurance for those who work more than twenty hours a week), and materials. Health insurance costs for the library have gone up significantly in recent years. The Friends of the Library provides for most of the library’s programs from the Woodbury Fund and other sources but this year they also assisted with expenses normally covered by the endowment and hence the projected decrease in programming. The town of Amherst pays all library salaries.
This $273,000 bequest will be used for costs associated with furthering the proposed building project. This could include new architectural plans, from Feingold Alexander Architects. An earlier plan for the $35.7 million project (not including interest) was rejected for funding by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC). The Jones is now fourth on the waiting list for an MBLC grant, but the grant is dependent upon moving the approximately 2,500-square-foot large meeting room from the first floor to the basement. This will create a domino effect in designing the entire project.
The original plan itself, developed in 2016–17, cost $75,000 ($50,000 from the MBLC and $25,000 from the town). The Jones has also spent over $51,000 on marketing and promoting the potential project.
Trustee Alex Lefebvre stated that although she is anxious to begin community engagement, the trustees need a specific plan to present to the public. Trustee Lee Edwards added that the funds could also be used for capital campaign fundraising efforts. Trustees suggested that a meeting of its feasibility committee be called in order to start the process of developing new plans. That committee met last January to respond to the MBLC’s need for new designs.
Has only $1,000 been raised so far toward the expected/promised $6 Million in “Private Donations & Historic Tax Credits”? How much has been earned/raised in Historic Tax Credits? If the Library cannot raise the $6M, it seems the Town would be expected to pick up the balance, over and above the $15.9M. That is money that then could not go to the long list of other deserving capital projects in town.
The Jones Library Trustees had a $36,000 contract with the Financial Development Agency (FDA) between December, 2016 through June, 2017 to organize and run a capital campaign. I asked during public comment at the December 7, 2018 Trustee Development Committee meeting how much had been raised under this contract. I was told by the Director Sharon Sharry that the money had been spent. The two Trustees did not answer either so I asked the Director if I could email her my specific questions. When I returned home, I had already received an email from Sharry about expenditures to the FDA from 2014 through 2017. Money spent on a capital campaign was not a category. However, over $51,000 was paid to the FDA for the “Building Project.”
The first time the topic came up about money raised for a capital campaign was at this last Trustee meeting.
To my knowledge, nothing as been raised through Historic Tax Credits. I have yet to research if the Jones, as a 501 (c)(3) non-profit, can even apply for tax credits if it doesn’t pay taxes. Also, since most of the historic 1928 section will be gutted, one wonders how the project would qualify for any money for “historic” renovation.
Lastly, this week on Amherst Media’s show “Spotlight,” Director Sharry said that the library would ask for all the $21 million in case they can not raise all $6 million. That would mean the town would have to pay difference.