Opinion: But What Will It Cost Amherst Residents? Jones Trustees Vote To Move Forward With No Discussion Of Fiscal Risks

Frequently Unanswered Questions About The Costs Of The Jones Library Expansion and Demolition And Who Will Pay Them

By Art and Maura Keene

The Jones Library Trustees voted 5-1 at their meeting on August 24 to move forward with their planned expansion/demolition project (see also here). Treasurer Bob Pam was the lone dissenter.  Estimates for the cost of the project have ballooned since March 2022 from $36.5M to over $50M. Those estimates apparently did not update the costs for environmental sustainability. (The library has not released comprehensive project cost estimates, and a public records request for relevant documents was filed by the Indy last week.) Construction is not slated to begin until October 2023 and there are no indications that this rapid escalation of costs will not continue in this intervening year. 

Jones trustees have pledged to raise all funds necessary  to meet the rising costs through a private fundraising campaign, and to cover any shortfall in that effort from the library’s endowment, currently valued at $8.6M, committing to spend down the entire endowment if necessary. 

The trustees’ August 24 vote was undertaken without consideration that the costs might not come in at the lower end of their estimates, right now a full $7M less than the higher estimate. Nor was there a discussion of where the extra funds would come from if the private fundraising and the library’s entire endowment are insufficient to cover them or the risks this  poses to the town. 

Library Director Sharron Sharry has said on multiple occasions that she thinks it may be necessary for the town to contribute more to the project.Some of the cuts proposed  in the budget to get to the lower estimate of $43M involve cutting money for new furnishings and Sharry has said that the town could be asked to cover this via new capital requests outside of the building project budget. She has also said that she might turn to the town to cover IT (computer) expenses for the new building.  And at the  most recent Trustees’ meeting she said that the risks the project might pose to other town priorities was not the Trustees’ concern.

In our op/ed last week we said that the full costs of this project and the risks to the town must be fully and honestly disclosed and widely discussed before the project can proceed. And the public has a right to know exactly what they will be asked to pay and what they will be getting for what they pay, since many features and materials will be cut from the approved plans to accommodate the rising costs and they will not be getting the library that was originally approved by the Town Council and by the subsequent  town-wide vote. We voiced our concern that proceeding with the project could plunge the town into decades of unmanageable debt and threaten the viability of other important capital projects. 

So there are two basic problems here. 1) we haven’t gotten access to the original cost estimate documents to verify what is and isn’t included and 2) even if the cost estimates are complete and accurate, they show a multimillion dollar gap between available funding and the total cost with even the entire value of the endowment unable to bridge that gap even at the lower cost estimate. The Library Director and Trustees are counting as “in-hand” several million dollars that are not secured at this point.The total project cost estimates are significantly different from what the Town Council voted to approve and what was presented to the voters in 2021. In addition, if the project moves forward, the building’s design, materials, and features and plans are anticipated to be significantly different from the version voted on. 

Residents have the right to be fully informed about true costs and true risks, and ought to be able to weigh in on whether they are still willing to undertake those risks.

In failing to have a comprehensive discussion of the new challenges posed by the expansion plan and the options available for addressing them, the trustees have left many important questions unanswered. We list below some of the most pressing questions, and we call on our town councilors and our town manager to provide reasonable answers. The Indy will post the answers to these questions as they become available.

What will this project actually cost? We need to see the updated comprehensive cost estimates  as well as itemized costs, such as hard (construction) costs, soft costs, updated sustainability costs, etc.

Who will pay those costs and how?

What library will we get for the new costs, given that substantial cuts will need to be made to meet the budget?. How will this library differ from the library that was promised?

What contingencies are planned if fundraising by the Friends of the Jones plus the library endowment prove insufficient to cover costs? Who will pay the overage?

If the endowment is spent down to cover a fundraising shortfall, what contingencies are there to pay for the items that are currently drawn from the endowment, such as the annual $300,000 operating budget? Will the town cover the library’s operating budget shortages?

The library director has said that she is “nearly certain” that the library has raised nearly $9M already toward its pledge of $14M. How much of that is certain and  how much is just “likely” and on what is that likelihood based? When will we have definitive information on the funding not actually “in-hand”? What contingencies are in place if pledges are rescinded or applications for funding turn out to be unsuccessful?

Given the changes in costs and design, is the previous memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the town and the library now moot? Does the town council need to take another vote on whether to approve moving forward?

Is the Town’s finance director preparing an updated presentation about the “four major capital projects” that accounts for the changes in library total project cost estimates? If so, when and how will that presentation be made public? If not, why not?

Is the town manager working to secure additional state or federal funding for the library project? If so, is he making similar efforts for the elementary school replacement and other town projects that are subject to marked cost escalation?

Art Keene is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at UMass. He was a town meeting member for 20+ years.  He has lived in Amherst since 1982.   He is Managing Editor of The Amherst Indy

Maura Keene is a retired obstetrician-gynecologist at Bay State Health Systems. Her four children are graduates of the Amherst schools. She has lived in Amherst since 1982. She is a frequent contributor to The Amherst Indy.