An Open Letter to U.S. Representative Jim McGovern Regarding the Jones Library Project

December 13, 2024
U.S. Representative Jim McGovern
94 Pleasant St.
Northampton, MA 01060

Dear Congressman McGovern:

I have read your letter to the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners expressing your support for granting Amherst an extension of the construction start date for the Jones Library renovation-expansion, and I would like to point out what I believe are some misconceptions.

You are correct in your observation that the Jones Library’s historically significant architecture is essential to the Central Amherst National Historic District and Downtown Amherst Cultural District, contributing to tourism in Western Massachusetts.

However, I feel that you have been misled by project proponents’ claims that

“Careful attention to preserve the historic components of the original 1928 building is one of the key reasons for the high cost of the project, as the architects and building committee seek to maintain every element possible while meeting accessibility requirements and furthering the purpose of the library.”

Records show that steps taken by the design team to avoid, minimize or mitigate adverse effects to the historic landmark have been seriously lacking and are only now being reviewed, long after major design decisions were made. Affording the State Historic Preservation Officer the opportunity to comment on impacts of a project early in the planning stage is fundamental to state and federal laws protecting historic places.

The plan to reconfigure and expand the historic building was set in motion in 2012 after future President of the Library Board of Trustees, Austin Sarat, declared that

“Anybody who’s been in the Jones knows that it’s a wonderful historic and beloved building but it wasn’t set up to be a library.”

This statement contradicts the vision of benefactor Samuel Minot Jones, architect Allen Cox, and original Director and Librarian Emeritus Charles R. Greene, and is belied by a subsequent admission by Sarat to the Library Feasibility Committee in 2014,

“We have a problem because many people say, ‘What’s wrong with the Library?'”

Consultant Anna Popp of the Massachusetts Library System advised in a 2012 report that the Library could achieve its space and programming needs within the existing building’s footprint by judicious reduction of the print collection (now completed), repurposing existing rooms, and creatively seeking an off-site storage option for part of the special collection.

The building at the time was well-maintained and the Town of Amherst’s FY2013 5-year Capital Program included funding for roof and chimney repairs, fire system upgrade, HVAC improvements, new carpet, exterior lighting, upgraded insulation, exterior renovations and redesign of the interlibrary loan delivery room for a total cost of $735,000 – a tiny fraction of the cost to taxpayers of the now $46.1 million renovation-expansion project.  The oversized design had been committed to by the Library Feasibility Committee in a state construction grant application without the benefit of a public forum or other meaningful democratic vetting of the proposal by the citizens paying for it. 

To date, fundraisers who helped set the scope of the project have been compensated more than $420,000 according to Jones Library Capital Campaign reports, while disbursing to the town only $1,650.000.

The Library’s application for a state construction grant failed to acknowledge the Jones Library’s status as a contributing structure to the Amherst Central Business District that is listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places.

The Massachusetts Historical Commission (MHC) informed Amherst Town Manager Paul Bockelman in December 2016 of the detailed documentation required for the MHC to make a determination of adverse effects.  An incomplete Project Notification Form was sent to the MHC in October 2023, and it was not until February 2024 that a revised Project Notification Form was submitted.  This was after construction documents had been completed and the town had invited general contractor bids in January 2024.  If an acceptable bid had been received and a contract signed before completing a Section 106 Review, the Town would have violated the terms of its NEH and HUD grants by committing a “choice-limiting action” and risked forfeiting the funding, according to federal preservation officers. 

Had the town submitted to a Section 106 review before design decisions such as building a large and visually obtrusive addition, demolishing an accessible wing that had been built with state support only 30 years earlier, and tearing down original walls paneled with irreplaceable Philippine mahogany millwork, serious adverse effects to the historic library could have been circumvented or minimized.

In December 2023 the MHC rejected the Town’s application for Massachusetts Rehabilitation Tax Credits, citing violation of five of the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Rehabilitation of Historic Properties.

This denial of tax credits, which represented a $1.8 million loss of anticipated revenue, was not disclosed to the Town Council or the public until after the council had authorized an additional $10 million in borrowing to cover escalating costs.

Alterations inconsistent with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards signify adverse effects according to the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation which developed Section 106 regulations.

The MHC’s concerns over adverse effects were not disclosed to the Town Council when in December 2023 it authorized an additional $10 million in borrowing to cover escalating costs.

In addition, a Historic Preservation Restriction Agreement between the Jones Library and Town of Amherst requires that building modifications comply with the Secretary of Interior’s Standards.  The Amherst Historical Commission (AHC) conducted both a demolition delay review and a Preservation Restriction Agreement review without having been apprised of the MHC findings of standards violations.

When a second review of the Preservation Restriction Agreement was made necessary by significant “value engineering” design changes, the AHC was instructed by the town staff liaison that it should not reconsider its earlier findings though it now had the expert opinion of the MHC that the project violated the Secretary’s Standards in multiple ways.

Further demonstration that the project team did not “seek to maintain every element possible” lies in the fact that both Board of Trustees President Austin Sarat and Town Manager Paul Bockelman voted as members of the Jones Library Building Committee to accept value engineering changes that would discard all historic millwork and replace slate shingles with asphalt.  These extreme measures were denied by the AHC.

Nonetheless, excessive changes were made to the design to bring the project budget within the $46.1 million appropriation.  Two rounds of value engineering resulted in roughly $5 million worth of feature reductions to the design that had been the basis for the federal earmark request.

Value engineering also eliminated important sustainability features which were the stated purpose of the $1.1 million Community Project Funding award.  Geothermal wells were eliminated early in the project and photovoltaic panels followed.  A roof monitor that would have admitted natural light to the renovated building was cut.  Perhaps most importantly, cross-laminated timber (CLT) construction that would have provided a low embodied-carbon structure was abandoned and replaced by steel.  One stated reason was that Build America, Buy America (BABA) requirements added to the CLT cost.

And as mentioned, a functional, accessible and widely used 15,000 sq. ft. addition built in 1993 is scheduled to be demolished and hauled to a landfill.

The Town of Amherst has yet to announce plans for conducting environmental reviews required by the state and federal governments.

You deserve Amherst’s thanks for your help in securing the $2.1 million in federal NEH and HUD funding.  These alone could have been implemented without sacrificing historic preservation or sustainability features.  But the library fundraisers chose to couple these awards with the much more costly, historically and environmentally harmful and arguably excessive project features demanded by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners’ $15.6 million grant.

In this letter I have focused on the negative historic preservation and environmental impacts of the Jones Library renovation-expansion.  You should be aware that there are equally distressing effects on competing town budget priorities such as public education, public works and public safety.  In addition, Amherst’s commitment of at least $25 million in debt service places undue upward pressure on the local property tax rate which is already one of the highest in Massachusetts and is borne by a statistically low-income community.

I bring these issues to your attention out of respect for your pursuit of good government and your alignment with progressive causes.  I hope that your stance on the Jones Library renovation-expansion will be fully informed by the record and the opinions of the entire Amherst populace.

Jeff Lee

Jeff Lee is a career computer programmer and regular observer of local government. He has lived in Amherst since 1994 and in the Pioneer Valley since 1973 when he began grad work in mathematics at UMass. He formerly served on the Amherst Redevelopment Authority and as a member of Town Meeting. He is chair of the Amherst Historic Preservation Coalition. He is a frequent contributor to the Amherst Indy.