Opinion: The Proposed Jones Expansion – We Don’t Need It And We Can’t Afford It

A version of this column appeared previously in the Amherst Bulletin

Lawn signs are up, web sites have been launched and the local press is awash with persuasive ink as the campaigns for and against the Jones Library expansion vie for your vote on November 2.

In the face of a deluge of opinion pieces as well as professional promotion, many loyal friends and supporters of our libraries remain unconvinced about the necessity and affordability of the proposed renovation and are still inclined to VOTE NO. Library supporters’ varied objections to the proposed demolition and expansion can be succinctly summarized:

1.We don’t need it.

2. We can’t afford it.

We Don’t Need It: 
Amherst is a very fortunate community. It enjoys the luxury of three fine, functioning public libraries, each serving scores of loyal users, each indubitably in need of  improvements: physical, programmatic and organizational.  But at this moment of existential uncertainties (climate collapse, record low birth rates, supply chain failures, pandemic unknowns) it cannot reasonably be claimed that  the Jones, Munson or the North Amherst Library is in critical need of complex large-scale expansion

The Jones Library as it now stands is the largest town library in Western Massachusetts. When the planning for potential renovation began, the library’s 48,000 square feet should have been professionally assessed for more efficient and responsive use. The failure to undertake this preliminary, fundamental investigation has been a conspicuous and costly abdication of due diligence.

In this regard it is interesting to note the striking improvements recently achieved in the dear, diminutive North Amherst Library where there is barely room to swing a cat. In that tiny space, culling the collection and shifting the minimal furnishings have created a new, more spacious sense of comfort and welcome.

On the other hand, the current vision for improvements at the Jones Library calls for a 25% increase in size to 66,000 square feet, surpassing the Pittsfield City Library and nearly equal to the Springfield City Library in size. Amherst residents should ask hard questions about why Amherst, a town of 38,000 residents, needs as much main library space as Springfield, a city of 154,000.

We Can’t Afford It
Notwithstanding a  $13,000,000 grant from the Massachusetts Board Of Library Commissioners, if this proposed expansion is not defeated on November 2,  Amherst taxpayers will be left to bear a $22,000,000 debt burden.

Look at your real estate tax bill. Amherst has the ninth highest property tax rate of 342 towns in Massachusetts. Given that Amherst has few other revenue streams, this additional  burden will inevitably fall on property owners. 

Now look at your neighbor looking at her tax bill, or his as the case may be. The cost of the proposed library expansion together with the other urgent, multimillion dollar capital projects will increasingly burden all property owners of all income levels, and serve as a barrier to young families settling in Amherst.

Friends and supporters of our libraries who know that simpler and more affordable improvements to the Jones can be conceived and carried forward, will VOTE NO on November 2, confident that Amherst can start over with planning that without burdening many will better serve all residents.

Betsy Mathews is a resident of Cushman and taught Latin in the Amherst schools for thirty eight years.