Letter: With New MOA, Town Assumes All of the Risks Plus Additional Costs for Jones Expansion

The following letter was sent to Amherst Town Councilors on December 18, 2023.

Please do not endanger our town’s fiscal security by taking on more of the Jones library expansion costs and more of its risks.  Please vote NO on Monday evening, or abstain until the final real costs are known (after the final bid comes in around March) and until we know what the impacts of these additional obligations will be on meeting other town needs.

The revised MOA between the Jones Trustees ensures that the Town will be picking up additional expenses for the Jones library expansion beyond the $15.8M originally committed, imposes nearly all risk on the town with essentially none on the Jones trustees, and pretty much ensures that the trustees will be coming back again to request that the town pick up even a greater share of the costs of the bloated project. 

The library director has already said that she intends to come back to the town to ask the JCPC to pick up expenses like furniture and landscaping that have, for the moment, been cut out of the budget to make the burgeoning costs of the expansion seem lower than they really are. The revised MOA only agrees to not make that ask until the library construction is complete. Toni Cunningham has pointed out in her cogent analysis of the MOA in the Indy that nearly all of the risk falls on the town.  She points out that there are things that the trustees might do to lessen the town’s burden but these are not obligations.  This meshes well with what trustees tell themselves at their own meetings – that these obligations are aspirational and not contractual.

If the library final bids come in well above this manipulative cost estimate, and they surely will if the other library projects across the Commonwealth are any indication, the Trustees will be back to ask for even more borrowing, and the town will have already agreed to cover the additional costs.  The trustees have promised to cover any additional construction costs (but not the cost of upfront borrowing) but if those added costs amount to tens of millions more, an outcome totally within the realm of possibility if you have been paying attention to other projects, it is unlikely that the trustees will be able to raise so much more money, especially with all of the low hanging fundraising fruit already picked, and the Town will not only be on the hook for the added borrowing costs but for any money that the trustees are unable to raise.

A far better and less lopsided agreement might have been arranged but Bockelman and Griesemer apparently made little effort to do that, even though they pretty much held all of the cards (that is, the Town’s agreement to borrow more).

It is clear from the “negotiations” for this latest agreement, that no one is looking out for the long-term interests of the Town.  And while the Town Manager and Council President were quick to deliver everything that the trustees have demanded, they have been unwilling to provide the public the frequently requested analysis of how all of this additional commitment to the Jones will impact other pressing needs in Amherst.  

As Town Councilors, you have a fiduciary responsibility to protect the fiscal security of the town and its residents. That most certainly did not happen with the MOA renegotiation and it will not happen if you vote to approve further borrowing with greater obligations for the town and essentially no protections other than the ”good word” of the Jones Trustees, who refuse to offer the kind of guarantees that any responsible organization would require before taking on such a prodigious obligation.  As the Town’s outlay for this project continues to expand, its ability to meet its many pressing needs diminishes. Andy Steinberg has already been crying austerity as we move into budget season and that will only become more pronounced as the additional expenditures for the Jones accumulate. Amherst will feel the burden of this project for decades to come and every member of the council who backs this MOA and this additional borrowing owns that. 

The excuses that some of you have offered for why you MUST vote for this ill-conceived plan –  e.g. because you must relent to an organized letter writing campaign from Amherst Forward, because you have been assured that we can always back out later if the costs continue to escalate, because the added burden to the town (which you promised you would not agree to) will be ameliorated by the efforts of the trustees – none of these have an ounce of credibility. And we think you know this.  Someone of you needs to have the courage to stand up and say what is obvious to any neutral observer – that the escalating costs of this project are out of control and that the town is in no position to cover whatever the trustees cannot.  If the trustees insist on moving forward with the project that is now well beyond what we can afford, then they should take on all of the risk and they should provide the fiscal guarantees.

A vote to borrow even more money without putting in adequate protections for the town and without requiring the library to pay its own way for all of the growing expenses is irresponsible and imposes the burden of that risk on all Amherst residents.  A fiscal disaster is looming and as it becomes increasingly difficult for the town to fix its roads, or pay its teachers, or keep town hall sufficiently staffed, or attend to the needs of its most vulnerable residents, etc.. every one of you who have chosen to essentially write the trustees a blank check will own that disaster.

Do the right thing and delay approval of additional borrowing until we know how much this thing is really going to cost and the impacts of those added costs on all of Amherst’s needs.


Art Keene is a resident of Amherst’s District 3, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at UMass, and the Managing Editor of the Amherst Indy. His four children are graduates of Amherst Regional High School. He was head coach of the ARHS girls cross country team for 17 years.

Maura Keene is a retired obstetrician-gynecologist at BayState 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.