Dear Reader

Dear Reader,

Greetings from College Station, Texas where we are producing this week’s Indy remotely.

Indy by the Numbers
This week, the Indy published its 6000^th article since we started publication on March 26, 2019. For the record, article number 6,000 is Amherst’s Neighboring Towns: South Hadley by Hetty Startup.

Those 6,000 articles were produced by 420 unique contributors and since our inception we have published nearly 8000 reader comments. Our numbers continue to grow. When we hit the 5,000 article mark on January 19 of this year, it was 365 unique contributors. This year we hit a new 30-day high in the spring of more than 86,000 unique page views and while we are currently in the holiday doldrums with only 55,000 page views in the last 30 days, we’re excited about the overall trend of growth and participation.

As the number of people participating in our civic journalism project grows, we get closer to realizing our aspiration that the Indy be a vehicle for increasing civic awareness and for promoting broader civic participation in our community. This becomes more important as democracy and a free press are under increasing threat.  

Here in Amherst, there is news that just wouldn’t see the light of day if the Indy were not there to cover it.  And we can cover even more as more people help with the reporting.  Want to give it a try? Drop us a note at amherstindy@gmail.com and we’ll talk about getting you started.

Thanks to all who have helped to produce the Indy each week and to you dear reader for reading.

Wall Street Journal Predicts Construction Costs Will Escalate Under Trump
Thanks to reader Amy Wehle for sharing the article below from the Wall Street Journal, “Construction Industry Braces for One-Two Punch: Tariffs and Deportations“.

The article suggests that the promised deportation of migrants combined with the promised tariffs on imported goods is likely to send construction costs soaring upward. In several states, undocumented immigrants make up half of the construction workforce. About 25% of America’s iron and steel is imported.

“We will absolutely have a labor shortage,” said George Fuller, a longtime Texas developer who is also mayor of McKinney, Texas. “Whether you want to acknowledge it or not, these industries depend on immigrant labor.” And he added, “The short-term impact, I don’t want to say devastating, but it would be a significant impact.”

Town Needs a New and Comprehensive Analysis of Library Project’s Fiscal Viability
I believe it is irresponsible to not consider what the impacts of Trump’s promised interventions will be on the proposed Jones Library Demolition and Expansion project where there has not been a comprehensive analysis of fiscal viability in over a year despite changing conditions and terms. It appears that the Town Council is not inclined to demand an exploration of the growing risks to the town that these changing conditions might pose. At the Town Council meeting of November 27, in response to Councilor Pam Rooney’s (District 4) request for a comprehensive fiscal analysis of the library project, Council President Lynn Griesemer (District 2) declared the issue of the library settled and not in need of further discussion, adding (quite inaccurately according to my reading of the numbers) that the town is only responsible for $15.8 million and that the library trustees must cover any additional costs. 

It would be helpful if we could establish that the trustees can in fact meet their obligations as they remain in arrears to the town according to the payment schedule that they themselves established. Doubts have been raised, including by their own former treasurer, that they can meet those needs. There are also new expenses, like those for the Section 106 review and required, and yet-to-be-undertaken environmental impact analysis. It would be good to sort out how much all that new stuff costs and who will be paying for it as well as for other expenses that don’t clearly appear in the budget.

Library Director Sharon Sharry has proposed to come back to the town in future years to request what appears to be millions of dollars more from the capital budget (which will be slashed for years to come according to models proposed by the town Finance Director) to pay for items that have been cut from the latest plans (like furniture and landscaping). A comprehensive fiscal analysis that includes the looming risks posed to construction and to fundraising by the fallout from new Trump policies and a critical review of the capital campaign would go a long way toward assuaging the growing anxiety surrounding the project and ease concerns among Amherst residents that those in charge of managing the project’s finances have something to hide.

Thanks for reading the Indy y’all,

Art

Art Keene
Managing Editor
The Amherst Indy