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Date: 9/20/2022
AMHERST – The saga of the Jones Library renovation and expansion project continued over the course of two municipal meetings, culminating in the library’s Board of Trustees’ agreement to double down on fundraising efforts over the next five years. The Amherst Town Council met on Sept. 12 and spent roughly half the meeting discussing the issue, while the Amherst Finance Committee met the following evening on Sept. 13 and devoted their entire meeting to the subject.
Amherst Planning Director Christine Brestrup gave a quick breakdown of the project’s history during the council meeting. The journey began in 2013 when the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) awarded a $50,000 provisional planning and design grant for the library’s renovation and expansion. The town of Amherst matched their grant with $25,000 of municipal funds. In 2017, the preliminary design and grant proposal was approved by town council vote, and by 2019 the project had moved to the No. 2 slot on the MBLC waitlist.
A 2020 accessibility study detailed an updated repair estimate, which increased the overall cost estimate. On April 5, 2021 the council voted to appropriate $15.8 million in municipal funds to cover the town’s share of the project cost, as well authorized the town manager to enter into a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with Jones Library Inc. whereby the library’s Board of Trustees agreed to reimburse the town for their erstwhile $5.6 million share of the costs. The MOA states that if the library cannot raise its fundraising goals, the town will compensate them for the remainder, but after five years, the library must repay its debt to the town from its endowment.
However, this summer, new estimates and inflation triggered a “serious increase in costs,” said Brestrup. At press time, the approved budget is $36.3 million while the new total project cost is estimated at roughly $48 million as a midpoint and the high point estimate is $51.4 million. The roughly $11 million deficit must be covered by the library. The library’s endowment is currently around $8.1 million, meaning even if the Board of Trustees decided to completely exhaust the endowment, they would still be short. To complicate matters even further, the new projected costs are likely to rise again by the time the project potentially goes to the bidding phase in summer of 2023: every year delay adds an approximate $1.6 million in costs, which does not even include rising inflation in the interim.
The new midpoint estimate of the library’s total fundraising needed to complete the project is now $16.7 million. To date, the library has raised $3.1 million. However, the library’s Board of Trustees are adamant about completing the project, and have already drafted a new fundraising plan, which was presented at the Finance Committee meeting. The plan aims for roughly $14 million to be raised by Dec. 31, 2026, $6 million of which is projected to be raised by the time the project goes to bid next summer. Funds would be generated from a combination of federal and state grants, community donations, corporate donations, bequests and historical tax credits, as well as the $1 million already provided by the Community Preservation Act (CPA).
These fundraising goals are ambitious to say the least, but the committee and the board of trustees alike were remarkably confident. Board President Austin Sarat said, “On behalf of the trustees, we’re quite comfortable with this projection.”
Town Council President Lynn Griesemer agreed and said, “Fundraising is scary, but having done some in this community, I’m actually more comfortable with this than I thought I would be … As you raise money, you attract regular donors, and those regular donors often come back on capital campaigns, but also on your regular annual campaign.”
Kent Faerber is the co-chair of the Jones Library Capital Campaign, a collaborative effort between the trustees and the Friends of Jones Library nonprofit organization. He has extensive fundraising experience.
When asked about the plausibility of the plan with regards to donors and a less than favorable economy, Faerber said it could still be done.
“There is never a good time to fundraise. I have worked through 1990 and 2008 … these economic downturns are ephemeral, they do pass. We’re talking about going out five years here, it can be done. The thing that I think daunts most people is the notion that there are people who could make multimillion dollar gifts who live in Amherst … I would just remind them of two things: The town has just received a gift for $1.5 million for the North Amherst Library – anonymously, but I have to assume it’s an Amherst resident. When I was the president of the Community Foundation 15 years ago, we received two $1 million charitable lead trusts … there are people of means out there ... This is definitely plausible,” Faerber said.
The trustees met independently on Sept. 12 and agreed to continue with the project at least until the bidding process. If, after bidding, the decision is made to abandon the project, the board will reimburse the town for costs up to that point for the schematic design, design development and construction documents phases, or to invest the equivalent amount into capital repairs for the library including necessary repairs to the roof or HVAC system, in the existing library. They also voted to rescind the Aug. 22 motion to pledge the full value of their endowment to fund the project, which led to the aforementioned fundraising plan’s development.
Due to both the new costs and the new strategy, the original MOA between Town Manager Paul Bockelman and Jones Library Inc. became moot. It authorized the debt of $5.6 million previously thought to be sufficient to cover the library’s share, and it never considered the possibility of the project being abandoned and/or redirected into repairs. Thus, a new MOA needed to be prepared, but the Finance Committee does not have the jurisdiction to authorize it; that is the domain of the Town Council.
Instead, the committee voted to recommend that the council reauthorize Bockelman to enter a new MOA with Jones Library Inc.
The recommendation also includes “an addendum/agreement that includes a bridging agreement for the time period prior to moving to construction.” The reason for the addendum is that projected costs are likely to change yet again by the time of the bidding phase, so an MOA drafted now would be subject to change then just like the first one. By the time of bidding the numbers will be firm, and a final MOA will be enabled. The bridging agreement essentially allows for this change.
Bockelman cannot sign any construction contracts until all funding is in place. If the town does authorize this new MOA, the project will move into the design development stage. The town council will vote on this authorization at their next meeting on Sept. 19.