Amherst Forward Girds for Library Project Funding Battle

The Jones Library Capital Campaign’s PAC
The fate of the controversial Jones Library Renovation-expansion project will be in the hands of 13 Amherst Town Councilors next Monday night as they consider a motion to rescind prior appropriations for the project totaling $46.1 million.

The project developed in 2014 began when President of the Jones Library Board of Trustees Austin Sarat, Capital Campaign Co-chair Kent Faerber and Library Director Sharon Sharry convened a Feasibility Committee to apply for a construction grant to the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.

Sharry had worked on four previous MBLC grants while employed at other Massachusetts libraries and her application landed a $13.8 million grant.  The problem was that the town would need to authorize borrowing for the full cost of the project, then estimated to be $36.3 million, and the Town Council would need to be persuaded to contribute $15.6 million from taxpayer funds plus another $1 million from CPA funds.  This was a tall ask, as no prior library improvement project had ever demanded more than $1 million from the town.  In fact, the Jones Library received no money at all from the town until 1967 when Town Meeting approved a contribution of $11,500.

See related: Jones Library’s Heavy Reliance On Town Funds Is Break From Tradition

The project planners came up with a strategy – establish a Political Action Committee that would advocate for funding and support the campaigns of Town Councilors who pledged to support the Library project.

A statement of organization for a PAC named Amherst Forward was submitted in September 2018 by Chairperson Virginia Hamilton and Treasurer Maryann Grim. Katherine Appy was listed as Co-chairperson.

Hamilton would later become the paid manager of the library’s Capital Campaign while Appy has remained as Chair.  MaryAnn Grim served as treasurer for an earlier PAC called Amherst for All which successfully lobbied for a new Town Council-Town Manager home rule charter to replace Town Meeting and the Select Board. Grim has also been campaign treasurer for State Representative Mindy Domb who has been a vocal supporter of the project.

The original Amherst Forward leadership team included several names that have emerged as active proponents of the stormy Jones Library initiative.  Matt Blumenfeld, Claudia Canale-Parola, and Kent Faerber are professional fundraisers who have held lead roles with the Capital Campaign.

See related: Library Project Fundraisers To Pay Themselves $1 Million Through 2027

Sarah Marshall chaired the Community Preservation Act Committee that in 2020 awarded $1 million in CPA funds to the library project.  Three members of the committee wrote a minority report challenging the legality of the award.

Heather Sheldon would be hired by Kuhn Riddle Architects, the firm commissioned by the library to estimate the cost of work described as necessary repairs.  This document, never corroborated by an independent analysis, continues to be touted by pro-project-funding town councilors and the Town Manager as demonstration that the cost to make urgent library repairs would exceed the town’s share of the cost of the full renovation-expansion.

Amherst Forward leader Farah Ameen presently serves as a Jones Library Trustee.

Amherst Forward Shapes Amherst Town Council
In March 2018 a town-wide referendum voted to eliminate Amherst’s 254-member town meeting and replace it with a 13-member town council, to be elected that fall. Amherst Forward got to work. They surveyed all candidates asking their position on the Jones Library project.  Only those pledging to support the project were given a valuable Amherst Forward endorsement and campaign assistance.  An endorsement sent to the PAC’s mailing lists and social media networks gave favored candidates a leg up on those who may have concluded that the library expansion was unaffordable and not a town priority.

Seven candidates endorsed by Amherst Forward were elected to the inaugural 2018 council.  All voted to commit an unprecedented $15.8 million of Amherst taxpayer funds to the Jones Library project.

Four of these endorsed candidates remain on the Council today.  They are former Vice President Mandi Jo Hanneke, former Finance Committee Chair Andrew Steinberg, current Vice President George Ryan, and three-term Council President Lynn Griesemer.  While serving on the council, Ryan has also been one of ten volunteer members of the Jones Library Capital Campaign, a conflict of interest he has not acknowledged in public.

Amherst Forward Rallies Its Troops
On Friday, April 9 Amherst Forward Chair Katherine Appy sent an appeal to the PAC’s email list urging comments to the Town Council asking for continued funding for the financially strapped library project.

Embedded in the email is a letter from Capital Campaign Manager Ginny Hamilton asking project supporters, “especially people like you who have donated and pledged, – to show up and speak in favor of continuing.”

Hamilton and the Capital Campaign have proven particularly adept at proliferating a pro-project message that downplays serious problems, costs and risks.

Hamilton included a link to the Capital Campaign funding report for April 1.  Comparing the Community Campaign total to that of the previous month shows that $1605 in pledges were received in March against a balance still to secure of $6,972,512.

The special town council meeting to consider rescinding the borrowing authorization for library project funds will be held on Monday, April 14 at 6:30pm in the Town Room of Town Hall.  The public may attend in person or remotely at https://amherstma.zoom.us/j/86958537235.