okay please go ahead thank you um good evening it's April 14th 2025 and this is a special meeting of the town council and the Jones Library trustees chapter 2 of the Acts of 2025 extended
through June 30th 2027 the ability of public bodies to meet in a fully remote or hybrid manner this law allows us to continue holding meetings remotely without a quorum of the council physically present at a meeting location
this meeting is accessible in real time by Zoom by phone and as a live broadcast on Ammerst Media Channel 9 and live stream there are 12 counselors present this evening at this time and 11 in the
room there are six I'm sorry five Jones Library trustees present this evening and all five are in the room please be advised that this meeting is being held in person for town counselors Jones Library trustees and staff only
all other attendees have been asked to join us virtually because of the these special circumstances in the event of technology issues with remote connection the meeting will be continued as soon as connectivity is
reestablished given that we have a quorum of the council present I'm calling on the April 14th special town council meeting to order at 6:32 after I get done writeing this roll
call I will ask the chair of the Jones Library Trustees Austin Sret to do the same for the library trustees i'll call upon each counselor by the name they have indicated they would like to be addressed at that time please unmute your mic and say present this will
indicate that we can hear you and you can hear us please remember to mute your mic after saying present pat D'Angelus present anna Devlin Gothier present thank you Anna uh councelor Ete present lyn Griezmer is present
councelor Hanaki present bob Hagner present councelor Lord is not here she will hope to join us later pam Rooney here councelor Ryan present kathy Shane here andy Steinberg
present jennifer Tob here alicia Walker here thank you austin uh would you please call the Jones trustees together uh to order and make sure that they can hear you and we can hear them thank you
Lynn so the meeting of the Jones Library Board of Trustees is hereby called to order uh Lee Edwards Tammy El present here
and pardon me eugene Gfredo is online can you just hear confirm that we can hear and hear him here thank you thank you there's no chat room for this meeting if counselors have technical issues please let Athena and
me know and to make a comment or ask a question please click the raised hand button there is one specific comment period this evening relevant to the subject of the meeting meaning the Jones Library
project i'd like to thank people for all of the many comments that you've sent us over the past week encourage and we encourage people to continue to do so either sending them to town
counselormma.gov or through the general public comment function the only announcement is that we will have a regular town council meeting on April 28th at 6:30 has Lauren joined us thank you um so we are going to move
on to the action item of our agenda and we're going to start with the opportunity to ask any legal questions lauren Goldberg from KP Law is able to join us but
because of a previous engagement we're having this at the beginning of the meeting if you have legal questions at this time please raise your hand if you are from the council or from the trustees lyn point of order yes can you confirm
that the agenda is uh councelor questions then public comment then council discussion yes I can thank you and then um Okay yes eugene Gfredo hi uh just
uh I uh excuse me i am the um uh spouse of a paid member of the friend of the Jones so an advice of legal counsel with the Massachusetts Board of Ethics i'm going to recuse myself so I'm going to
actually log off of the meeting um so okay thank you for telling us that have a good evening Anna Develin Gothier um okay so my question where is Lauren there's so many people here hi Lauren um my question am I understanding this time
is for me to ask Lauren questions about what I believe is legal generally or am I is this something more specific that I'm not understanding it's just broad the order is throwing me off i'm so used to starting with public comment that I'm like I don't Okay so anyway hi Lauren my
question is with theou that we have signed what I believe to be true is that that is a binding document that says the town is binding document that in layman's terms says the town is on the hook for the 13.8 eight and that the
Jones library trustees are obligated to cover the remainder of that uh of those dollars from their endowment or through the other sources of funding that they receive is that true and is there a scenario in which thatou would be could
be broken and the town would have to I understand that when we borrowed the money we borrowed the full amount but is there a scenario in which the town could be suddenly hit with a bill for that full amount and theou could be broken legally
lauren yes Madam President um through you uh so theou is a binding agreement between the the Jones library trustees and the town and under the agreement
they have pledged to pay X dollars um if were not if they were somehow not to do that the town is on the hook for uh all of the borrowed money and if it signs the contract uh with the um MBLC it will
be and I'm sorry with the uh contractor it will be on the hook for the full project amount that doesn't mean just to clarify that the town couldn't seek to force the board of library trustees to perform it's a contract we could we
could pursue that um but ultimately the town is required to pay if it's if it obligates itself in that regard right in my opinion are there other questions of a legal nature at this
time okay we're going to go on to a Yes i'm sorry Kathy i just saw your hand go up that my raise hand button didn't work fast enough um Lauren if if the project was under contract and it went over 46
million which was the authorization what happens who who's on the hook for that money h how does that get addressed um madam madam president for you um so the town can only spend the money
that it has appropriated for that purpose and so um when you say if it goes over uh there would either need to be um an adjustment made a change order to reduce the size of the project incrementally to address that but my
understanding is that there's approximately $3 million in contingency built into the budget for the project and so um you know that's what the contingency is for is to address unexpected small overages
and I guess my question is suppose we go beyond the contingency you know the if I I just I don't know the answer so that's why I'm asking you know it's it's around an 8% or 8 and a half% contingency right now on a uh renovation
plus expansion is what happens if that happens um madam president through you if in fact uh the project is more expensive then and the town wants to pursue the full scope of the project it would need
to return for further appropriation but the town can only spend the money that it has appropriated are there other legal questions Lauren to the extent that you can stay through the presentation to see if there are any clarifying with that that's
great but we also understand you have other obligations this evening so uh with that I'm going to go to the town manager who has a PowerPoint presentation that also is complemented by this uh lengthy response to all of
the questions thank you Lynn so we have as Lynn mentioned we provided detailed responses to the questions that you the town council have asked of us um this document plus the supporting documents that are in the packet um are there for you to review and from ever any member
of the public to look at as you can tell from the answers this project is complicated as any multi-million dollar construction project is i I provide in this PowerPoint I provide a quick summary of the main points from our detailed uh explanation and our staff is here to provide additional
answers to any follow-up questions that you may have i want to thank library director Sharon Sherry capital project coordinator Bob Parent finance director Melissa Zawitzky and clerk of the council Athenino Keefe who all contributed mightily to pulling this information information together over the weekend uh I was in touch with
everyone over the weekend at different times so I really thank them for dedicating time this weekend to do that so next slide and just so you know this about I think it's about five or six slides it's not a lot um so the first group of questions um were around
uh is this project within the appropriation approved by the town council um and people are saying there's a lot going on in the world with tariffs and other uncertainties and sort of to to councelor Shane's question like how do we know that we will stay within
budget so um the first question was is the bid that the general contractor gave to the town still valid so he went to the general contractor he checked with his subcontractors and all confirm their bid prices except for two the plumbing and the metal windows in that situation
the town goes to the second lowest bidder to offer the contract with these two exceptions the general contractor said as of Friday that they are holding their bid price and are ready to move forward we have other costs that we will know short about shortly including what it
will cost to lease temporary space and what it will cost to move material into the temporary space we'll look at these we'll lock these contracts in once we have a signed contract with the general contractor and these have um allowances in our overall um budget to allow for
these two uh spend that those spends do not come out of the contingency and there's one project one part of the project that project that will be rebid which uh is the roof which will happen later in the spring so in short the project is within the budget maintains a
contingency of 8.5% and I c if there if we go above the we cannot go above the $46.1 million that the town has that the town council has appropriated i can't sign a contract that allows that i can't sign a change order that allows that the
accountant will not spend a send a check if if we exceed that 46.1 million the only way to go above the 46.1 million is if the town council appropriates additional funds for this project next slide
so a second set of questions was all about the federal grants and we all know what's going on in the world and um we worry about our federal grants and we worry about our federal grants and our fundraisers worry about the federal grants um and these are two uh
million-dollar grants one from HUD and one from NEH and again we have been staying in close contact with the staff of these two agencies and we have had conversations with both of them as late late as last week and both are still active and the town has received no correspondence to the
contrary however until we get signed agreements I don't like to really count grants so you know let's until we don't count our chickens till they're hatched so we hope that these two grants will be hatched um but I also want to note that this project is not contingent on these
two grants they're sizable and important for sure and people worked hard to get them especially Congress and McGovern but I do and we hope that they will come through and and so far we've been receiving really positive information but there could be situations in which we lose one or the other or both and
that that again is on the trustees side of the ledger next slide so the next questions were about the Mass Board of Library Commissioners which we call MBL MBLC grant and that they have made significant grants to the
town um they initially started with a $13.8 million grant and then supplemented it with a $1.7 million grant facilitated by our state senator and our state representative which we really appreciate so the MBLC uh continues to support the project they
are well aware of where we are in this in this process uh they have already delivered a check as showed on the slide for $2.774 million um and they are prepared to make two additional payments before the end of the fiscal year of
about $5.5 million they are expend they have money allocated for this project by fiscal year so they've given us uh money so that's how this is coming out yearbyear for the two payments in June by June 30th will account for the FY25
payments and we will use these funds that they are giving us uh in the early stages of the project next slide so this chart shows the overall status of funding for the project so I just want to summarize it for people who might not look at this on a daily basis
like many of us do so the first four lines are secured and committed including the town's $15.8 million share so the the first line is the town's local share which is our taxpayers the next is a CPA money which is again taxpayers but it's a million dollars that the CPA committee and the council
have have approved for this project the mass board of library commissioners which I just talked about is $13.8 million and then the second um grant from the MBLC uh was the pandemic escalation increase was $1.694 million
the next four lines include include the grants that I talked about earlier that have been awarded and some smaller grants from the from the state that we have that the um um friends of the Jones have secured and then there the remainder shows the other sources the
friends of the Jones library have secured $10 million in pledges and gifts as of April 1 2025 of this 2.5 million roughly has been received as gifts and there's still $7 million to raise by the trustees and the friends or the trustees
can comment on the status of their fundraising effort if they so choose next slide so one of the questions that was raised by the council was already came up which is how do we know the trustees are going to meet their their side of
the bargain they've promised to raise a lot of money $13.8 million um they say they've re they've already committed received commitments of 6.5 and how do we know what are the asurances and the town attorney has responded to that we have a written agreement with the board
of library trustees that assures us that they will meet their side of the bargain and they have pledged their endowment to ensure that and there is legal language in the memorandum of agreement that allow that gives the uh town access to
that um endowment if it need if we need to go through a legal process i don't think we will need to uh because I think as fellow elected officials for the council with the trustees they're committed to this project so when the when the question is how do you know
they have um $9 million in the bank that is their endowment that they have pledged to support the project um the and and uh there's a very detailed um uh document that the trustees prepared that is in the packet
as as well it's called the asurances which really gives tremendous detail about their the their their um the endowment how it's been spent over the years how they anticipate it will be spent over the next 10 or 20 years and all the steps that they are taking to ensure um the funds are there for this
project and we hear a lot of questions well what about my taxes will they go up your people's taxes do not go up because of this project the the cost of this project have has always been incorporated into the town's overall budget the only way taxes would go up is
if the town council decided to put a debt exclusion override on the ballot and the voters agreed to um tax themselves more i have not heard counselors really discuss this as an option so I don't think that's a that's really being discussed at this point in
time so what we have looked at is including this these funds the for this project into the capital plan for the town over the next 20 years so I other counselors are saying well what if we wanted to resend or
reduce the borrowing well what would that do so plain and simple it would stop the project it would bring a halt to the project because the funds would not be authorized for us to to sign additional contracts secondly we would need to repay the MBLC
because remember they gave us the $2.774 billion in advance which we've been use utilizing um because so we have to return those funds plus any interest that it it would have earned during the time that we've had that those funds and then we would pivot and move
towards uh we work with the trustees and um seek to work with them to move on a repair only option um and talking to our capital projects coordinator he estimates that a planning for a repair only option would take anywhere from 6 to 18 months and could
cost anywhere from $500,000 to a million dollars that would be to get a plan together so we know what what we're doing when we're doing it how we're going to fund it then the project would necessarily be delayed for a substantial period of time staff estimate that um
the repair only option would cost more than the town's current um commitment to the Jones Library project and these funds are based on the estimates from eight years ago that are just inflated so those numbers would have to be refined pretty
substantially slide so um you know I have looked at this project many ways um and I just do note that the delays in the project have been significant and it had a had significantly negative impact on moving
this project forward i was asked um how do you decide if this project should go forward or not so first I look to see if this is a priority for the town elected officials the town council and the library trustees the answer is unambiguously yes in fact when I
interviewed for this job nine years ago one of the questions I was asked by the search committee was whether I supported libraries or not it it was seen as one of the four major capital projects that we needed to make progress on and I think it's still and it is still one of those four project it has been a
priority for the town for well before I got here for over a decade second is the project for the is the budget for the project within the appropriation voted by the town council and again the answer is yes the total project cost is projected to be within the $46.1 million
appropriation approved by the town council we can't spend more than that without additional funds pro provided by the town council so everything that is is part of this project that the town is spending has to be incorporated into
this into the 46.1 million and just you know just to be clear we cannot spend a penny more about with what the town council has appropriated third the question my criteria for decision-m on this is is
the project fiscally sound so when I look at this investment the town will be making a significant investment in one of its largest buildings in the center of our downtown and there's a lot of reasons and everybody here heard the reasons why this project is important or
um why it shouldn't be done but looking at it the tax town's taxpayers will be paying about onethird of the cost in essence getting $2 for every dollar the town taxpayers spend in my mind that is fiscally prudent leveraging tens of million
dollars of non-t taxpayer funds for this public building is fiscally prudent are there risks of course there are there always are there's risks in every project there are risks we you know at at the at the school building when we move forward on that um further delays
we know will most likely escalate the cost but this project I have to say has been one of the most scrutinized building projects in the town's history we know a lot about this building but we don't know everything so there could be surprises that we uncover in closing I just feel like from
my perspective it's time to move forward if we don't the town will forfeit over $30 million in grants and non-town funding it will delay much needed improvements to a major one of the biggest buildings that the town owns and it will move into a repair only approach
with unknown costs and one last thing as you consider this I ask you to take into account the many intangibles that are on the table and you have many of you have articulated what these are these are speculative but they are things that you might take into
consideration and as you consider what you want what action you want to take tonight um rejecting these grants will have ramifications that we don't even know our our town's reputation is in is is well known and uh this puts much of
our good reputation at risk our state and federal elected leaders use their political capital to secure millions of dollars of funding both at the state and at the federal level and there there's a matter of trust with our our elected leaders at that level town staff and I our town
staff have put eons lots of time and effort into this thousands of hours to a project uh that will be deemed to have been not needed and unimportant while all these things can be managed the negative consequences are
real and so I'm here um so in some this project is within budget and fiscally prud prudent and I we welcome any questions that you may have thank you Paul now is the time for counselors and trustees to ask
clarifying questions at this time after that we will move to public comment then we will have a discussion and move to motions are there questions i'm running thank you this is actually a question for the trustees because
they're here tonight um we've talked about the the risk of of raising money but but the the nuts and bolts of this are that it costs money to raise money
and in June the library took on over $500,000 to um pay for pay for the cost cutting design elements um there are fundraisers who get paid for raising money and then there are loans uh for
any any to any bank that uh you end up borrowing money from has the library added all these numbers up and um understood what the total is that needs to be raised and has that been made clear to people we talk
about um $14 million but but then there's the 500 then there's the the cost to hire consultants what is your total amount that you need to raise i'm going to direct the question to the
chair of trustees and he may decide he or someone else can answer well I want to start by being clear about one thing the cost for the fundraising effort the Jones library in comparison with the
cost of fundraising for any other comparable capital campaign is minimal uh that's not an opinion that is a fact uh we've looked at our
budget the library director has looked carefully at our budget budget committee has looked carefully at our budget and we have concluded that we can afford this project we can afford it we we all have to remember that any cost that's going
to come out of the endowment is not going to come out tomorrow it's going to come out over time and we are confident that we can manage those costs if we have to draw down from the endowment something else to
note the board of trustees of the library has been extremely cautious for a very long period of time with its draw rate before I joined the board the draw rate was substantially higher than it is
now so by taking a reduced draw rate we've allowed the endowment to grow again if you look at endowment draw rates at other places at other institutions institutions of higher
education in the town of Ammerst their draw rates typically vary they go from about 4% to 6 12% so we're at a very low rate right
now and because of that we've enabled the endowment to grow in such a way that we can finance this project now if we have to turn over all $9 million that's a different story but no one anticipates
that no one thinks that will happen as to what banks will charge what their interest rates are we can't say that we don't know because at what point are we going to be borrowing and what will the situation be so I think those
are very good questions but I think everybody on this side is confident that under any scenario that we can imagine that we can afford to do what we
pledge to do is there any followup Pam yes thank you um so I I understand and and recognize that everyone in the trustees works very hard for this project what goes through my head is that it's a little bit like a
small business um with a good endowment and that as we as we look to make up almost as much from the trustees as the town itself is committing this is a large number and as as someone who has
put their name on the line for um paying for the project I want to make sure that I feel comfortable in this total cost is has in fact been um projected and anticipated and is
ready to be covered because we have made this commitment to the to the taxpayers of Ammerst so Council Rooney I really appreciate what you you what you said and I really appreciate your concern and I just want to quarrel with
one little way in which you described it uh we are not committed to the project we are committed to the well-being of the library and to the town of Amoris that's what our commitment is
we believe I believe that the right way to discharge that commitment is to move forward with the renovation and expansion why do I believe it i believe it because we've been studying this for more than a decade
i believe it because in addition to the financial picture I think about the people i think about the staff in the library i care about economic justice those people are not
wealthy they're working in dreadful conditions unsafe conditions i care about people who don't have homes who come to our library and it is sustenance for them i care about immigrants in this
community who come to the library to be protected and taught and to become citizens the last thing I would say is the following now is the time more than ever to stand
up for libraries now is the time to say the library in this town needs to be adequate to the needs of its residents the building we have is
not pam were there any other follow-ups okay Kathy i'd to make a somewhat more specific question and I'd like to start by saying we love the library and we're major
users of it if we had before us a proposal to repair and renovate we would have my family would have given generously to that and if you walk around Jones you could see it needs it it sorely needed it and I think you have plenty of space so we're not I know
we're not starting at that point i probably wouldn't would have start started with the grant application in the first place i inherited it as a counselor so I just want to talk about the financing right now not debate the merits of a public library which I think
all of us would agree are huge for our society for our community how much if we sign the contract how much will you be able to transfer within a week or a month of the current donations that you
have or I understand that you've committed the Woodbury fund how much would be transferred to the town at the point we're taking on the debt it's question number one in dollars question number two is the final payments from
you all are due within a couple years under theou if you are still in the $7 million and let's just hope you get the two big federal grants so it's only seven rather than nine how much of the endowment would you be able to shift over to the
town without hurting operating costs and do you have any asurances have you been able to get any assurances from a bank or a lender that you could mortgage the library to raise the rest because I don't think with a $9 million
endowment you can take seven and still support operating so I wouldn't want to do that as a fiduciary so it's what share of the endowment could move over cuz I'm looking at how long the town might have to wait or if it has to wait at all what your plan is to
transfer the money to to honor the timing in dollars again I'm going to go to Austin i'm going to ask Kent and Guinea to talk to the first question and then I'm going to ask Nat to talk to the second question
okay the question assumes well let's put it this way at the moment the balance to be raised is $7 million if you we cover the expenses that we expect to very possibly incur that might rise as high as $8
million the endowment is sufficient to cover that now we wouldn't want to do that but but covering it now means that we would raise nothing between now and the time when the payments are due that is we would raise nothing over the next three years
the obligation with the town the memorandum of agreement is has been from the beginning because that's the way fundraising had to be that our our commitment is to come up with the final payments to the contractors when the when the uh job is done and that gives
us two or three years over the last two or three years we've raised almost most of what we've already raised if we raise a similar amount again we'll easily cover it can I just ask the first because I had the two-part the first the 7 million is after what you have as your
commitments from various donations so I'm asking how much of those commitments are are can be verted to c converted to cash and transferred I'll call it day one but you know within the signing because I understand the seven is still aspirational and that you have a couple
years to get the to the seven but I'm talking about what we have seen as a pledged in either in cash or not and my understanding is you were planning on transferring the Woodbury fund once this started so I just would like some sense
of what comes over we have what we get from the library commission what we get from Ammeris College what we hope we get from the federal what what would the town expect to get at the very beginning while we wait for the rest of the rest of it so in your packet there is a chart
um explaining where we are in terms of the gift intentions versus gifts that have already been received when we've looked at the schedule over time it really depends on the donor so for instance the HUD funds would come out once expended the NE funds and our staff
are still working as of last week um would be on a a grant schedule for each of the individual donors some people intend to pay upfront others have spread their pledges out over the course of three years and the same is true with
our local institutional donors so for instance Greenfield Savings Bank has pledged $30,000 over three years they played paid 10 of that last year and they're scheduled to do so um in in the coming two years and that's true for Florence and Greenfield uh cooperative
and and Peoples and the other banks that were very grateful for their support um looking at the aggregate numbers by what we know from donors um we would expect once the contract is signed and there are shovels in the ground that we would
um pledges would be roughly 900,000 coming in in 2025 um 629 in 2026 um 386 in 2027 and 110 um in 2028 um that's
of the current pledge balance by the schedule that we currently have also want to point out that that schedule in some cases is based on pledges that were made three years ago and that people are sitting on because it is our ethical obligation to return funds if this
project doesn't proceed so um that is where we currently stand um based on what we can best um um forecast i will also say for expenses that the expenses we're looking at for fundraising are covered by the friends they don't come
out of the trustees budget or the endowment um we are projecting approximately $125,000 a year and that covers professional staff the consultants the materials the financial and bookkeeping the software and other office expenses
and when you total that that is approximately 8% of the friends and trustees share or 2% of the entire project sure and when you look at the industry for fundraising the the rule of thumb is 10% for capital exp of capital
campaign should be for towards fundraising so we are well below that average yes i would just add remind the counselors and everybody that the the friends have already turned over $1.6 million that's in addition to what we've
just been projecting you have that money already sure uh so I think the next question was about the endowment and use of the Make sure the mic is on yes can you hear me now yes to get this close and I'll continue to hold it down
um so the model that we've um used for the endowment is uh in the materials for tonight and so essentially what we're modeling is that there will be about um 4.3 million uh after all of the fundraising um during the time of this
project that will need to come out of the endowment until further fundraising can be done uh to make up for that so we've already transferred uh $4 and a half u million dollars of the endowment to a money market fund without risk um
so that it's available at any time for this project and not uh subject to market risk as we've seen in the uh first part of this month so that money is available and our um modeling after that is that uh the
committee would continue to raise about $500,000 uh annually and that would go uh back into the endowment and during that time we would continue uh to draw uh from the endowment the model shows um
$250,000 a year coming out of the endowment uh for the library and uh increasing uh at an inflation rate and that would continue on and so there would be a time um in a few years when our draw rate would be above uh 5% but
as time goes on and more fundraising is done and the endowment is replenished uh that would then uh go down uh back to 4% so that has been modeled out clearly it's subject to a lot of assumptions
about um uh about the fundraising um about market returns and so forth but that's the best information we have and at this point I think it's safe to say that these are things that we can work on if if circumstances change if the
fundraising or anything changes uh these are things that we can work on but we do have a plan we have a model uh we do believe that the endowment is sufficient uh for this project without compromising the uh operations of the library
kathy was there anything following up no I I got answers thanks thank you uh Jennifer Tob yes I have a question for the trustees excuse me and one for Paul so I guess to the trustees and it's a response to some of the information that
Jenny just provided so you listed uh roughly if I'm adding it correctly about $1.9 million that you expect to come in you know between 2025 and 2028 you would said 900 and these are
pledges that have been made that once a contract is signed they would start they would convert to cash donations that would be um in hand for the campaign now is that 1.9 million that you expect to
come in between 2025 and 2028 part of the $4.881 million that is listed as secured in the project funding update that we received from the library director last week that I think Paul
just might have shown it that Paul showed put up on the slide so my question is is that 1.9 million part of the 4.8 8 million listed in the fundraising update as
secured okay so then that would basically still mean that there's so the other so what is the other 2.8 roughly insecured that's not part of those pledges so the numbers that I just gave according to my spreadsheet um total up
to 2 million and um 63,000 so little over two um that that is from individual donors and some corporate donors so that does not include the federal funds or the other state funds that are out there um and these some of our donors may pay
sooner um it does not include other additional fundraising but in your breakout we have the corporate donations separate from the community campaign so the community campaign though says 4.8 8 million on that update that's listed secured separate
from the 6.9 yes from other sources right the the best way to look at this is the monthly report that often monthly not every month that we prepare for the trustees oh yes I think you do have a a
I think you do have a copy of it and it shows that the that $5 million in government grants is expected and Jenny's gone That's NEH uh that's uh uh the what what are all those considered
hud that's a different it says additional funding sources capital campaign 4.88 you know okay that doesn't include those government grants right that incl Yes so I was assuming that was all most of it was pledges but you're
saying no no that that's why I'm referring to the report of the trustees of that 4.8 8 2.38 has already been given okay we have that in cash a million6 has been given to the town we have a large account at Vanguard and uh then we've used some for expenses so the
pledge balance remaining is about 2.5 million and I and at some point if you'd like I can tell you that within the last 48 hours I contacted 17 of the of our donors with the largest pledge balances and without except we I was only able to
reach 16 of them one of them I couldn't find um but of those 16 none of them are deterred by the economic circumstances of today they still support the project yes thank you and then Thank you Mike um
that represents about 2.2 million of that 2.5 million total pledge balance wow you know when I saw that I was just from the beginning wondering what that 4.8 was um Paul I did want to ask um so
the the point um the message you know was reiterated by you and uh the town council by Lauren Goldberg that we cannot spend more than appropriated the 46.1 million but if the cost you know um
these are chaotic economic times with tariffs with uh cost of materials and labor um and you don't know what you're going to find once you start the project and we don't have a particularly large contingency as a percentage so what
happens if the cost goes over i mean we're not going to stop the project midstream so who would be responsible for that overage so I I'll look to Bob Parent if he wants to weigh in on this but basically I cannot sign a contract that exceeds the
appropriation we have in order for us to con um give to sign a contract the town accountant has to sign it i have to sign it and there and the town accountant has to say there are funds available so if the funds aren't there they aren't there
i don't sign change orders that would increase the only way a contractor can ask for more money is by change requesting change orders so that's gone through we're doing that with the um school project right now there's weekly meetings if they have a change order they bring it in bob looks at it and if
we have the money to do it we can approve it or not approve it bob is there you want to expand on that certainly um as you mentioned you know key to this is keeping an eye on things as like the school project i would have expected to be meeting weekly on the
Jones Library project and watching expenditures week by week um and you know there could be a point where a tough decision needs to get made somewhere along the way to pull back on something i don't have no I'm not even going to guess what that might be but
unless the town was willing to appropriate any more funds which I think would be unlikely uh there might have to be some challenging challenging decisions made to make certain we don't spend a dime more than has been appropriated um again I'm not going to
speculate what that might be and when it might be but the key to making certain that that happens is just pay attention to it day by day week by week month by month right thank you um council so I've not been
in a project of this size so I need some education with regard to something like this kind of project how do option B's factor in because we have the project
going forward but in a way we also had to think about a repair on the option so my question is how do you balance looking at the project that you want with the possibility that you may pivot
to some other alternative project like an option B so when you say option B you mean the repair only option yes like a repair that decision was made some time ago when we decided to move forward with the grant from the MBLC and the trustees
said and we will raise funds to it and the council approved this project if the council says we don't want this project anymore and you resend the authorization to spend money on it then we would be we would look into option B which is the repair option but right now there's only
one option that we're pursuing because it's the one project is the one option that the council has approved i'm sorry thank you Kathy my question now is of you Paul if
I think I heard accurately so Janine can you should just correct me if I didn't hear right for the next let's just assume we're starting in 2025 soon end of April May and we go out for some
amount of the 46 million it sounds like the 7 million and potentially another 2 million we will be covering as a town for two to three years the way Jenny described the the individual donors that
we get 900,000 then we get another 600 so we're not Even though there's a commitment of four plus we're not getting four at the beginning so I'm just saying let's say it's two is rolling in have we computed what carrying that cost is to us i think we
were talking about short-term bands for that that we go out for the 15.8 with a long-term note but short-term in the I'm just going to do it in the $9 million range with the 7 plus two i know the two is the iffy one like what exactly is
that number maybe every donor will say I want to pay on day one you know who pledged but let's say half of them do so have we have we put that through um some kind of um and I'm asking this Lyn because we did it when we voted in
2023 we had a what might that look like and we had a column called the short-term notes that were bridging the gap before the trustes full share came to us which is why I'm pushing on when the trustees could they transfer more money sooner because the sooner we get
it the less the town is paying so the fundamentals are not that much different than when what the the calculation we did then um and just so you know it's sort of like the the school project money comes in from and the town borrows money to pay the bills
but there's an inflow and an outflow and we borrow just the amount of money that we need sometimes it's shortterm to get to a larger borrowing and and we also that the uh accountant and the finance director sort of measures the market when's a good time to go out to bid uh
all those types of things so you know the you know assuming this project moves forward we will recalculate everything again um but basically the the fundamental numbers are about the same as they were when we l looked at this last there
hasn't been a lot of change i want to actually suggest that there is one correction and that is back when we did that cash flow we did not have the pledge from MBLC to give us two years payment in advance uh we only had one
year coming in and this time at be by the end of June there will be two years payment coming in which gives us a cash advantage and I'm if it hasn't changed very much or if it changes toward the better Lynn um I'm just um looking at
the most recent estimates when I'm sitting on JHCPC of potential debt I've never seen that other number be there there's been a small number you know we had a number and that number has never been there in terms the short-term ban
there is a short-term ban number but it doesn't look like it's as big as what we were told in 2023 so I've just seen the long-term debt number not the other so I'm just asking for our own capital accounts sure because we are up against such a hard place on having enough money
for roads and everything else that I'd like to know that we are have an accounting system that tells us how hard a place we're up against in terms of commitments yeah we can did that for you
can I um just ask are there any other questions i have questions but are there any other questions of legal counsel if not I'd like to suggest that um Lauren could be gone in case we send up a flare
Lauren later on okay enjoy your evening thank you so much take care thank you everyone okay uh my question is for Bob uh Peron um if I may Paul um so I know there's been a lot of
discussion about a repair option versus a repair and renovation option as you looked at the study eight years ago and then the study that was and the if you will almost update but
also study that was done by June Riddle can you clarify was that a repair option only or a repair and renovation option i believe that was strictly a repair option okay and when do you I noticed
that in the question actually let me correct that it was repair and uh uh create an accessible library at that point i believe that was a significant piece of what Riddle had looked at uh given that the library
currently lacks accessibility in many areas okay and then I also noticed that in the response to the questions at the time that that study was done there were two unknowns could you explain what those
are and why they would change the cost certainly um one is codes uh general building codes uh as an example we're we're actually coming to the end of the code cycle right now on the uh 9th
version of the building code as of July 1st of this year uh the 10th version of the building code will be adopted and that by itself will force changes in this project if we don't get a building permit um applied for prior to June 30th so that's that's part of the reason to
keep this thing moving is so we don't have to go backwards and look at redesign uh to upgrade the design to meet a new building code in addition to that and there have been building code updates since 2016 when uh Western builders first looked at the repair
options the other piece of the energy codes and as you know the statewide there was the statewide stretch code uh that was adopted that uh changed things significantly and then the town of Ammerst decided to go with the opt-in energy code which then placed uh further
requirements on project like this and neither one of those are factored into the work that began in 2016 and Riddle uh pulled together and priced in in 2020 20 the other big piece is the detailed
hazardous material testing uh primarily asbestous testing and really determining where in the building there is asbestous and there there is in the roof for instance in the concrete material underneath the slate by doing some exploratory work we discovered that in
fact uh the you know the determination of trying to make the library fireproof meant that asbestous at that point was something that was believed to be a benefit and it was put in pretty much every piece of the library that it could be put into it's in the building walls
it's currently encapsulated by the coatings that are in the building walls but as soon as you open up the building walls you then expose the asbestous and you need to deal with it so that none of that testing detailed testing was available in 2016 and 2020 it is
available now and it both of those items both the code upgrades as well as the hazardous material items are things that'll clearly have a major impact on on the numbers that were pulled together back in 2020 but are those numbers are those issues
included in the bid for the renovation and addition yes they are um again providing we can apply for a building permit before June 30th of this year we will still be uh reviewed under the current building code
the 10th edition of the building code won't kick in until July 1st okay thank you i'm going to go to Pam Rooney thanks appreciate the uh the conversation about plan B and in this case trying to drive a comparison
between uh plan B and and the full renovation um I I would like to make a note that the plan B the the Kun Riddle and the and the cost estimates that were done back in 2016 are for an extensive rehab and
renovation of the library i don't know that anyone is expecting if we go to a plan B that we would address each and every one of those needs and clearly if if we wanted to have everything up to speed
yes we would we would address every one of the CUNE Riddle and Western Builder items but I think what what um I personally would expect is that we would address um the the the primary concerns and the
primary need of the building to keep it um watertight and and uh habitable and that would be a a far smaller percentage of the elements from the CUN Riddle plan we have similar buildings in town such
as the DPW which has leaking roofs and mold um I I want to make sure that we address those as well in our town operating budgets um so when we I don't think if we went to a plan B
we would do all the bells and whistles that Kun Riddle included it would be a very paired down very focused plan B it would not cost the same as what was projected are there other questions for
anybody at this time lynn may I just say make a comment please so bells and whistles are in the eyes of the beholder the riddle is not for a substantial renovation of the library it's for a repair
the only thing that the goon riddle contemplated as you know is that once you're in there repairing you have to make it accessible so the problems of the library that we are trying to address space needs rearranging space so that's safe none of that's contemplated by the
riddle estimate the second thing to say is that some of the needs of the building are emergent so the council resins the borrowing authorization i think the trustees will be in tomorrow with a request to do
something about the atrium that's probably $3.5 million so some of the repair needs of the library we can't wait for the HVAC system as you know is held together by
bubble gum so yes you're right if you do a repair option you don't have to do it all at once alas as you also know the more you defer the repair the more it
needs repair the more expensive the repair becomes so that's why we have looked at all this and concluded that the fiscally prudent thing to do is to repair
renovate and expand the library thank you uh Anna so a couple questions and a couple comments the I had looked a while ago and uh had looked through the CUN Riddle report pretty closely and pulled the
numbers for what some residents had written in suggesting they believed to be the priority uh priority fixes i want to first caveat this by saying I took issue with the entire premise that someone who is not a certified engineer uh or builder and is not having access
to the library in the way that a certified engineer builder person in that industry would that they uh can clearly articulate what those priority needs are however when I just did the math and calculated for um even the low
end of inflation it kicked us above the uh point where the ADA requirement is triggered and I don't believe that meeting ADA requirements is a bell or a whistle uh that feels like something we should be doing so I would like to ask a
couple questions and I understand if you don't have the answers but I want to confirm what that cost threshold is to not trig to trigger ADA or to not trigger ADA um I'd like to hope that phasing would not be intentionally kept below that threshold that feels
ethically not great uh and then that's question one question two is do you have any idea if folks have been talking about the idea of phasing what the added costs are to stop and start the phases like has been suggested uh and then
third my understanding is that some of the the recent discoveries such as the asbestous study have made certain phasing options obsolete and I'd like to seek confirmation on that so three questions first cost of the ADA
threshold second cost to stop and start and that one I I would understand if you don't have uh and three is the phasing even possible in the way that it's been articulated in the past due to the recent discoveries about the asbestous
needs um Paul I I I can read what I know and but Bob Parent may know more so that's what I was going to ask yeah the Massachusetts Architectural Access Board issued the regulations of 521 CMR this is in the riddle report which is part of the Massachusetts state building
code again this is the this is when this was written the code states regarding existing building renovations or additions quote if the work performed including the exempted work amounts to 30% or more of the full and fair cash value of the building the entire
building is required to comply with 521 CMR close quote the Jones Library building in 2020 was assessed at $19,196,000 and 30% of that value is $5,758,800 bob is that your understanding of how it would be calculated could you repeat the
number a little slower sure i'm sorry the $5,758,800 you validated my math thank you that's my general understanding as well um obviously the building commissioner is the expert in that area and he would be the one that would make the determination but I do believe the
number is 30% it is a as I understand it a 5-year look back so you can't phase projects and keep each piece of the project under that threshold because as soon as you do the second phase you have to take a look at the value of that phase plus the value of the preceding
phases and um it does sound like very quickly we would trigger that threshold bob that is incredibly helpful information thank you okay um did you get all of your three questions i'm not really I don't think that anyone will here will have an answer to the second one about starting and stopping phasing
but honestly Bob you kind of answered it with the fact that the ADA law doesn't start over with each part of the phase um and my third question was is the phasing even possible but again if the FA if the purpose of the phasing was trying to drive down costs and not trigger the ADA accessibility that point
is moot however I guess the question is still relevant as to whether or not phasing is still possible given other discoveries about the building like most things almost anything is possible i am certain it will be more expensive
um in particular because of the asbestous containing material in the wall so anytime we open up a wall for instance when we did some exploratory work in the library just to see what was inside of the wall we had to do it on a weekend we had to do it with licensed people we had to actually seal that
material up when we were done to to make it safe when we were done and walked away from it um that type of activity does not work very well with operating an ongoing library uh from a a worker safety standpoint so most likely any
significant you know replacing the HVAC HVAC system for instance replacing duct work replacing piping things like that would likely impact enough of the area of the library that it couldn't be partitioned off and made safe and still
be able to continue operating it as a library while that work was ongoing okay thank you thank you um Bob Hagner i just want to uh set the record straight that I checked on the town website and the um
assessed value of the building in 2024 was about $24 million so it's right there there's also 25 million in FY25 but it's not clear how that breaks out between the land and the building so
thank you um did you have your question Bob okay thank you andy Steinberg yes actually um Bob just uh answered some of the questions that I had
uh been starting to ask uh because I was going to ask about the asbestous cas HVAC um and the extent of the work that needs to be done on that um it's my reading of
the Riddle report that I want and I'm looking for comment on this um that uh once you move out of the library or close the library for an extended period
of time that it then makes um sense to group as much of repair as possible within that period of time so that it could be done most efficiently and uh that um therefore
phasing over long periods of time actually doesn't work um is that a correct reading yes certainly the most efficient project is to do everything all at the same time you know that will have the lowest overall project cost not
only do the value of money over time and other things but you have less repetitive work you have less uh costs for relocation temporary space things like that um and you have a more efficient project to you you know you you can go in there
and do everything at one time um you generally face projects because of money limitations not because they're the best way to do things but because you have a certain amount of funds that you might have available um at a certain time
realizing that over time you're going to spend more money than you would have if you had done it all at once okay seems to me like this is a good place to stop and go to public comment uh and so while I'm talking
about the rules of public comment I'm going to ask that if you are on Zoom and that is where our audience is tonight in fact there are uh 248 people on Zoom in the audience i
think we unfortunately had to make the call we did and I'm glad we did because we could go with go along with the meeting um so if you would like to make public comment please raise your hand now okay
okay can I just mention at this point 62 people have raised their hand 248 okay um so let me uh establish the following
um public comments on matters within are on matters within the jurisdiction of the town council and in this case this is a focused public comment residents are welcome to express their views for up to two minutes and I
will just tell you I cannot go any lower than that based on our own rules of procedure the council will not engage in a dialogue or comment on matter raised during general public comment public comments are not reflective of the opinions of the town
council there is a clock i want you to all make sure you notice the clock and it makes an obnoxious noise when you get to the end of the two minutes if you can keep it under two minutes that's good because our council rules
also say that if we get to two hours of public comment the council has to vote to extend the period okay the first amendment broadly protects individual rights to address the government to speak and to express
themselves including their right to say hateful and offensive things i am generally unable to shut those commenters down under the first amendment to the US Constitution unless their level of speech falls within an exception
articulated by the courts such as fighting words true threats to a particular individual harassment of a particular individual or incitement of eminent lawlessness activity if a question exists as to whether a
particular speaker is engaging in unprotected speech I must defer to the principles of freedom of speech will recognize speakers in the order in which they have raised their hands and there
are I have to um get this to go 57 57 [Music] Um thank you so when we when you enter the room please state your name and where you
live carol Johnson please enter the room unm unmute and go ahead thank you i'm not sure you can see me but I hope you can hear me we can okay um I really want to touch on two different
subjects one is the commitment that my husband and I have made to the library to the friends of the li the Jones library system and the other is fundraising in Ammerst uh as a whole um
I forgot to uh say I live in precinct three we have resided in Ammerst for 25 years and raised our daughters here i was the executive director of the Amoris Cinema from its from before it
was opened until um 2020 for a total of 13 years with the help of a lot of people we raised the money to renovate the
cinema and we raised an ongoing amount of money every year to help carry operational costs i am very optimistic that the friends of the Jones
will be able to raise the money needed to complete the project and that the discussion that we had earlier about who pays for overages really becomes moot
um people stepped forward when we were renovating the Amoris Cinema some people with very large gifts and others with uh much more modest gifts the Friends of
the Jones have not even undertaken a townwide capital campaign yet uh asking for donations from citizens your time is up okay thank you
Carol rob Kuzzner please enter the room please go ahead okay yeah good evening um thanks for inviting so many of us to speak about this um I'm from District 1 i've lived in town for almost four
decades and um I I must say that listening to the discussion about the various options and as someone who grew up in a city with a free library and also with the Franklin Institute Library from which I learned a great deal perhaps even more than I
learned from most of my teachers but quite a bit from them too i love libraries and I've always been a supporter of the Jones Library and the whole system the Mson the North Ammeris Library places where my family spent much time i also
love historic buildings and nothing has been said about the the value of the historic structure that is going to be unfortunately demolished in large part not in its entirety but in large part as
a result of this particular design and as much as I'd love to see a wonderful new library I don't think this project is going to on balance do what it could do if we were
to rethink things start again and try to create a library that makes better use of the existing facility that's there
i know a lot about finance invest a little bit in municipal bonds today i'm sure you guys can float bonds but that's not the entire point your project manager already acknowledged that they're going to be some hard choices
ahead and I think that you're going to find that some of the choices are so hard you will either have to come up with a lot more money or sacrifice things that are even more gruesome than what are being sacrificed now thank you very much thank you for your
comments uh Todd please state your full name hi I'm Todd Holland i live in South Ammeris District 5 I believe Elf Hill Road i've lived here um for a couple of
decades and I've worked in commercial construction for 40 years including for all five colleges um and just let me say I'm odded to be here in front of these groups uh the town council and the library trustees i
love it every time I get to see them uh even on my screen i usually just see their names in emails and whatnot or in campaign signs on other people's lawns and I'm so grateful for the work that you all do and you're so it's just
awesome the level of talent and dedication that we have here right now um and full disclosure I've worked with the library committee on sustainability issues for this very project so I'm very
much invested in it and I've been to the library twice over the past two weeks to see the awesome staff and the other people who hang out there and I just want to encourage everyone these are challenging times and
we cannot do more important work we have to do this as Austin said now is the time more than ever i've worked At all four all five colleges the
financial resources of the college vary greatly from Hampshire to Ammerst to UMass where I work now and the most important thing is that when we get into a building and we have a chance to do something we do everything we can and
that we do the best job that we can i mean um Andy Steinberg and Bob holy cow you know Bob the what a great project manager whoever hired him give yourself a raise we need to ask you to
Thank you thank you that's all I have to say thanks Doug please enter the room and state your full name thank you Lynn doug Marshall 64 EMS F i um I want to say that I strongly
support the library project i urge the council not to rescend the prior motions and and I urge them to allow the project to proceed i have pledged to the library project i intend to fully fulfill my
pledge and I will do so on whatever schedule the library asks me to do so thank you thank you for joining us bill please enter the room state your full name hello there you go this is Bill Worley
District 3 25-y year resident uh of Ammerst worked in the public schools for 10 years and uh we sent our our two children graduated from the uh public
schools we uh my wife and I strongly support the library project we are uh donors and committed uh to um honoring our our pledge in whatever uh time frame
makes sense for the project um libraries and schools are our most important public institutions um how we um fund and support these in these um libraries and schools is a
measure of our commitment to our community and to the the coming generations um accessibility sustainability fully resourced libraries are are a measure of those commitments
and we should all um um work towards that i want to thank the um board the uh library board for their work as well as the professional staff that has been working tirelessly on this and I hope
the town council will um continue to support the um the the library project if um thank you for your time thank you for joining us lori please enter the
room state your full name and unmute okay hi can you hear me yes yes we can my name is Lori Freriedman i live at um Blue Hills Road in District 3 and I fully support the library project i have
lived here for 30 years my kids um graduated from the public high school and they um we spent many many hours in the library which even back then needed some work and 30 years on it's it's time
and I'm really concerned about um halting this at this time I feel that it's incredibly shortsighted to stop there have been many hours and countless hours of um professional time invested
in this both from the town and um all of the people who have been hired to to participate and and present estimates and all the different things that have gone into this and the board of the library um working to get us to this
point and um so I I think it again would be shortsighted to stop and it's important to um create a sustainable library that will take the next generations into the future um so I
really ask that the council moves forward with this project thank you thank you for joining us laura Ducker please enter the room state and just please enter the room Laura thank you
hi thank you Laura Dar i live in district 1 um I've provided several comments on the benefit of the Jones Library project in the past this project will meet the evolving needs of our community it will reduce the financial and environmental cost of burning fossil
fuels and and it will increase the safety and accessibility of this space and all of these are still very much true i've also appreciated the council's diligence to set a clear spending limit for this project we are a town with many needs and we need to hold ourselves to
account i appreciate the concern and focus on this which is clear from many of your questions tonight we simply cannot sugarcoat the fact that stopping this project now will cost the town of Ammerst more money in the long run tariffs pandemics and irrational presidents certainly introduce more
uncertainty and cost swings but on average the cost of labor materials simply do not decrease over time there is zero evidence that we can renovate this space for less than the town council has allocated for this project and most evidence points to this being
more expensive the only reason to stop this project tonight is because you know without a doubt that the cost of this project to the town will go above the agreed upon amount from what I heard tonight from Paul and the trustees that this is simply not the case i understand you may
feel that stopping this project is a short-term solution to alleviate pressure but it is not a solution at all it will be a vote to further kick this project together with the two other capital projects that are still very much needed down the road for future taxpayers to deal with this decision
certainly would not provide any relief to our operational cost or help the school budget in the short or the long term furthermore the state taxes we all pay into the MBLC will go to other communities since my understanding is that we can't reapply for those funds
for 30 years please do not make a rash decision that only creates more costs and challenges you would need a plan in place for how to pay for a more expensive project thank you thank you for joining us laura Leticia Lafelle
please enter the room please go ahead can you Yeah can you hear me thank you very much for the opportunity to speak leticia Lafal Dana Street in District 3 my husband and I have pledged a five-f figureure contribution to the Jones renovation project which we
enthusiastically support not only is our pledge good as are the pledges of all the donors with whom I have recently spoken but many of them are waiting for the town manager to sign a contract so they can give more here are three reasons the project should go forward and the motion on the floor tonight be
defeated the first is inclusivity the renovated Jones will be the most inclusive space in Ammerst it will better serve our community by providing of accessibility and expanded services including for our most vulnerable residents it creates a pride of place for the Civil War tablets that
commemorate the sacrifices of Ammeris African-American community as well as a sorely needed climate controlled exhibition room for Ammeris history including precious collections of Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost materials second libraries are most democratic
institutions critically important as sources of trusted unbiased information we owe it to the 65% of the voters who supported this project which has gone through the town's democratic processes multiple times to see it through finally
it is fiscally responsible careful stewardship has leveraged the town's contribution of 15.8 million and more than doubled it with the Massachusetts Library Commission grant and the capital campaign in addition any cost overages as we've heard will be borne by the library trustees and not the town of
Ammerst the capital campaign which is not yet in its public phase has already raised more than any other in our town's history over $10 million many residents are eager for the contract to be signed so they can contribute to it in contrast repairs to the building will cost far
more and the town will be on the hook for it all with no MBLC or capital campaign to help defay the additional costs it seems clear to me that rejecting the project now would be fiscally irresponsible um with also devastating consequences for any future building project in the
town i respectfully ask the council to defeat this motion and thank you for joining us thank you nina M please state your full name my name is Nina Manin i live in district 1 um I'm just going to my notes here uh
I want to start by saying that I also have made a pledge to the library campaign and that I'm confident that others like me fully plan to fulfill those pledges and I made that commitment because I have witnessed what a 21st century library means for a community
and because I have a 13-year-old child who did not get to attend a new elementary school we lost that opportunity and our family will be paying taxes on the enormously more expensive school we will complete in 2027 i want my teenager to be able to
leave his existing crumbling school building and take advantage of at least one 21st century facility in our town if we kill this facility if we kill this project it will once again cost us tens of millions of dollars of outside investment why would we do that to
ourselves why would we choose to bandaid a facility that does not adequately serve our children our seniors our immigrant populations and I humbly suggest that if you think it does you do not know what we're missing even if those band-aids ended up costing us
slightly less which any number of professionals have refuted why would we do that why as a community are we not celebrating the extraordinary fundraising the library trustees and professionals have done let's not create
any more costly delays or lose these funds let's celebrate for the $30 million of outside funds coming into our community and rather than talk about how an inadequate facility is really just fine for our residents let's support an
investment in our community that is unparalleled in our history and that will support all of us for long into the future through good times and bad it will not go away thank you so much and thank you for your service thanks for
joining us jeff Lee please enter the room jeff Lee District 5 we're in the middle of an environmental review required for releasing $2.1 million in federal funds for the project the 45day HUD public comment and objection period ends on May
13th hud's funding award letter makes it clear that signing a construction contract before the money is authorized for release is not permitted the Jones Library Capital Campaign raised $165 in pledges in March and
$1,129 in February its remaining commitment is $7 million in light of this performance the town manager's memo complaining claiming that the library is good for their share is very unconvincing the town manager's analysis was based on the library endowment being
worth $9 million it had sunk to $8.8 million by April 1st we don't know the effect of the liberation day crash on April 2nd before it was derailed by the project the town of Ammer's five-year capital program included funding for
HVAC replacement roof and chimney repairs a fire system upgrade new carpet exterior lighting upgraded insulation exterior renovations and redesign of the inter library loan delivery room for a total cost of $735,000 that's a tiny fraction of the cost of
taxpayers of the now $55 million renovation expansion program and interest payments it's um a tiny fraction of that ammeris should return to the JCPC process where Jones library needs are balanced against the needs of the
schools and town buildings federal funds capital campaign funds Joan library resources borrowing costs the effect on Amoris competing priorities and even the MBLC grant which requires a construction contract by April 30th are all in question no fiscally responsible
official would invest any more time or money into this project and finally Councelor George Ryan is a member of the Jones Library Capital campaign whose mission is to raise money for the library project he should recuse himself from this vote thank you Jeff um Carol
Gray enter the room please carol Gray Ammerst Taxpayer at 8:15 Southeast Street Ammerst i would ask you to vote to resend this funding uh I was a library trustee for three years i chaired the budget committee of the
library i formed what was in the green committee i served as a joint capital planning committee library representative so I'm familiar with capital budgeting um first of all uh let's just look at this project in our big picture so $46 millions for a
library if you heard of a town paying that much for a library while they were laying off teachers you'd think they were crazy we're firing teachers we're cutting school programs we have a son who recently finished the the all 18 years in in the our public school system
in Ammerst and thank goodness he got through because he got to take advantage of all the foreign languages all the music programs which he's using now in college i really worry for the next generation that what we're doing is like buying a Tesla when you can't afford groceries you don't buy a $46 million
library you don't buy a Tesla even if it's on sale when you can't afford groceries the teachers are our groceries the schools are our groceries you don't give that up um in terms of the repair option this is a total legal and financial fiction to say that we can't
do we have to do this $46 million project because repairs would cost more that's ridiculous i was on the library on the joint capital planning committee you put in capital projects month by month year by year and that's how you pay for them by the way um accessibility projects are eligible for CPA funding
community Preservation Act funding was used year after year and you and there's no way you'd even come close to 30% of the whole building you just fix the roof when you can one one year then the next year you replace the HVAC it's fiscally irresponsible for the library to use this endowment the endowment is probably
closer to 8 million now we were at a 4% draw when I was a library uh trustee to say that you're going to use that that is how you fund yearly expenses you never paid for yearly expenses without Thank you for your comments Carol
katie please enter the room and state your full name good evening everybody my name is Katie Lesdowski and I live in Lynn and Pat's district um I want to first start by thanking everybody for the work that you've put forth in the years that have
gone into this um my concern in listening to listening to the conversation tonight is that we haven't addressed the new realities that we are in and I say this from a nonprofit
organization employee that has been with a um organization that is now 40 years old this year and our budget has been slashed in half um State Department grants and I am a
partner to a um fish and wildlife employee so every night we're coming home and discussing these new realities so these are at the forefront of my head and so my head has not been at the local level but we would be remiss if we
weren't looking at the larger context in terms of the funding that we're counting on sounds like we're banking on it in terms of the federal um $2 million as well as the state level funding um to touch upon survan's point
the program officers can share with us whatever they know but at the end of the day on the day that programs may be cut or funding may be cut they're unaware of that because Doge just comes in and makes these cuts so I would advise if
we're going to move move forward we need a contingency plan as to how we will make up for those federal and state level grants because not facing the new realities would be greatly fiscally
responsible and that combined with tariffs and not having an accurate figure i mean it's 46.1 but that was back in November so let's redo the budget thanks thank you for joining us uh Irv Roads
please enter the room good evening uh the first thing I want to say is that I admire the uh camera facilities that the council has access to because everyone looks really good please speak further into your micve can
you hear me yes all right so anyway um when I sat here and listen to the comments being made uh two words come up and that's fear and
anxiety and when there are fears and anxiety the counselor or anyone else the best that they can do and that which is required of them is to answer those fears and anxieties with honesty and
transparency and once you've accomplished that and you're satisfied with that you must move on and so I really want to say yes to moving on with this library project does it mean that I
don't have any fears or anxiety it does not but that which I have listened to tonight in terms of everyone who has talked the questions that have been asked the answers that have been given and the forthrightness
of the library board of trustees i fully support this going forward most importantly I am an ex-m middle school librarian and most people don't un know that but my first job out of college after my masters was a mil a middle
school li as a middle school librarian i am a li library person and I fully support and know what libraries can do for a school and for a town so I I really fully support this thank you
thank you for joining us serve nancy Campbell nancy Campbell Middle Street District 5 i'm addressing town counselors who are having doubts about committing to this project your dedication to fiscal responsibility is appreciated after all
New England is known for its cautious and deliberate folks this project is at a now or never breaking point however I fear that a child born today would be 30 years old before before a fully functional library could be realized if
this go-ahead moment for the current project is not seized counselors experienced fundraisers with long proven track records have spent years amassing millions of dollars in pledges so much careful work has been accomplished 100
years ago Ammerst seized the moment to construct the current mighty building right before the Great Depression hit in 1929 little did they know then that the Jones Endowment money could have dwindled away if they had not gone
forward to build when they did luckily the library was in place in 1928 an anchor for the town's people through the Great Depression these are again challenging precarious times indeed tonight envision a newly
renovated peaceful oasis for every member of our community democratically voted on and designed to endure the test of time please do think ahead 30 years 100 years from now
please allow us to seize this critical moment for our library of the near and distant future thank you thank you for joining us neil Emerman please enter the room hello can you hear me we can so I'm Neil
Emerman i live on Hillrest Place in Ammerst i'm here with my wife Susan Landau and we and I'll give her over half my time i just want to say that um we've lived in Ammeris for 35 years we
love the town including the schools and the library we very much support this project we really want it to go forward please let it go forward now and I'm Susan um I want to say how wonderful the library was when our
children were small all the different facilities we used the reading clubs in the summer the the fantastic books the library had the great help we had from the librarians in picking books uh when I had breast cancer they found books for the children to read that were
appropriate they were just amazing and now here I am i'm a faculty member at Tufts and uh and doing my research i am using the library to borrow books from other libraries when the library doesn't have texts that maybe even UMass doesn't always store or TUS doesn't have because
I'm not go or I don't go in so the the library has just been an amazing resource and I feel we need to push it give forward that's the first thing the second thing is if we don't go forward right now there's a tremendous opportunity cost including what our
politicians have done for us in getting in gaining us these grants and then finally this whole discussion is happening because of these uncertain times and all I can say is I can't think of a better thing to fund than a library
that has books and ideas for people of the community to read to listen to discuss and to book so please go forward with the project thank you both for joining us barbara Parti please enter the room uh I'm I'm Barbara Parti i live on
Hobart Lane in District 1 i support the library project and one aspect of the project uh that I want to me mention that I consider really important is the improved space it will give for the wonderful English as a second language
program with the help of great many volunteers that program offers classes tutors and citizenship programs for all sorts of English language learners including elderly immigrants some of whom are even illiterate in their first language that program has never had
enough space and the new design will offer much better and more stable space for this really treasured service i've pledged financial support for the project and I promise to pay my pledge whenever they ask for it please do move
forward with the project and I am grateful for your steadfast service in these challenging times and I put my trust in you to do the right thing sorry for this one wonderful pillar of our town
thank you for joining us alex Lefay please enter the room alex Lefay District 4 the creation of addition to the library will remove the limitations that exist in the current building and provide the vital extra space needed after four workers at
Redfire Farm were arrested by ICE and 13 students at UMass had their visas terminated it's more important than ever to demonstrate our commitment to our friends and our neighbors the award-winning citizenship and English language program which is dedicated to helping immigrants and refugees feel welcome and able to navigate and become
vital members of our community will gain much needed additional space one in five high school students seriously considered attempting suicide in 2023 and it's one of the leading causes of death in adolescence and young adults suicide rates are rising dramatically in pre-teens as young as 8 years old with
an 8.2% annual increase from 2008 to 2022 suicide rates in transgender and non-conforming teenagers increases as much as 72% after anti-transgender laws aimed at minors are passed in 2025 36 anti-trans bills have been introduced
nationally 854 on a state basis and six in Massachusetts libraries are considered safe spaces by populations who have been marginalized evidence has shown that dedicated teen spaces within libraries create a positive safe environment for learning and socializing which encourages emotional social and
intellectual growth while building a sense of belonging and community the bonds of social trust that serve and support democracy are deteriorating public trust in government and confidence in institutions is declining across the board with the exception of one institution libraries libraries
serve people of every age income level location ethnicity and physical ability libraries are places of hope that knit communities together because they're often the one place in any community where individuals can visit at no cost mixes equals without regard to class education citizenship or other
demographic characteristics when we neglect social infrastructure we grow more isolated with fewer opportunities for socializing especially with others who may not look or think the way we do when we invest in social infrastructure such as parks schools and libraries thank you forenefit Alex thanks bye
rebecca Mur thank you all so much um for being so dedicated to the town and what the taxpayers will bear i I don't have any other words of persuasion for you i just wanted to add Oh I live on Amity Street i don't know what district that is uh
but I just wanted to add my voice to the other chorus um that is uh supporting the library project and hoping that you'll move forward with it and thank all of you for all that you do for us i know this is a really tough decision thanks
thank you for joining us willis Bredigan please unmute thank you uh uh I live on Memorial Drive in District 3 i am a former Jones Library trustee and I served for 30 years as the librarian of
Ammerst College the proposed Jones Library project has my unequivocal support it addresses critical problems that have accumulated over many many years the library trustees and its director have worked responsibly to
identify and evaluate the library's most important needs the friends of the library are conducting a successful campaign to help fund the project and the residents of our town have repeatedly expressed their support for this project this is not the time for
the town council to have second thoughts about this muchneeded project my wife and I have contributed to this effort and have pledged to provide additional support for it once the library's construction is guaranteed i want to thank you for your thoughtful
consideration of this important project i strongly encourage you to vote for to vote to reject the motion to resend the borrowing authorization for the Jones Library renovation and expansion thank you very much for your consideration
thanks for joining us bruce Penman please enter the room uh hello my name is Bruce Penman i live on South M please speak a little more into your mic uh sorry can you hear me now yes okay my name is Bruce Penman i
live on South Mont Holio Drive and I would like to speak in opposition to the proposal to resend the uh borrowing authorization for this uh which is the latest and I hope the last attempt to derail this much needed project uh my
wife and I have lived in Amoris for 50 years and raised our children here and taught in the public schools for decades uh we know the value of the Jones Library and we strongly support the project and we have contributed to the capital
campaign the um the project has been carefully planned revised and vetted for over 10 years that has passed all of the necessary hurdles and navigated through many unnecessary ones in my opinion it's time to move forward uh the capital
campaign has been remarkably com uh successful uh so far I think considering the um the the Paul that's been cast over the uh uh the project by uh relentless uh opposition and obstruction
to it once the contract is signed and shovels are in the ground the dollars will flow i'm confident of that and I want to remind everyone that we've been down this road before with the elementary school project uh and we are
now paying for that mistake uh which also hastened the demise of the town meeting form of government town please let's not compound that error uh please move forward with this project um let's get it built thank you very much
thank you for joining us ian Roalt uh hello can you hear me yes hello my name is Ian Rodalt i live on Pine Street in District 1 um thank you for all your service uh counselors and uh library committee i wanted to say that I feel
that is unnecessary to spend at least $46 million to build a new library building project for a library that is not currently being used to the extent that the new project envisions uh at the same time when the school buildings that Ammerst's children attend are crumbling
when teachers par educators school bus drivers and custodial staff don't get paid enough and positions in the schools and uh cl courses in the schools have been cut and when the town's roads are in extreme disrepair additionally with the state of the global economy as
uncertain as it is currently and the cost of construction materials rising uh it does not make sense to continue with the library project please stop this project by taking back your authorization to borrow the $46 million thank you for your time thank you for
joining us richard Vincent can you hear me we can Oh hi um I'm Dick Vincent i'm at uh in district five and I just really don't know how to how to reach this
but I haven't heard anything except for maybe one or two callers talk about the larger picture here world for those of you who don't know me and there's a few here that do um I
owned what people considered to be the major retail business in Ammerst uh for decades and a lifelong Ammerst resident and I don't understand what we're what
we're doing here um to be very honest with you I would have thought with everything going on in the world and I know Ammerst is different as a supermarket operator um my peers throughout New England used
to say when recession hit us you know um boy you are so fortunate um to have the industry of education and that has really been a great buffer for us but I think we have
to lift up our heads and we have to recognize to today what's going on and look to be able to fund our schools keep our roads paved keep our seniors safe have clean
water have our fire and police funded and be in a position to buy a new fire truck if we need one we need to look at all of that it's hard to even talk about this today but we are in a situation where we
don't know what's going to happen and Amoris needs us richard Liz Lor please enter the room uh good evening i also just sincerely want to say thank you to everybody who
has been working on this project for the many many years again sincere thank you i am currently the executive director of the Amoris Historical Society located at the Strong House next to the Jones Library i also help operate the Drake as
part of the downtown Ammeris Foundation previously I worked for the Ammerst Business Improvement District for six years one thing I learned in all of these roles is how intertwined all of our downtown institutions and businesses are it is the mix of our cultural
educational entertainment and commercial offerings that allows each of us to thrive and the heart of our downtown is the Jones Library quite literally more importantly it is the figurative heart of our community this is a place where
all are welcome children teens retirees it welcomes not only those who have lived in Ammerst their entire lives but those who are new to Ammerst and those who are new to the US this renovation and expansion project will strengthen
this heart by providing increased and better opportunities for children and family programming teen activities and the ESL program it will strengthen our ability to preserve and present our shared culture through modern facilities
for special collections a home for the Civil War tablets and increased spaces for exhibits lectures and performances this is not a building construction and renovation project this is a community revitalization project
please vote for a pri vibrant downtown Ammerst and against rescending the financial authorization and again thank you so much for all that you do for the town thank you for joining us hilda Greenbomb please enter the room
i'm Hilda Greenbell i'm on Montigue Road District 1 and we are four generations of users of the Jones Library with the fifth generation on its way so we are
book people and uh I'm changing my my little speech that I have prepared this afternoon because it looks like this project is going to go ahead but I'd like to remind you that the manager would not sign a contract with Wright Brothers for the North Amoris Library
until the entire 1,750,000 from Fidelity Charitable Trust remained in the town's account for three full business days he was worried about the town being stuck with a debt that we
couldn't afford and that was two years ago and two years ago there were no predictction predictions of recession nor worse depression being expressed by reputable economists two years
ago um $7 million owned by Jones Library to the town taxpayers is magnitudes more money and Fidelity Fidelity Charitable Trust is magnitudes less risk um I'm I'm saying that nobody has
mentioned who the town or the library is paying the $55 million which I'm told is the total amount after interest i don't I think that amount of money is unconscionable and irresponsible
um Steve Puffer called North Ammerst the dirty hands district for all the factories and factory workers in North Ammerst we still have many retirees living in their small houses that they've owned for many years some born here their economic circumstances are
quite different from those in other districts in answer in Ammerst and from most members of the council they are struggling to remain in town i just want to end it by saying we've been in restoration and preservation business
for 65 years and I am asking you to please be conscious of the cost of the pasture in the name of my husband who was a former trustee of the Jones library thank you for joining us martha Hanner please enter the room
i'm Martha Hanner District 5 i've lived here 20 years i urge you to cancel appropriation and borrowing authorization for the Jones Library expansion project in the current national financial environment this project is really no longer viable and
the expectations of outside funding are no longer really credible it's just not credible to believe that any federal grant will arrive the Hitchcock Center learned just a few days ago that their grant from the Museum and Library
Foundation was cancelled and I worry even about the state grants since their fund federal funding is being cut off the libraryies endowment is is small in this shaky economic environment i it's not credible
to believe they're really going to be able to refund the town and I was just not satisfied with the answers to councelor Shane's uh questions about the immediate uh refunding and it's not credible to believe that construction
costs will not increase with the tariffs and supply problems uh as the elected financial stewards of our town you really need to seriously recognize that the library expansion is a very big risk to our town's finances and sadly it's a
luxury that I really question now um yes green dreams die hard but this is not the only dream being shattered by our new administration and I'm cons very concerned about the our limited financial resources for the dreams of
our children for a quality education here we are laying off teachers the dreams of our local families for affordable food and housing and the dreams of all our residents for a just and equitable society i don't see that the library is being used to the extent
that's been glowingly described even though I love libraries very concerned about Thank you school thank you for joining us thank you Sigard Nilson please hello I'm Sigard
Nelson want to I live at 27 Tberry Lane in district 5 i have PhD in economics from Cornell University and spent my career with the Government Accountability Office GAO
assessing the effectiveness and efficiency of a range of government programs i urge town counselors to revoke the borrowing authorization for this project this project has barely survived numerous challenges which
include escalating costs of over 30% a shortfall of millions of dollars in fundraising having many sustainability features stripped away in addition to losing historic preservation tax credits
now with Trump's erratic economic policies our economy may well enter a recession and with tariffs already in place prices of construction materials will increase which would have serious
impacts on the total cost of the Jones project now is the time to focus on essential public projects this Jones project is not essential a renovation of the existing Jones building is a more
fiscally responsible course of action that would also allow the town to focus its limited resources on higher priority capital projects like a new DPW headquarters a new fire station while
also making progress on our crumbling streets and sidewalks thank you thank you for joining us cheryl Zol please enter the room hi I'm Cheryl Zaul i'm a longtime District 4 resident and I fully support
the building project and the council's continuing borrowing authorization i won't say much about how important the library as others have but I just wanted to say that having led fundraising efforts for the Amoris Survival Center and other organizations I know that
during difficult times they don't actually hinder giving they inspire it when our community sees an urgent need it rallies and it has rallied in the past i've seen it many times and there's no reason to doubt that Amoris is going to rise to this occasion my husband and
I have pledged to the campaign and will fulfill our pledge once construction's underway this campaign is so impressive with more than four fifths of the necessary funds already raised before the campaign has even entered its public phase and with the depth of largely
volunteer fundraising expertise behind the Jones Library project we have the momentum now we need your support to see it through and so I urge the counselors to vote against rescending the borrowing authorization and let this project move forward for the good of our community
thanks thank you for joining us Cheryl jennifer Bowman please enter the room hi my name is Seth Walsh i'm actually Jennifer Bowman's husband and I am she is an employee of Jones Library and I
wanted just to I manage construction projects for a living and I wanted to just go through a few of the construction points um when it comes to the ADA trigger for example it was noted that it was a five-year trigger and it's actually a three-year look back trigger
not a five-year look back trigger and the reality is that the 2016 numbers for a renovation project are completely meaningless at this point and so I want to ask the community and the town council what it is that you want for the
town's money because if the town contributes a third of the money toward a renovated project you get a 21st century library or you contribute a 100% to the renovation project on a smaller scale to make do with what you
have and what's left right is it really meet a 21st century library's needs I think any discussion about phasing should be reminded that mobilization and construction is real and every time you remobilize you lose a
tremendous percentage of the cost probably around 10% to remobilize plus inflation on the mobilized work so the reality is that by phasing any project you will spend considerably more only once in anyone's lifetime that is on
this call have construction prices decreased in the United States and that was in the great recession of 2008 the chance right now is to take advantage of really good and favorable pricing your contractors have agreed to keep the
pricing they have contractors that I've spoken to are only agreeing to keep prices for a week you have a contractor that has agreed to maintain the price they have and I urge you to take that opportunity thank you thank you for joining us um there's somebody with a
caller i'm not going to repeat the number we don't do that but please state your name when you enter the room please go ahead good evening um my name is Vincent Okconor i live at 175 Summer Street
apartment 12 in District 1 i've lived in Amoris for 51 years um but I have what I urge the council to resend the borrowing um we actually
have more than eight other libraries in town one in every public school two at the colleges and a number of libraries at UMass so we don't we're not going to be without a library um in
fact we will be without a library for a long time a much longer time if we engage in this project than if we did the renovations um I urge you to listen to my precinct one counselor Kathy Shane
who was responsible for getting a project school project as a chair of the building committee um a school project that actually will work and be 21st century rather than the disaster that
would have happened at Wildwood School had we gone through with it having lived in town for with the Fort River and Wildwood schools for a very long time um I can guarantee you that it was worth
losing town meeting in order to not have the Wildwood School project it would have been a disaster this project is based on a a population user that is
nonsense um involves 20,000 college students and all sorts of towns that now have new libraries um and for every million dollars of the endowment that is Thank you for joining us into
this project they will lose $40,000 in operating costs for the library thank you which will be Amber Ko Martin please enter the room hi um good evening everybody my name is
Amber Ko Martin i live in district 2 um I have two children um currently in the public school system um you've seen me recently because um I've come in to um talk about budget cuts and how they're impacting our children um both at the elementary level and the middle school
and high school level um for me as a parent to not make the connection between the sad state of our schools and this project would be ridiculous because it's so clear um I've been in this town now for over 10 years and I remember
when this project started and they told us "Sure we have enough money for everything sure it's a big project we still can do every single building project we can do the DPW and the fire station in the school and that was just it's always been magical thinking and if you don't believe me then like look
what's happening to the schools it's clear as day look what's happening to our roads look how many people have written um to Lyn and Pat in my district about the condition of our roads and think about how that's going to amplify year after year after year as there continues to be no money for those
things but there is money for a $46 million library we don't need a library that big what I really need for my children is for there to be teachers in their school and what I really needed for them was that there be PAR educators in the libraries that they do go to in
their school buildings but we couldn't even keep a PAR educator and the Wildwood schools they were cut so now there's even less services in the one library that my children use um so again many people have come here tonight to say "We've been doing this for 10 years
we put so much into it." I will remind everyone here what a stunt cost fallacy is a mistake does not stop being a mistake because you keep pushing forward with it i do not want to be coming here year after year to you begging for more money for our children's schools um in
conclusion I would say um repeating another caller um we should not be buying a Tesla if we can't afford groceries thank you thank you for joining us sher Sharon Kernney
hi can you hear me we can okay great uh thank you for taking my comment um my name is Sharon Carney and I am in district 5 and I am speaking tonight in strong support of the Jones Library project and I strongly urge you to
reject any efforts to stall or halt funding for the project uh if you want you can read the comment that I sent in in which I openly gush about how much I love the library as a parent as an adult as a faculty member at UMass where my
students also regularly use the library and thinking about how they are going to teach their future students um through the help of the wonderful librarians and I see it as such an asset to our community and I am so impressed by the
work that the librarians and the trustees and everyone else has already done and is doing um on a daily basis and in regard to this project and all of that work um this is the time to continue on this momentum that we
have as other callers have said I know um similarly to other callers that there is a lot of fear right now because of the turbulent political times and I also see this as a time where we must invest in these resources this is a time where
there are deliberate efforts to restrict access to information by defunding libraries and educational institutions and I believe we must rise to the challenge as a community to to fight against these efforts and that we need
to protect our rights to information um information that's grounded in facts and diverse perspectives and this requires us to work harder and maybe invest more but like others I've also pledged to the library and I'm willing to do that and invest more um and I see our schools and
libraries as partners not adversaries and how these two institutions should function together to provide education to our entire community i'm in full support the schools and the library thank you thank you for joining us just
want to note that we're approaching our first hour uh so that to the extent that people can uh keep their comments short is very much appreciated by all of us ann Harrington please enter the room
uh hi um my name is Ann Harrington i reside on Manita Drive in District One um I strongly support the library pro project my partner and I are donors we will certainly fulfill our pledge and
if the project goes forward and contracts are signed we certainly are poised to donate more so I'm I ask the town council to not resend authorization for the project i certainly respect
the the financial concerns given federal uncertainty and all the demands on the town but the fact is it's not as if the town is being asked to fork over 46 million it's asked to come in with about
15 million and frankly if this project is is canceled out and we have to go back to rehabbing the current building it's going to cost slightly more um town citizens voted to move ahead
with the expansion and renovation i think we should still honor that uh and and move forward with it so we have a enough people have talked about how much the we gain and how much we we need a new library and certainly if you
walk around the UMass Ammerst campus you can see that you can have a building that honors an older part historically while while adding a really dynamic new contemporary part and I think the
designs honor the history of the building it's a sustainable building i I sincerely hope that um the town agrees to move forward with this and I thank you all for the amount of time you're putting into considering this thank you
thanks for joining us ann somebody with an iPad please enter the room and state your full name hi this is Erica Zeus in Hol Road in Emerst uh I urge you to continue your support for the Jones project um so many
years in the making the Jones has endured many challenges because it makes sense for our community for users of all ages abilities and identities many of whom traditionally have little voice in public spheres like this one to provide
um a vital place for learning and connecting it makes sense for the environment to invest in resilient systems and materials it makes sense for this historic structure to renovate with care and attention to preserving the building's features it makes sense
fiscally too it will cost the town $15.8 million to make it possible not a small sum but we also know that the cost of not pursuing this plan will be just as expensive and the result won't be nearly as transformative we'll fix the leaks
but we won't have a bright fully accessible all ages sustainable community hub the move to withdraw the town's authorization to borrow at this critical time is premature the town's share of the funds can't be used for teacher salaries the libraryies board
has always been committed to the necessary fundraising and the town manager manager is responsible for carefully reviewing the contract prior to signing we've held off on making our donation until the project is officially going forward but we will contribute once the
contract is signed and we suspect that this is the case for many of our neighbors the town has to spend money to take care of its people and resources please agree to spend with our best possible future in mind thank you for joining us Erica rebecca
Nordstrom please hi um I'm Rebecca Nordstrom i live on Dana Street in District Three and uh I want to uh also urge the town council to allow the renovation and expansion project to move forward as
planned these are to be sure turbulent times but I really believe that we should stay the course the funding is in place the trustees have agreed to cover any shortfalls should they occur i have
personally pledged financial support for this project and I look forward to continuing to make good on my pledges and I've heard many others tonight say the same thing um I also just want to extend my thanks to all of you who have
worked so very hard on this project thank you thank you for joining us john please enter the room state your full name hello my name is John Hosp i live on Triangle Street and district 5A um in in
having listened I'm calling to um pledge my unequivocal support for the renovation and hope that you um vote this motion down uh in listening to the presentation on the fiscal concerns um
it's clear that they were each addressed sometimes a couple of times and as um the esteemed counselor from my district pointed out this is an ethical issue at the beginning of this meeting you um you
know touted the accessibility of the meeting um to ensure that all residents could participate yet we're discussing a movement to stop renovations to a library another public space which is
not accessible to all residents you know in addition our lovely town hall has a great display on how immigrants are welcome and accessibility of red cards but what message does it send if we're voting to cancel some of the public
spaces that they rely on to learn the language to access the internet which they need to apply for jobs which they need to apply for services um so thank you all very much for your time for your patience with these processes and please
continue with this project thank you for joining us eric Cwley hello this is Eric Cwley i am on Station Road in District 5 um I'm also talking in in support with my neighbors in favor
of the library um we want to continue with this project it is an extraordinary project that has come together all of the different funding that has been put together to make this happen is truly amazing that that the team has put together through all of the years and
all the trials and all of the what about oh what about this oh what about that let the town manager do his job he's very fiscal responsible he's he's done the work and he would stop it if he if it was not going to make any sense so
let's get it done let's do the will of the people that you were elected to represent and go forward with this project thank you thank you for joining us Eric david Ratner please enter the room and make sure you unmute
david you believe possibly with an echo david Ratner uh Lincoln Avenue uh District 4 uh thank you for your hard work for the uh thoughtful
questions that uh counselors have asked i would like to urge you to continue to support this project to vote down the motion to resend my wife and I have made a contribution already I think it's the
largest contribution we've ever given to a charitable organization and despite the uncertainty of the times if this project is allowed to go forward we would uh give an additional
contribution so I just hope very much that you continue to support the library thank you thank you for joining us ana Lopes please enter the room hello everyone can you hear me yes okay
good evening i want to express my support for the arts and humanities which we all know are currently facing significant challenges threats and attempts at eraser nationwide but also the library projects commitment to inclusion and accessibility
in light of national concerns audacity and uncertainties I want to recognize the residents of Amorest and beyond who depend on free services and spaces offered by the library such as English as a second language programs actually third as English is not the first
language of this land but there is no shortage of threats to these services or to those that bring forward a true inclusive version of American history could the current administration come for the project's grants yes but I do not believe we need to assist them the
Civil War tablets and programming in the space that will hold them represent much more than a simple monument to the Civil War soldiers what makes them what makes the tablets in the space unique is that they will acknowledge the contributions of black and Afroindigenous residents of
Amoris who served in the war a rarity for that time this aspect of history is one of the most obscured and lesserknown narratives of Ammeris to erased in plain sight as of 2025 they remain the only town monument to recognize the town's black and Afroindigenous roots which is
unfortunate as we predate the town this is one of the many reasons it would be fantastic to expand the special collections and ren and revitalize the archives with a more accurate account of the black and indigenous history of this community it should not be pacified as
if an outside enclosure with 247 access will have the same impact i'm a generational resident i do not have memories before the Jones Library and none of them including the wood involve seeing anyone who looked like me on the walls i have deep respect for historic
preservation but in my humble opinion the opportunity to make space for to connect this history to our present and future is invaluable ana thank you margaret Sawyer please enter the
room hi thank you so much for having this meeting tonight it's really exciting to me to have all of us sharing our thoughts here um I wrote a letter too um and a lot of the points tonight are
great but I think we really could think about this as something we need right now i think with the coming cuts we're going to see a lot fewer warm places where people can be in the winter that are welcoming to them
we're going to see a lot fewer cool places in the summer there won't be it's possible that afterchool programs will be cut that um having a safe welcoming space for kids older people for vulnerable populations is going to be
more important um so I do want us to fund the library um I also put a lot of trust in you all to make this decision and I see that it's a hard one like Katie said I it would be wonderful to have a contingency plan if these grants
were gone i also want to say that over the years I've been frustrated by this project because it often has seemed like it's really shooting for the moon like it's trying to be perfectly net zero perfectly historically preserving and
also um while also not thinking enough about being affordable that's a frustration I've had for a long long time and I really feel frustrated at the Massachusetts Historical Commission for tacking back on the sleet roof and the
wood paneling after you all made a good choice to let that go um I also think that right now might be the time to take the money and run that this is our chance and finally I want you to be really careful when you think about
cutting school budgets because the schools it's it's it looks the same it looks like the same pots of money to us and the same fears that make us cut schools thank you for joining us Maria Copeki
thank you Maria Capiki South Ammerst so uh I have had a chance to read over the materials that were just added into the packet this afternoon i hope that you all did too and you reviewed them carefully and after reading them uh and seeing what's been going on for a very long time with this project it's clear
that the you guys are living in a different world than the rest of us this is a world where the endowments don't decrease according to you they're not going to decrease in this setting tariffs supply chain uh interruptions escalations just regular escalations
canceled grants are apparently not going to impact this project loans are going to be given no matter what contingencies that start at 10% for a complicated 100-year-old building on a complicated site is not is going to be sufficient
and it's going to decrease even by your numbers to less than 8% to less than $3 million before you even get started you have fundraising that you're saying this is great we only need to get $8 million
we're going to we're going to get the4 million and4 million we're going to borrow that $8 million is 2 million more than you owed in 2021 and that's not counting the expenses your 807% that you're so proud of that you're at has
been stalled there for years i appreciate attorney Goldberg's cander for finally saying that if this goes over $46 million you the town are going to be paying for it we the town are going to be paying for it the if the
library can't find the money it's on the town so you need to show the effect of going over that amount you have to show the effect of what if the town is not going to pay 15.8 which it will not have to pay it'll be more than that what if
it's 20 what if it's 25 what if it's 30 and the general contractors are happy to sign a contract because any overages are on us not on them they get a contract and they get all the extra money that
it's going to cost thank you peter Grey Mullen please enter the room good evening uh Peter Grey Mullen District 1 thank you counselors and all of you that are working on the Jones Library project i speak in support of
the Jones Library project moving forward and I ask that the counselors vote against the motion this evening i work for the UMass Building Authority which is similar to MBLC i have 20 projects in design or
construction right now i understand these projects the Jones Library project has been thoroughly evaluated to reduce risk the budget wisely carries an 8%
contingency and this is in line with my projects at the same stage of award that the Jones project is at i reassure you it's a good budget i want to add that you have a very good
contractor with Fontaine Brothers i work with them now have in the past and you should have a high confidence that you are going to be working with a good partner thank you thank you for joining
us Peter and home please enter the room i have been following the news and what I haven't found is there is
nothing available about the annual budget for this new project how is the library new library going to cover all the expenses inside the building the current
building is in great need of repairs maintenance upkeep painting flooring carpeting windows bathrooms have been neglected for years i have been told there are not
sufficient funds because of the decisions of the trustee about the endowment so every year the building and staffing needs are not addressed how is this going to change
with not only an upgraded building but with a new addition i would like to know how the new expanded library will be staffed furnished maintained do the numbers include new
comfortable furniture curtains patron resources all the things that are inside the walls i would like to know if if an annual operating budget is being developed that
reflects the greatly increased expenses of staffing patron resources maintenance utilities the items that are not one-time expenses but weekly monthly and
annual finally I think there should be a town referendum for taxpayers to vote for this project thank
you thank you for joining us johanna Newman please enter the room thank you very much johanna Newman 137 Stanley Street in District 2 i'm here tonight to say that I support the
library pro project and I urge you not to rescend the prior motion instead I hope that you will respect the voters and the process and the 12 years of planning that have brought us to this moment thank you very much for your
service and for the opportunity to comment today thank you for joining us sandy Musprat please enter the room sandy Musprat North Prospect Street uh I thank the councils as all counselors for
their work but particularly the three who uh a petition for a special meeting i believe you should resend the uh authorization for the library from the very beginning has been
unnecessarily ambitious and now with various curtailments on expenses it does not meet even the best uh ambitions of the original project it's remarkable how many people
wish to throw good money after bad and I note that the legal advice says the town is on the hook the nature of the relationship between the library and a government organization it's a quango a quai autonomous non-governmental
organization we and the town and the taxpayers are on the hook we have much greater uh priorities particularly schools i love the library it's a good library i go there frequently i support
it annually i do not support this project thank you thank you for joining us kathy Axelson Barry please enter the room hi can you hear me we can okay thank you
very much um I do not uh support the ongoing expenditures for the library and I urge you not to have the town manager sign contracts and I hope that you will resend the authorization for borrowing
um this is not about liking libraries or not liking libraries it's not about the importance of English as a second language it's not important about how wonderful it's not about the staff and how wonderful they are it's about this
particular building project and I think it people are seem to be getting this very confused um and thinking that if you like libraries then you have to vote for this particular building project this library um but as Lauren the lawyer
said the town lawyer said um the town is not only on the hook for the $15.8 $8 million and the trustees must cover the rest of the um expenditure overage but if the
library doesn't cover that the town is also on the hook for the entire amount and I think Paul Bachmann said well the town could try to get the library to pay and um he also said that
there would be no increase in taxes as a result of this library um because $7 million would come from the endowment um but and the rest would be in the town budget well that means that other things
that are in the town budget would not be covered um because the their their needs would be neglected like education because it would be covering the overage of the cost of the library um um it's also been said that
town council has prioritized it for many years at least nine years and therefore we should go ahead with it but I I thank you for joining us lauren Mills please enter the
room lauren you need to unmute lauren can you please unmute i sent a prompt to unmute we can come back we'll come back to her arley please enter the room hello this is Arley Gould South Ammerst
um the a lot of the people in favor keep saying that the project uh for the town is 15.8 million but in Mr baklman's presentation and others have said the um
uh CPA funds are also taxpayer so that's 16.8 8 million and then there's the 9 million interest on the $46.1 million uh loan so that comes up to about 25.8
million that's what actually at this point with the 46.1 million cap that the town is actually paying um but as the attorney said and the Bob Pam's public
uh comment that he submitted it was reprinted in the indie kind of says is you know essentially the town is borrowing all the money and is basically on the hook for the whole project and is getting reimbursed by the library or by
the M BLC grants so that's actually how it's working um so you know let's not get confused about that and then
um it's funny to hear you know the Jones Library is not going to disappear if we don't do this project it sounds everybody is speaking as if if we don't do this project somehow the the Jones library just goes poof and disappears
you know and all this programming that is so wonderful that Mr sarat talked about and many people you know in public comment did can be done in other places in other spaces there's two other libraries in this town the new uh
elementary school building is going to have community space you know Wildwood will be empty i know it needs work thank you for joining us thank you algra Hooked i did that
district five i drive by the scaffolding of the new elementary school every day with the same mixed feelings although my own kids missed out on the opportunity to attend i'm excited for the kids who will and yet I also experience sadness that the
school project like so many others in our town is tainted by its history of bickering and infighting the irony is that I believe our community values children in education as well as access to knowledge and information in community spaces yet here we are again
mired in the library project the Fort River motto proudly displayed on students t-shirts is the bold statement we choose love how do we as a community in practice demonstrate this to our children some might say that an established aspect of love includes
believing the best about others it involves trust i'm not speaking tonight because I'm an expert on the library project i don't think this is required i have read the seemingly disperate information coming from both sides and I won't hesitate to say that Faramin a
volunteer library trustee is my dear friend i trust the research and the dedication of the library trustees and I trust our town council to weigh the factors and make decisions that benefit our children and our community for the long haul our council members will not be perfect but I had a voice in electing
them i also exercised my voice in front of this council months ago during the first round of public feedback sessions and I was happy when after much deliberation the council made a decision another aspect of love is sacrifice i do not want to live in a town known for its inefficiency due to
bickering and stepping on one another could we be known instead as a community of people willing to lay down our rights to continually push back and instead support the very good not perfect efforts of others believing that we're in this together if choosing to trust to
believe the best is an aspect of love then you may label me as naive but I'd like to go on record saying that I too choose love thank you for joining us ken Rosenthal please enter the room thank you President Greer ken Rosenthal
Sunset Avenue many of us who love the Jones see two powerful reasons for supporting this cancellation one the design for this project is wrong and two the cost of repairs is manageable since this 30% increase in square footage was designed more than 10 years ago paper
volumes in the Jones Library have decreased in-person attendance has declined we know that's because storage and access to information online is increasingly how we read and to give just one example of wasteful design of space consider the new room for the
Civil War tablets 132 years ago Amoris was given eight large granite tablets naming the 300 white and black men from this area who fought in the Civil War on the side of the North they've never been housed in the Jones before they were expected to be kept outdoors protected
from the elements and able to be visited at any time but the Jones is closed about 31 days a year those very days when visitors might like to come and honor their ancestors like Memorial Day Martin Luther King Day President's Day the Sundays before those holidays and
even every summer Sunday closed i know of much better places in Amoris for these wonderful granite tablets where they can always be visited in the friend statement circulated the other day they project the cost of repairs at 21 to $23 million plus asbestous abatement plus
the cost escalation from 2023 the council CPAC and Ammeris College are providing 17.8 million the fundraisers expect about 7 million more and the Jones says it will add money from its endowment all of that will pay for repairs and the town will avoid the
additional millions in interest on funds to be borrowed only for the proposed plan but not at all for repairs expenses that are rarely mentioned if the fundraisers make the right case an honest case for repairs current donors will fulfill their pledges and other
supporters of the Jones and I am one will gladly contribute thank you thank you for joining us Ken david Lithka please unmute there we My name is David Lithco i'm an 84 year old retired
government employee i moved here with my wife a retired nurse in 1977 to uh establish a home on Hitching Post Road in District 2 we support the renovation expansion of uh the library in doing my
due diligence I closely examine the information provided I hope in good faith by the uh minority activists
that seek to abandon the uh library project their arguments to the contrary notwithstanding uh we have contributed to date $15,000 towards a
$25,000 pledge uh we've suspended our uh installment donations for the last couple of years uh uh as we sit on the end of the runway awaiting takeoff clearance we fully intend to uh honor
our pledge as soon as we get takeoff clearance and the construction contract is signed it's apparent that there are many others like us ready to stand up to the extent that we can afford it to support u this project i will be deeply
disappointed if after the extraordinary efforts of so many over the last decade uh a small activist minority succeeds in uh prevailing
HUD and this project dies i I implore you to vote to go ahead with this project and see it through to its um completion thank you for joining us
for your dedication to this wonderful community lydia Vernon Jones please enter the room yes here I am thank you uh thank you for this opportunity to speak this evening i have not changed my mind about this project
uh I am have been opposed to it for many years i want to speak to the town counselors who have not been sitting on the council very long or maybe even present in town to track the history of this project when I was sitting on the lawn listening to the beginning of this
meeting I was looking at at what my lawn how my lawn has changed during climate change and we live in a new world we live in a new political world we need live in a new physical world um I'm remembering that the original
trustees plan they had not asked the MBLC for extra money for to have a more sustainable building environmental sustainability was not on their mind uh unfortunately fortunately that was next by town
meeting i was optimistic when the ECAC was created applied to be on the committee was not chosen but unfortunately that committee hasn't had any power in advising or directing the behavior of the town council on environmental issues also unfortunately
the state attorney general has not yet weighed in on the legality of the limited Zoom model that we've been using for five years that not only um handicaps people who are trying to organize but also just doesn't give us a
look at who our town is and what we want um so and this evening my heart is breaking for the Hitchcock Center and for all the programs that are being cut and I'm just asking you to think about the new
reality that we're living in and what we will need to spend money on at least in the next four years to make it possible for us to have the same quality of life in Emmers that we've been enjoying thank you very much thank you for joining us
janet Keller please enter the room did we lose Janet nope there she is thank you please unmute how's that can you That's good we can thank you
well something just happened again my connection is weak um let's let me talk fast uh thanks to the council members and to the trustees um for all the time and effort you give to the town and um I live in just D
district 1 i love libraries i worked in the Providence library system for seven years until I left to raise a family um I wish I could support this project but I can't
i hope you will re uh members of the council will resend the authorization for the demolition and expansion of the library i am concerned that the demolition and expansion of the library will not only make it more costly to
build the library but more cost costly to staff and maintain what is the plan for funding the maintaining and staffing of the additional space we don't know where the national and international
economy will end up i fear very much that national grants are at risk and that donors could well be of adversely affected by the economic and political chaos throughout the country and the world please don't do this and put us um
at risk uh of uh having a project that will not uh survive economically thank you thank you for joining us jason Dornney please enter the room hello can you hear me yes we can thank
you i'd like to uh start by saying we love the library we use it often however I advocate for the rescending of this uh the borrowing authorization for this project um this project does not exist in vacuum dpw building project as well as the fire station project that are
anticipated to be built would also require additional build uh borrowing the cost of borrowing money for this project plus the DPW the fire station the new school they're all going to cause the town to continue delaying other projects like general repairs road
maintenance other capital improvement projects it appears that uh the town has a habit of not addressing necessary repairs when they come up we've been talking about this uh project for 10 years 12 years um we have a middle
school roof that is literally falling on children's heads nobody seems to be talking about borrowing to fix that um and that project needed to happen a decade ago as well that's an incredibly important project and it's just been
kicked down the road we have a $50 million backlog in road repairs at some point that backlog was maybe $5 million but people voted or the council voted whomever however it happened it got way out of hand and we're just continuing to
borrow and borrow and borrow our town is not growing in any real appreciable amount our schools are crumbling we're cutting c we're cutting positions in our schools and then we're going to turn around and borrow a bunch of money that
we're going to end up paying for and increase our already high property taxes i think that this project is irresponsible it was voted on years ago if anything that should move forward as a repair project uh all of the great
services that the library offers now will still exist this library building is not going to fall to the ground if this doesn't pass thank you for joining us Jason courtney please state your full name and I'm going to just uh I'm not
going to take any more after we get to the people that are signed up so please do not add your name we are approaching the two hours and we have plenty of other ways to provide comment courtney please start
hi my name is Courtney Cullen i live on Pine Street next to the great pothole of Rosemary Street i am here to urge the town council to rescend authorization for the library project there are two points I would like to make one the current financial climate is incredibly
unstable there is no guarantee that the project will meet its funding goals or that the project will be able to move forward based on skyrocketing costs of materials it would be incredibly irresponsible to condemn the taxpayers of Ammeris to foot the bill when funding
is not met or roadblocks inevitably come up this will fall on top of the tax increases we are already paying for the new school our town needs to focus on its schools paying its teachers paras and also addressing the crumbling
infrastructure two the library plans are still woefully ugly there have already been material compromises to the project due to shifting costs such as using quote unquote new materials in lie of wood the proposed plans turned the Jones
into a post-modern tomb destroying the trees and surrounding grounds in order to create a very familiar box you can see similar architecture just down the road in the high-rise student housings i want to see a library that honors
Ammerst and its history with smart renovations and preservation there are creative solutions that have not even begun to be explored we are blessed to live in one of the most educated areas in the country and you can't tell me that this is the best or most beautiful
plan we could come up with thank you thank you for joining us will Mike Min hi um so I'm I only recently became a permanent resident and part of why I decided to live here full-time was the great community spaces like the Jones
Library and also live in district one I should say but even though I love the community and the staff it's clearly not it clearly needs physical improvements made to it to better serve everyone and it's considering that the funding was already approved I am strongly in favor
of um not rescending the funding i don't feel that fear due to political uncertainty is a good reason to stop such a valuable project and stop us from enjoying the last impact we get from it i think for the amount of the amount of time we would actually be contributing it would be a great investment for it
thank you thank you for joining us gian please enter the room state your full name thank you uh my name is Jan Ch i live in district 4 uh good evening everybody um
good evening uh good evening town council thank you all for your dedication to this town tonight I ask you to please consider this town's financial health and please stop this project from moving forward i'm an
educator and I see how schools have been struggling to retain teachers and staff we need to weigh our priority carefully we do not need an oversized library as an educator I see firsthand how
educators and young people acquire information and knowledge digitally at the palms of their hands we use open educational resources through the web anytime anywhere we happen to be not
necessarily in the library we love the library but not this oversized or overly ambitious one thank you very much for your time thank you for joining us Peggy Matthews Nielson
please please unmute there you go hello I'm Peggy Matthews Nilson i live on Tberry Lane in district 5 i'm speaking tonight to urge town council to rescend the borrowing authorization for the Jones Library
Building Project i want to thank councilors Shane Hegner and TAB for bringing the resolution forward what makes the Jones Library project so risky now is that it is not a renovation
expansion as it's called but instead a demolition expansion it is the demolition aspect that makes it so costly and so risky in this era of tariffs rising costs and
unprecedented economic instability once you tear down a building into rubble there's no turning back demolishing the library the library's brick edition with a metal roof would place the town at risk for supply chain
issues and escalating costs of materials for rebuilding we all remember how the pandemic brought delays and shortages to towns across the country many towns are still recovering there's no doubt that
Trump's erratic economic policies will have a devastating impact on all construction costs if the town boldly faces these new financial realities by pivoting to renovate the existing Jones Library building we could pace the re we
could we could reapply for historic preservation tax credits that were lost in the demolition plan and avoid sending an estimated 1,600 tons of demolition debris to landfills as our town counselors you speak for Ammerst
residents and you have the power to pursue a more reasonable plan B in these uncertain indeed unprecedented economic times thank you for joining us Peggy roger Edis
good evening um Roger Eids we live on uh East Pleasant um near in North Ammerst i have several things I want to say briefly one is we unequivocally support this project my partner and I um it is been well thought out we have
spent a great amount of time with Kent Farber understanding the the history of the project and all we have a very large sum um committed and we will certainly come through one of my complaints tonight that I want to voice is that um basically I believe members of your
council have defamed the public that is putting money into this project you're acting like we're all going to bail and we're not and I'm really angry today over the fact that a we were that that defamation continues you keep saying "Oh they won't come through." Well we are
coming through and I'm sorry but that's how it feels um second is I feel totally disenfranchised by the decision to make this a closed-d dooror meeting and not in person zoom is not the same if it had required moving this I see you Kathy
Grier why are you laughing at me i'm a taxpayer i'm a taxpayer and why were we disenfranchised it would have been better to have too many people show up and put this meeting off for a week and put it in a room where all 250 of us could have showed up i am tired of the
minority ruling in this country that's why we have the Trump mess and why we have the mega problem and the economy but this project is a chance for the town to get something done for 13 million instead of 50 and most of the opponents I realize have not listened to
what Kent or Bob or Paul said about how the budget is and the fact of the matter is you're not stuck with the cost overruns and you will never get a better deal than this but I really can't believe that the count town council here has is so eager to throw voters out and
we should have been there in person tonight have I appreciate everybody's effort but I noticed that the again the opponents just keep dragging this through the mud thank you for your efforts people thank you Roger uh we have a caller
um 619 number please state your full name yes hi this is Lauren Mills i hope you can hear me lauren I'm sorry you've spoken already oh I'm sorry Lauren you didn't speak
already thank you so much lauren please go ahead okay um different i wanted to first say that um I appreciate all the town members who are trying to make the library more accessible and um growing
up in Boston my mom worked at the Boston Public Library so I spent a lot of time in the library um but I also had an after school program to go to and my single um parent mom also took us on
vacation and so um in light of this meeting I wanted to just share some of my thoughts about um the the library and what it has in common with the
schools um the library is a public space um as well as our schools they are both places of education and self-discovery and they are organized and what is fair and what is right or equal cannot be
always measured in dollars all the time um the library is a great place in many ways but if I was a middle schooler or a high schooler what I need in the form of support mentoring or self-discovery may
not be um found at the library the schools um also need the base support of the town manager that is given to the Jones library and the counselors um I hope can find the amount that is needed in this
situation um to make sure that the library is functioning and taking into consideration the programs it offers who would serve and the other places that provide those same services in the town um and I
always wanted to to hope that the libraries in our schools will be used more um because those are also places where um children can access um safe spaces to do their homework and I just
wanted to um end with I hope that Oh sorry okay thank you thank you Lauren and thanks for calling back uh the other caller please enter the room and state your full name please unmute yes my name is Tom
McBride South Amoris District 5 i think we should consider our fellow members of the Commonwealth uh to be uh paying for our library with their taxes thank
you thank you for joining us Peggy uh we've already had you and I'm sorry Pat uh please enter the room state your
name and let us know who you are good evening everyone um I debated tonight whether or not for me to speak but I decided to as a businesswoman you know the
whole issue of Jones Library I look at from the perspective of who is the project benefiting and I can list them the business improvement district the chamber of
commerce the MS forward the fundraisers the contractors and also this is an election year people who want to get
reelected i also want to comment on white folks speaking for my community the bipok and black
folks jo library is not a welcoming place for everyone and so people have to be very careful when they say they're doing it for immigrants for black people for homeless people be careful when you say
that because you're offending some of the resident of this town and while I don't always agree with some of the town counselors but the real heroes tonight are the three counselors
who made this meeting possible i respect you it took a lot of courage to do this and that's what you're supposed to do you were elected to do this type of thing to allow more conversation i do
not support moving forward with this project because it will be done on the backs of marginalized people see what happens with the upper funds the rich got the money on the black on the backs of poor
people thank you Pat thank you for joining us that concludes public comment so we are now at the point of whether any other further council comments or discussion from counselors or trustees
i'm sorry i need to get back over here Kathy yes i I would like to make it clear to everyone that Bob Jennifer and I took the dramatic step of calling for this special meeting out of our commitment to fiduciary responsibility to the town and
a concern that we were not getting answers to basic cost questions as the deadline for signing a contract approached these questions included what is the total cost of the project will the subcontractors and the general
contractor commit to the bids they made last fall knowing what's going on around us we weren't sure they would commit and needed to know that answer is it still in the 46 million second will Ammeris get the 2.1 million in federal grants
one from HUD and NEH do we have any asurances in writing recent conversations given what we're reading about the situation at the federal level and third what's the current gap in trustee fundraising how do they propose
to pay the town the full amount of their share without draining the endowment fund we are also committed to the survival of the library and we know how much you need the endowment fund for that that survival we were told that having voted
and I voted in 2023 for this project worried about the risk but at that point I thought there were still historic tax credits that would help close that gap and those disappeared i was always worried about the risks we were told that we didn't
have a role anymore having voted that and that potentially the only reason way to spark this conversation was to call for a re a recision and that was literally the information so we we acted
on that to have the conversation we've just had tonight and I must say at 1:30 this afternoon when we got a very long Q&A Q&A from Paul that I want to thank the staff and Paul who worked really
hard last week to get us answers to the questions that we didn't have on Monday night that wasn't that long ago so um I really appreciate it we we got very good news or some good news that the general contractor will adhere to their
commitment and only two subcontractors will not but the next highest or the next lowest uh at least one of them has said they will and it looks like that cost difference is only about 270 and we still have to bid the
slate roof which leaves us with 3 million in contingency and as of a week ago I wasn't sure we had any contingency left if all the bids were higher so that what led to this special meeting and I
think um I I applaud the trustees for coming in to try and do a good job and answering how are you going to pay for the gap if you're not there two years from now and I I think the plan may work
and let's hope the endowment holds and doesn't get swamped because the town will be at risk and what I'm hearing is we're going to co hold this risk for 7 to9 to10 million for the next three years in terms of what you've already
raised as the rest of the money comes in and this is real money to the town um I'm sitting looking at budgets and what debt we've already incurred for other projects and watching it squeeze out needs of other places so this was not
ever meant to be a vote against the project per se it was against the financial risks that the finan the project was posing for the town the taxpayers and the library so I am very encouraged by what I think is some good
news i do think it's still a very high-risisk project we're at 8 and a half% contingency which on a project that has a re renovation as well as the new as opposed to just a new project is is not as robust as you would want it to
be so we'll have to watch every day what's going on out in the field but I just want to try to explain to people that the concern here was money it was not a one way or the other way it was worrying that we were ignoring the fact
that the delays the most recent delays were all around section 106 which was an effort to secure the federal grants that probably should have started two years ago before the bidding happened and then we wouldn't have had to wait the extra amount of time when the bids came in but
that's yesterday's story and it looks like you've put that to rest so I was very pleased to get the news today at 1:30 which was not very long before this meeting and I'll turn it over to Bob um okay i'll skip to Bob um although
Freck is next Jen called the meeting and we actually thought we would have a presentation and be able to say something before this started which I I appreciate the way the meeting went i think it was healthier to
get all the news that Paul had gathered i must say that all right i'm going to go to Bob Hegner excuse me um I would Thank you what's about a fivem minute recess you want a fivem minute recess okay uh that's perfectly appropriate we
are going to take a five minute recess bob we'll pick up with you as soon as we come back uh it is 9:46 we're going to reconvene at 9:51 it's time to reassemble gang please have your seats
so Bob are we ready okay please go ahead okay thank you everyone again I want to uh first of all thank uh the town manager for and staff for working so
diligently on behalf of the town to ensure this project remains on within budget and to provide the information that we didn't have last week um and I apologize to people for calling
this meeting because had we had this information last week I probably wouldn't have voted to call this meeting um the be information provided by the town manager today answers the two questions that I had the two fundamental questions
I had how much will the project cost and who will pay for it and I think with some with some uncertainty I think we've we've answered that i do have some concerns however as Kathy mentioned the contingency is very low for a project
that involves demolition especially given the potential infl impacts of tariffs inflation supply chain issues recession etc um so the town and the trust and the trustees really must ensure that the total cost remains
within the budget um and I you know Paul has indicated that if we're going over budget we have to the town council will need to authorize that um risks still remain with the project
and we we know what they are they're you know same supply chain issues tariffs inflation but they would also come with the repair option and so we're not really solving any problem by by
sticking our heads in the sand you know we just have to deal with these is risks as they as they come up but I also will note that the town still faces considerable challenges a new DPW facility which is falling
apart the the fire EMS station which will follow shortly um our roads which everyone knows need repair badly uh building repairs school operations and you know layoffs that have been
announced because of of of revenue shortfalls so let's let's try to set our acrimony over the library in the past and let's focus on the problems that are facing the town as we go forward i think we if we you
know we can use the energy that the members of the public brought to tonight and use the energy that that we have in this group to really focus on let's try to find solutions to the problems of tomorrow and not fight the battles of
yesterday thank you thank you Bob jennifer you were the third person on Okay then I'll go to Pam thank you thank you many people have spoken to
some of my concerns um I do know that the the decision that we make tonight is complex um the town manager Paul Buckleman has been very clear that he's advancing step by step through the project because that's the direction we
have provided him in our votes and my feeling is I I appreciated the information um I I am still of the feeling that it it's in the best interest of the taxpayer the town and
just performance of good government to change that direction and vote uh against advancing this particular library expansion project any further [Music] um we're seeing we are in a time of
extreme change many people have mentioned this people's livelihoods that I know are actually being directly directly affected federal money is in jeopardy and the construction costs are changeable so I what I what I don't want is the
library to become an albatross around our neck despite everyone's best efforts um as a counselor I hear repeatedly that we need better funding um for the the priorities of schools
fires roads police and we already face those funding uh concerns for the town operations and each of those has its own unmet needs that are very real uh I mentioned earlier the DPW building with
leaks and mold i would like to see that the employees that work there who have been waiting patiently for a new building get the building they need to me that is that is a crisis um it is different than something that we would a
vision that we would like to to carry um my my gut feeling is that the cost of the library addition is still in uncertain enough to commit further and we should pull back so the prudent thing to do is not to advance the library and
therefore urge my colleagues to vote for a recision tonight to send a a clearer message on the direction we should go thank you jennifer okay so I um abridged what I
thought I would be I had prepared for at the beginning of the meeting so I re um echoing what Bob and Kathy said the call that the call for this meeting um I do feel has served a constructive purpose
that answers to questions that many of us have been seeking you know were provided and while I appreciate having this meeting I and having the information I wish it hadn't taken the call for a special meeting to make that happen and without this meeting the
council would only have learned after the fact after the construction contract was signed the amount in terms of a binding agreement that will commit us a huge chunk of the town's resources and impact our financial decisions for a
long time to come so though many of us have different positions on the library one thing on which we all agree is that the Jones is a vitally is vitally important to downtown and to our community as a whole from the moment I move to Amherst every time I walk by the
Jones I pinch myself really that I live in a town with such a beautiful charming historic library of course the building is in dire need of repair and maintenance but I have always felt that the Jones can remain a treasured community space within its current
square footage we are a community of roughly 15,000 non-stu I'm sorry 13,000 non- studentent residents with the college and university students overwhelmingly um using the libraries on their campus i know that many think there are many who think that the time
could not be more fitting to undertake this project but I must respectfully disagree i was recently struck um that a member of the capital campaign um acknowledged that the total needed from the independent fundraising now exceeds
almost three times the amount raised in any previous capital campaign in Ammerst and that it uncomfortably stretches the limit of what we think is possible that was someone from that's involved in the fundraising in the best of economic
times raising $7 million from community donations was always going to be a monumental lift in an economic downturn it could well be not possible i don't think in this time of economic upheaval when we're on the brink of what could be
a full-fledged recession that this is the time to take on a project that in my assessment is a risky financial undertaking for the town i know I am likely not to be on the prevailing side of this vote but I will be supporting
the motion to resin from the conviction that we can repair the Jones as our budget and other community resources and even and yes fundraising allows i would like to see us direct more funds sooner than we otherwise could to repairing our
roads and schools and to building a new DPW and fire station facilities that we desperately need and are in dire near also in dire need of repair and also replacement so finally I just feel
compelled to respond to those who I feel have maligned and mischaracterized many of my constituents as a handful of naysayers and malcontents as you know and can the audience can imagine this meeting has
generated a great many emails to the council correspondence received is just about evenly divided pro and divided on the pro and con on the motion to recede to resend excuse me to dismiss and
minimalize as those few obstructionist residents and neighbors who hold positions different from one's own ills serves our community as we move forward I hope we can strive to conduct ourselves with the faith that we're all
acting in good faith thank you Bob you still have your hand up okay is there a motion i'm sorry Councelor Walker you have your hand up uh thank you Lynn um I've spent most of
this meeting just listening uh because I I am really grateful that this was an opportunity for me to hear um a lot of different voices in our town i think I think we've seen a lot of people come out for public comment and email the council that that we haven't heard from before and I really appreciate that kind
of engagement with residents and constituents and so I did want to take this time to really listen uh to what people have had to say and I've been struggling to figure out what I want to say and what kinds of questions I want to ask because I do have so many and while some of them were answered by the
document um that was provided to us some of them were not um and so I just wanted to share my honest feelings about where I am right now um I'm I'm feeling very conflicted because I honestly just feel like a lot of what has happened tonight has felt very performative to me um I
have I inherited this project as a counselor when I came in there were already people working on this there was already so much work and planning that had gone into this project um and so of course I would love to have a renovated and expanded library i have three
children who I would love to be able to bring to a library to have additional space to have additional programming um and and the reality for me is that I've been concerned about this project from the beginning because of its financial implications um even when the original
estimates were almost $10 million below what they are now um and so considering you know what I've learned and what I've heard tonight and considering what I have learned and what I'm doing right now in grad school I conclude that these concerns
are still very real um and I feel disappointed to see that my original concerns remain a real reality and that we are in this position where I feel like we're caught between a rock and a hard place uh where there isn't a clear good answer
um I think we can all agree that we want to see the Jones Library be safe vibrant inclusive space and I feel really sad about the rhetoric that comes with these kinds of highly political decisions because it makes it more difficult to understand that we probably all have the
same goal here and we just might not agree on how to get there um but I also hope that everyone understands that these kinds of decisions are subjective and that positionality and perspective will play a part in how you view this issue i come from a lowincome single
parent household uh where I was raised by my mother who sometimes we had to rotate bills and that was a necessity we needed to do to survive and I feel as though we're in this tight position as a town right now financially we are having these discussions at all corners of our
budget and expenditures we are in a place where we are making tough decisions on what type of things we are cutting what types of programs and services we are saving and it just feels a miss right now um I feel like there
are still some questions that have not been answered like what is this project going to cost us fully i feel like we have been looking at this in bits and pieces we have the contract we have the change orders we have the um we have the
interest there's just so many different things and so what is this going to cost us and at what cost i feel like we're just not really talking about the reality of the position we are existing in in time and I know that I would love
to say that this is the best time to be investing in a library as a service as education is under attack as we are seeing books being banned and and I would love to say that that's the reality but we're talking about so much money and so many other services and
positions and other capital needs that are not being met right now and I just feel like we are looking at this project in a vacuum and it feels really hard to be making good decisions when I feel like we aren't having the real honest
conversation um so I I do thank everyone for coming out tonight i thank everyone for the hard work they have put into this project for many years because I do I feel I feel sad right now i feel sad that everyone put so much hard work into this project and that it still doesn't feel like the best decision for our town
um but I but I do appreciate everyone's time tonight and I do appreciate the counselors for calling this meeting because I think this is very imperative that we have this conversation and that we have this conversation publicly and including our constituents
Andy yeah i want to start by thanking the trustees the U fundraising volunteers and staff and all those who have put so much into making this project u move to
the point where we're at now and uh hopefully to go forward uh comment was just made about how long this project has been going on and I have to admit that uh having been active
in town government for probably too long now um I was in on this at the beginning and uh that beginning was like 13 years ago when as chair of the finance committee uh Stephanie O'Keefe is chair
of the select board and I were asked to come and um sign a forum supporting an initial grant to the uh Mass Board of Library Commissioners for money to
develop um an initial assessment and program and um so I I have watched this program and been involved with this program throughout my period on the finance committee on the select board and on the
council um there's been a comment made about the need for all four of the projects and uh that the uh assertion has been made and I'm not
and I think I agree with it that uh the need at the DPW building may be greater but I do um also have to recognize that the order that we ended up with with the four projects who were originally
identified came because of grant opportunity and not because of uh the what what is the worst building and uh when MBLC had a grant process u they uh had a
very strict timeline and they don't start the new grant process until they have completed all of the projects that they've agreed to fund the prior process so when they set up the project
it was similar to the um MBLC and the school project we just had to accept that the grantor um that was going to provide money that would make this possible uh dictated that we go forward and that
is still true today because MBLC has made it clear that if we turn this down now that we cannot come back for 30 years and uh that's a that's a long time uh that we would have to go without that
kind of support to make this possible um so uh I guess that the other thing that I just want to say is that I think that the other thing that we've heard loud
and clear in the information that we've been given is that the cost of saying no to the project going forward is equal to or greater than the cost of saying yes to continuing the project from the town
perspective uh because the uh repairs would fall more heavily on the town and you've we've already talked about that being um a more exp more expensive than the town
commitment by far so uh with that in mind um I uh am going to be voting against any motion to change the course that we have set forward and uh again
thank you to all that put so much commitment into making this possible to get to this stage okay is there a motion i will make the motion there's a motion on the motion sheet is this how I should read
it the motion that's on Yes that's on the agenda mhm oh okay it's looking No the one that's on the motion sheet it's in the packet it's in the here thanks i have to say when I went to the to the
web page for the council it wasn't clear that there was a packet some other that out it was in our packet on anyway some other counselors have said the same thing so um I move to rescend appropriation and borrowing
order FY21-06C an order that approved and authorized bond authorization for 36,279,000 and to resin the 2023 supplemental appropriation for the expansion and renovation of the Jones
Library said some to supplement the amount appropriated under the town council's April 5th 2021 order approving and authorizing borrowing of funds for the expansion and renovations renovation of the Jones
Library 9,860,100 is there a second second Rooney okay um do you feel at this point you have any further thing you would like to say to speak to the motion okay uh then the floor is open for discussion among
counselors uh councelor Hanaki a century ago the Jones Library trustees envisioned a library that would be more than just a warehouse for books the building would look and feel like a home it would welcome and support residents desire to learn not just from
books but from each other the building would welcome performers and speakers it would be not just a building for learning but a building for community and nearly a hundred years later the vision is still alive it's a place where our residents go to learn to relax to
socialize and to become part of our community it is our living room office library and arts culture and performance space a place to find books to learn a new language in a new country to meet other parents and children a place to
spend a day out of the cold or the heat to keep isolation at bay to study work on group projects or just hang out with friends it's a place to search for and apply for a job benefits or college and to experience culture without needing to
spend money the Jones is a second home for all our residents but after a hundred years the actuality of this vision has outgrown the home and the library needs upgraded and expanded to meet changing times and uses the library trustees have
backstopped their share they were elected to make that financial decision it is not for us as a council to usurp their job on the matter theou secures their share and I trust that they made that decision in a considered and
responsible manner the manager is tasked with signing the contract he has his own fiduciary duties and I trust that he will only sign it if he believes the project will be completed within the borrowing authority and if the town's portion will stay as agreed yes we don't
have perfect information but that's because it's not our job to negotiate the contract it's the manager's job and I trust him i trust that the biders took into consideration the possibility of tariffs and more when they submitted their bids since what is happening now is not a surprise to anyone who was
paying attention last fall and I trust what that when those same biders say they can still meet their bid that they can the cost of rescending this bond is worse than any uncertainty the current project has repair will be well over 16
million the town's share will be above 16 million getting to a finished project will take even longer and it will be more disruptive to the library and the legal jeopardy we would put our town in if we rescend is unacceptable i trust
that the costs of rescending the already authorized borrowing are far worse for our town than moving forward with the current project tonight will be at least my eighth vote on this project it has been
11 years since the first vote these are challenging times but the town's share is affordable libraries are bastions of democracy community knowledge and equity we need
them more than ever i will be voting no on the motion to rescend it is the fiscally responsible thing to do are there any other comments seeing none we're going to move to a
vote if you vote in favor you are voting to resend which in effect kills the project okay patanggeles nay anna Delin Gothier nay councelor Rete no
lyn Griezmer nay councelor Hanni no bob Hegner no councelor Lord she's been absent all night i'm sorry thank you and I didn't know whether
she'd make it by now uh Pam Rooney yes councelor Ryan no kathy Shane no andy Steinberg no jennifer Tob yes
councelor Walker yes the motion fails there are three people in favor of the motion there are nine people no I'm sorry there's three people in favor of the motion there's
nine people against the motion and one absent before we adjourn I want to say that as much as maybe some people didn't want to come out tonight a lot of people did and as
much as um when we first got this recommend this request for the meeting it's the first time I've ever had a counselor or a group of counselors feel they needed to request one i'm not sorry they did it's given us an opportunity to
provide for the public the very very insight into this project that I think they needed and I want to thank town manager and his staff for all the work that you put into this i want
to thank our two legislators our three legislators both Mindy Dom and um Joe Cmerford for the extra effort they've made to bring more money into this project and I want to thank the
Congressman McGovern and his staff who just this last week we're tracking down grants in a very difficult environment but most of all I want to thank the trustees and your fundraisers i think you'll do
it i know you will is there a motion to adjurnn so moved thank you we take a roll call on a Devon Gothier i councelor Ete lynn Griemer i councelor Hani i bob Hegner i councelor
Lord absent thank you we're getting good at it uh Pam Rooney here i mean all right she is here i can councelor Ryan uh yes uh Kathy Shane yes andy
Steinberg yes uh Jennifer Tob yes councelor Walker yes pat D'Angelus hi okay before I adjourn us Austin would you please adjourn the trustees no um I want to say something okay
uh what I want to say is I want to say that democracy is messy it's hard it's hard to walk a room across a room when you walk into it with people who have opposed you and
will oppose you and shake their hands more of that ought to be done i regret that it is not done but each one of us needs to set an example the example that's been set
here I think is a good one even though many of us annoy each other and we show it that's too bad but we're human democracy is messy and it's hard it takes
patience it takes finding the good in someone else even when they annoy you because they make you go through the same thing time and time again when I was in this room 12 years ago or 13 years ago and was asked why did I
want to be on the Jones Library board of trustes I said because I love the town and I love the library i corrected you not because I don't respect you we are not advocates for a project we never have
been and that's unfair to us we're advocates for the town and we have a vision which is different from yours but it's not about a project it's about the
town saying thank you is politeness it is not gratitude gratitude is shown when people show up to do something hard that's gratitude ken Fervor Jenny Hamilton Lee Edwards have done more than anybody
could have asked them to do to raise funds for this town the trustees could have said no to all of your requests for information we are not just a town body so we hope going
forward that the next time we come into a room with people who oppose us the first thing we'll do is we'll shake their hands motion to Edwards and the council is adjourned good
evening