- David Sloviter on Letter: US Munitions Produce Horrific Death and Destruction in Palestine: “Gerry, I would normally not feel a need to respond but since you personalized your comment I suppose it is…” Oct 15, 17:13
- Opinion: Where Did Jim Lescault Go?: “This is truly awful and very disheartening. Hope the board does what’s right and at the very least gives Jim…” Oct 15, 14:00on
- Letter: Rescind Campus Ban on Peaceful Amherst Protestors: “With all due respect, Mr. Cutting, October 7th, 2024 was exactly the right day for us to renew our commitment…” Oct 15, 12:07on
- Opinion: Where Did Jim Lescault Go?: “What happened to Amherst Media? Where is Jim? Jim’s accomplish are too numerous to name over the past 17 years!!!…” Oct 15, 09:48on
- Opinion: Where Did Jim Lescault Go?: “Fierce and righteous words. I hope the public will hold the new “leadership” to account. A travesty to oust someone…” Oct 15, 09:28on
- Letter: A Proposal to Reduce Traffic Downtown: “Beside local public transit, there also needs to be a better, more direct, public transit connection between Amherst and the…” Oct 15, 04:49on
- Letter: A Proposal to Reduce Traffic Downtown: “This summer we spent several days on campus at the University of Wisconsin in Madison where there is very little…” Oct 14, 17:29on
- Town Awarded Design Grant for Puffer’s Pond Dam and Dike Repairs: “I’ll add an addendum to my earlier post as this writer captured my sentiments exactly. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/10/14/dogs-parks-leash-wildlife/” Oct 14, 14:38on
- Letter: A Proposal to Reduce Traffic Downtown: “I completely agree Alex. Though ancient history, when I attended UMass in the 70s students were not allowed cars on…” Oct 14, 14:20on
- Letter: A Proposal to Reduce Traffic Downtown: “Thank you for the article. I completely agree that vehicular traffic in downtown is a very significant problem and reduces…” Oct 14, 13:19on
- Opinion: Where Did Jim Lescault Go?: “It must not be coincidence that documentation for the meetings regarding his removal and replacement are not available on the…” Oct 13, 19:52on
- Hanneke Stalls Creation of Reparations Committee: “” “I want to remind the council that this is reparations for American slavery, for the kidnapping of Africans from…” Oct 13, 19:00on
- Opinion: Where Did Jim Lescault Go?: “I know how hard Jim worked to create an environment where creativity, integrity and justice were nurtured. When Jim talked…” Oct 13, 18:50on
- Opinion: Where Did Jim Lescault Go?: “It is so troubling to read this knowing everything that Jim has given and done for this community the opportunities…” Oct 13, 17:23on
- Opinion: Where Did Jim Lescault Go?: “I have known Jim and Magdalena for nearly three decades and can speak to their character and commitment to uplifting…” Oct 13, 15:37on
- Photos of the Week: Amherst Celebrates International Walk, Bike, and Roll to School Day: “Wow. I love this idea. Amherst would be a great place to develop different bike routes to school. I can…” Oct 13, 15:28on
- Photos of the Week: Amherst Celebrates International Walk, Bike, and Roll to School Day: “I have been reading about the practice of “bike buses” in the Netherlands but they are also showing up around…” Oct 13, 15:15on
- Opinion: The Jones Library Question No One Asks: “Sarah was pointing out the most important ratio, Cost/Area, where Cost is the total project cost authorized, and Area is…” Oct 13, 14:44on
- Opinion: Where Did Jim Lescault Go?: “The impact of Jim’s work at Amherst Media has been felt beyond Amherst. Jim’s knowledge of the impact of media…” Oct 13, 14:08on
- Opinion: The Jones Library Question No One Asks: “Even with a calculation of 15,000 square feet (which is their number) it comes out to $3075.98, which is significantly…” Oct 13, 12:19on
- Opinion: The Jones Library Question No One Asks: “Sarah and Rob — Just a little clarification on how the project’s cost per sq ft. is calculated. The construction…” Oct 13, 12:15on
- Letter: US Munitions Produce Horrific Death and Destruction in Palestine: “David, your question deserves an answer. I will try to do so as I see it. First some background. I…” Oct 13, 12:01on
- Opinion: Where Did Jim Lescault Go?: “Having been at the mercy of Boards of Directors at two small not for profit art centers where I served…” Oct 13, 10:27on
- Opinion: The Jones Library Question No One Asks: “Thank you Jeff..this is excellent historical information about how the library was initially intended to be privately funded and how…” Oct 13, 09:49on
- Opinion: The Jones Library Question No One Asks: “Sarah’s math is right, and its implications are extraordinarily disturbing…. The Jones Library demolition/expansion is absurd: as we mathematicians are…” Oct 13, 04:45on
- Town Awarded Design Grant for Puffer’s Pond Dam and Dike Repairs: “I don’t know for certain, but it seems possible that CPA funds could be used to help in addressing “issues”…” Oct 12, 16:44on
- Opinion: The Jones Library Question No One Asks: “Excellent, Jeff! This Jones Library financial history gives a new point of view for considering Amherst’s municipal priorities. That the…” Oct 12, 16:26on
- Opinion: To Progressives Who Are Not Supporting Kamala: “I appreciate Russ’ efforts at peaceful dialogue and, in a perfect world, I would be onboard. The world we live…” Oct 12, 15:16on
- Opinion: Where Did Jim Lescault Go?: “As a human in and out of his committed role at Amherst media, Jim Lescault has always been a champion…” Oct 12, 14:48on
- Opinion: Calling for an End to Killing Palestinians with Our Help: “Even those who oppose the U.S.-supported Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza (and, more slowly, in the West Bank) still…” Oct 12, 12:39on
- Opinion: The Jones Library Question No One Asks: “As with my confusion and concern that the upcoming presidential election could be such a close race, I cannot fathom…” Oct 12, 11:01on
- Photos of the Week: Amherst Celebrates International Walk, Bike, and Roll to School Day: “These photos are great, and all depicted seem to be shouting: Let’s do this more often! 🙂” Oct 12, 01:27on
- Amherst General Election Reminders: “Here’s another important deadline: sign up TODAY for a phone banking shift!!!! Just because we don’t live in a swing…” Oct 11, 23:51on
- Public Comment: A Better Plan Is Possible for Protecting the Historic Jones Library: “Thanks Maria. I heard you at the meeting but you had to speak so quickly I missed how well thought…” Oct 11, 18:25on
- Public Comment: Re-envisioning the Jones Library Expansion Project: “Thank you Sarah! What a wonderful idea. Let’s update our essential services and find more space for the library. A…” Oct 11, 14:03on
- Town Awarded Design Grant for Puffer’s Pond Dam and Dike Repairs: “Questionable use of CPA funds, they’re not to be used for ordinary maintenance.” Oct 11, 12:12on
- Town Awarded Design Grant for Puffer’s Pond Dam and Dike Repairs: “Due to E. coli, Puffers was closed for swimming for much of the summer. It would be nice to see…” Oct 11, 08:14on
- Letter: Rescind Campus Ban on Peaceful Amherst Protestors: “There are 364 better days to do this on, including the day that Israel actually went into Gaza (October 13th).” Oct 9, 07:52on
- Town Acknowledges Adverse Effects of Jones Expansion Project on Historic Character of the Building: “My note doesn’t directly address the issue of historic preservation. To the town, It is time to call it quits…” Oct 8, 15:36on
- School Superintendent Floats Grade 7-12 Consolidation to Solve Chronic Budget Woes: “Let’s not make wild guesses about the history of class sizes at the high school and present them as fact.…” Oct 8, 11:26on
- Letter: US Munitions Produce Horrific Death and Destruction in Palestine: “We not only need a peace movement, we need a free speech movement as well. Who better to lead the…” Oct 8, 08:19on
- Ignoring HUD Advice, Town Puts Library Plan Out for Bid: “I agree Jeff. Once again, I am taken aback by the public comments of a town official against “others”. As…” Oct 7, 20:16on
- Ignoring HUD Advice, Town Puts Library Plan Out for Bid: ““ Capital Campaign Co-chair Lee Edwards spoke of a rumor she had heard that people opposed to the project have…” Oct 7, 14:44on
- School Superintendent Floats Grade 7-12 Consolidation to Solve Chronic Budget Woes: ““The first figure (3,000) sounds more like a total building capacity that might be approved by a fire Marshall, and…” Oct 7, 12:12on
- Ignoring HUD Advice, Town Puts Library Plan Out for Bid: “Mass. General Laws, chapter 149, 44A (3), in pertinent part provides: [T]he award of every contract subject to this section…” Oct 6, 16:35on
- Amherst’s Neighboring Towns: Sunderland: “Thanks for adding your ‘math’ poem, Rob! The famous Buttonball/sycamore tree (on North Main St) reminds me of an article…” Oct 6, 01:06on
- Ignoring HUD Advice, Town Puts Library Plan Out for Bid: “The Town might want to reread MGL 149, 44A. Particularly the part about deadlines for bid award.” Oct 5, 23:10on
- How Should Annual Budgets Be Determined?: “A friendly amendment to Joe Cook’s last paragraph: Let’s prioritize our construction dollars on what all of us need instead…” Oct 5, 16:53on
- Amherst’s Neighboring Towns: Sunderland: “1+2+4+7+14=28 By canoe, we find School Street, By bike, the Buttonball Tree, And by reading The Indy, Stephen and Hetty:…” Oct 5, 16:23on
- School Superintendent Floats Grade 7-12 Consolidation to Solve Chronic Budget Woes: “Ira Bryck and Rob Kusner, I appreciate this discussion. Thank you! (I write as a mother of two children now…” Oct 5, 10:46on
- John Page Named New Executive Director of Business Improvement District: “Congrats John! You’ll do great and the town can really use your talents!” Oct 5, 09:29on
- How Should Annual Budgets Be Determined?: “We could ameliorate the the budget problem by prioritizing construction projects according to need. The North Common project is pretty…” Oct 5, 09:05on
- Opinion: Jones Library Bidders Beware: “I expect that, like the first time, the project will not receive an acceptable bid, either because any bid will…” Oct 5, 06:43on
- School Superintendent Floats Grade 7-12 Consolidation to Solve Chronic Budget Woes: “The article attributes (without quotes) to Herman: …while the high school has the capacity for 3,000 students, the number of…” Oct 5, 02:20on
- October Is National Coop Month: “I can’t wait to have our Common Share Food Coop open in Amherst!!” Oct 4, 14:16on
- How Should Annual Budgets Be Determined?: “Agree completely. See also these previous stories in the Indy on PILOT payments by other colleges and universities in the…” Oct 4, 13:57on
- How Should Annual Budgets Be Determined?: “I would like to name the elephant in the room. PILOT payments. We need to get more money from the…” Oct 4, 12:38on
- on
- School Superintendent Floats Grade 7-12 Consolidation to Solve Chronic Budget Woes: “There is clear and present data that shows Amherst is rapidly losing families, and closing schools at the rate we…” Oct 4, 12:20on
- UMass Amherst to Partner with Amherst Survival Center to Establish Campus Food Pantry: “Food insecurity and housing insecurity are real for some UMass students. I’ve know students whose families struggle to make ends…” Oct 3, 19:09on
- UMass Amherst to Partner with Amherst Survival Center to Establish Campus Food Pantry: “Next on on-campus homeless shelter with cots for students who can’t afford Amherst rents .” Oct 3, 06:53on
- Repeated Rejections of Library Funding From State Historic Commission Were Hidden From Town Council and the Public: “Perhaps this is a good time, while Amherst has a building project that is going less than smoothly, to suggest…” Oct 2, 11:34on
- University Drive Overlay District Gets Mixed Reviews from Town Council: “We need to bring back the town meeting pure democracy style of government and make Amherst democratic again. Once the…” Oct 2, 05:30on
- Opinion: One Solution to the Proliferation of Student Housing in Family Neighborhoods: “Brings to mind an incident that happened about six years after the date of the above article. After another party…” Oct 1, 19:07on
- Opinion: One Solution to the Proliferation of Student Housing in Family Neighborhoods: “The letter below was published in several newspapers in eastern and central Mass in March of 2014. Yet, here we…” Oct 1, 13:54on
- UMass Amherst to Partner with Amherst Survival Center to Establish Campus Food Pantry: “I found it strange that a University needs a food pantry for it’s students. Don’t they have meal plans for…” Oct 1, 12:33on
- Elementary School Building Project Bid Comes in Under Budget: “The contractor reviews at DCAMM are not the only source of information you are allowed to use. The Amherst school…” Sep 30, 22:28on
- University Drive Overlay District Gets Mixed Reviews from Town Council: “We are becoming over saturated with Developer involved student housing . Take a breath . I would like to see…” Sep 30, 09:04on
- Letter: A Sustainable Jones Library?: “No one has yet mentioned the impact of the concussive vibrations of all these heavy loads on the almost 300…” Sep 28, 17:44on
- Elementary School Building Project Bid Comes in Under Budget: “On a project of this size pre-qualification of the bidders would have been required by law. What does our pre-qualification…” Sep 26, 18:27on
- Elementary School Building Project Bid Comes in Under Budget: “Editor’s note: The writer provided of folder of project evaluations supporting his above claims for projects in which CTA was…” Sep 26, 15:00on
- Public Comment: Proposed Demolition/Expansion Mutilates Historic Jones Library: “I agree with this opinion of what they propose to do to the Jones Library. I grew up in Amherst…” Sep 26, 12:28on
- Letter: Inviting Bids on Jones Library Plans That Are Not Finalized Wastes the Town’s Money: “Ask the trustees and their enablers put up their own personal assets as collateral for these promises, and see if…” Sep 26, 02:29on
- No Bidders for Library Swing Space: “If Robert Peirent is not back from vacation yet the good folks at the Mass. Office of the Inspector General…” Sep 25, 21:42on
- Letter: Inviting Bids on Jones Library Plans That Are Not Finalized Wastes the Town’s Money: “The Jones trustees have agreed to pay for all kinds of things but their promises lack credibility. The trustees have…” Sep 25, 19:56on
- Letter: Inviting Bids on Jones Library Plans That Are Not Finalized Wastes the Town’s Money: “If the Library Trustees will agree to pay for all of the change orders from Library funds that exist right…” Sep 25, 17:01on
- Repeated Rejections of Library Funding From State Historic Commission Were Hidden From Town Council and the Public: “Do Amherst people not realize that much of this is simply WRONG? Where is this town’s moral compass? Time to…” Sep 25, 15:50on
- Elementary School Building Project Bid Comes in Under Budget: “I am blown away! I just watched the Building Committee zoom meeting and it’s amazing to me that nobody mentioned…” Sep 25, 11:07on
- Letter: Section 106 Review Should Be Completed Before Jones Expansion Project Goes Out to Bid: “Thanks for detailing this civic SNAFU, Arlie! At present, contractors are to work up their (new) bids on the contract…” Sep 24, 21:38on
- Repeated Rejections of Library Funding From State Historic Commission Were Hidden From Town Council and the Public: “It certainly does not seem as though Mr Bockelman is acting in the best interests of all residents of the…” Sep 24, 07:58on
- Letter: In Amherst, Can Good People Agree to Disagree?: “Ken, there is one place where I disagree with you here. I do not think the current plan to destroy…” Sep 23, 21:04on
- Elementary School Building Project Bid Comes in Under Budget: “Rather than spending these school project savings on other pending projects, please consider investing in more extensive PV canopies over…” Sep 23, 01:24on
- Letter: US Must Enforce the Leahy Laws and End Weapons Shipments to Israel: “Although Harris is definitely the lesser of two evils, I just cannot bring myself to vote for a party that…” Sep 22, 17:21on
- No Bidders for Library Swing Space: “With no proposals submitted during the first Request for Proposals process a new RFP must be issued for the swing…” Sep 22, 15:58on
- Repeated Rejections of Library Funding From State Historic Commission Were Hidden From Town Council and the Public: “Lisa Perlbinder says the article is “misleading.” Could Ms. Perlbinder please explain what is misleading about the article? Thank you.” Sep 22, 14:11on
- Repeated Rejections of Library Funding From State Historic Commission Were Hidden From Town Council and the Public: “Is the Jones Library construction project a “public construction project”? Hmmm. “While there is no statute that establishes a change…” Sep 22, 13:41on
- Letter: A Healthy Democracy Requires Critical Public Engagement: “John McCabe was a former Jones trustee and he, too, was averse to public comment.” Sep 22, 11:58on
- Social Justice Committee Frustrated with Slow Progress on Implementation of CRESS and Youth Empowerment Center: “I note that the Historical Commission also has two vacancies. One can only wonder why filling the first vacancy is…” Sep 22, 11:39on
- Elementary School Building Project Bid Comes in Under Budget: “Yes, it’s the difference between an honest and open process where every decision was scrutinized and a rubber-stamping no questions…” Sep 22, 11:33on
- No Bidders for Library Swing Space: “I wanted to ask the Building Committee whether a new Project Notification Form had been submitted or are contractors bidding…” Sep 22, 11:02on
- Repeated Rejections of Library Funding From State Historic Commission Were Hidden From Town Council and the Public: “My contractor and engineering friends tell me that change orders are major sources of income for their firms. They usually…” Sep 22, 10:21on
- Repeated Rejections of Library Funding From State Historic Commission Were Hidden From Town Council and the Public: “Absolutely nobody likes being mislead.” Sep 22, 06:10on
- Repeated Rejections of Library Funding From State Historic Commission Were Hidden From Town Council and the Public: “Please forgive me for bit more reality-checking here: Aren’t many of the second commenter’s cited “23% of the Amherst residents…” Sep 21, 16:36on
- Larry Rankin Black-and-White Photography at Gallery A3 in October: “For the Zoom forum at 7:30 pm on October 17, I will be joined by Bob Solosko, a Northampton photographer,…” Sep 21, 16:01on
- Elementary School Building Project Bid Comes in Under Budget: “Elementary school project vs. Jones Library Trustees’ demolition/rehabilitation/expansion project: Compare and contrast.” Sep 21, 11:58on
- No Bidders for Library Swing Space: “You’ve done a public service, Jeff, by reporting on this farce of a “public comment” period. Amherst voters deserve to…” Sep 21, 11:41on
- Repeated Rejections of Library Funding From State Historic Commission Were Hidden From Town Council and the Public: “Anita Sarro has kindly informed me that change orders happen only AFTER a contract is signed. She adds that a…” Sep 21, 11:19on
- Repeated Rejections of Library Funding From State Historic Commission Were Hidden From Town Council and the Public: “As someone who opposes the present expansion/demolition plan for the Jones Library as oversized, historically disastrous, unaffordable, and environmentally unfriendly,…” Sep 21, 11:03on
- Repeated Rejections of Library Funding From State Historic Commission Were Hidden From Town Council and the Public: “Credit where credit is due, Lisa, please! Town Manager Paul Bockelman, Library Trustee President Austin Sarat and the then-Board of…” Sep 21, 09:35on
- Repeated Rejections of Library Funding From State Historic Commission Were Hidden From Town Council and the Public: “The soon to be vacant Wildwood School would serve as an excellent “Community Center” to meet the needs of the…” Sep 21, 09:02on