By Allison McDonald

A report on the regular meeting of the Amherst Town Council on Monday, March 9.

Amherst’s Town Council on Monday reviewed and approved a slate of financial orders that will move millions of dollars into capital needs, including roads, sidewalks, and the Regional school district project to replace the roof on the middle school auditorium. 

The meeting opened with a public forum on six separate financial orders that the Council later voted on. In a presentation, Finance Director Sean Mangano explained that the appropriations are from the Town’s general stabilization fund and free cash.

• $335,001 transfer from the general stabilization fund to the capital stabilization fund, bringing the total in the fund to $12.9 million.
• $56,004 in cannabis excise tax directed to the Reparations Stabilization Fund, making the total balance in that fund $663,861.
• $2.7 million for roads and sidewalks
• $89,237 transfer of opioid settlement funds from free cash to the revolving fund for opioid mitigation efforts
• $150,000 to the Regional school district for two years of maintenance of the new fields within and around the new track at the high school, and an inter municipal agreement to outline how the money is spent
• $1.6 million to the Regional schools to replace the middle school auditorium roof, and another inter municipal agreement to define how the money is spent and tracked

Councilors approved all but the appropriations for roads and sidewalks and the middle school roof without discussion as part of a unanimous vote on a consent agenda.

Gift to Regional Schools for Middle School Roof

The Council gave final approval to the appropriation of $1.6 million as a gift to the Regional schools after a lengthy discussion about possibly delaying the vote until March 23, when actual bid amounts for the middle school auditorium roof replacement would be known. 

Several questions were raised about the school district’s timeline for bid review and signing, as well as what the plan was should the bids come in higher than budget. With no representatives from the district or the school committee present at the meeting, the questions were not answered. 

Some Councilors and Town Manager Paul Bockelman expressed concern about the appropriation request coming at the expense of greater investment in road repair. The original appropriation request did not plan any funds for the Regional schools (because the district had not submitted any request at that time), and the originally planned $4.2 million for roads and sidewalks was reduced in order to accommodate the $1.6 million for the Regional schools that was later requested.

Bockelman attested that the community is concerned about the Town’s failure to invest in the roads, saying the reduction being proposed “is going to put us farther behind the condition of our roads, and we need to put that money into our roads.”

Cathy Schoen (D1), chair of the Finance Committee, shared the concern but suggested that even the original $4.2 million was far lower than what’s needed to fix roads. “Our roads are in such a state of disrepair that this [reduction] is at the margin rather than gutting it.”

The Council ultimately chose not to postpone the decision and voted to approve the appropriation, with 12 councilors in favor and only Mandi Jo Hanneke (At-Large) opposed.

Roads, Sidewalks, and the Bigger Financial Picture

After a lengthy discussion about the need for significant funding to appropriately address the condition of the Town’s roads, the Council approved the roads and sidewalks appropriation unanimously.

Several Councilors expressed concern that the discussion and decision positions schools and roads in competition with each other. Amber Cano Martin (D2) said that she would like to “prioritize these things in a way that makes sense, and then we’re not pitting things against each other.”

Jill Brevik (D1) suggested that roads and schools are urgent, critical needs and that the Town should look at less critical needs to shift funding. Brevik asked “Can we look at police? Can we look in other areas that haven’t been, as thoroughly investigated, in terms of where we can move money from to address this issue?”

Andy Churchill (At-Large) noted that the Town’s funding needs are larger than the money available. “We’re going to be put in this position of pitting things…various parts of the community services, against each other, as long as we don’t have revenues that match what the needs are.”

Lynn Griesemer (D2) added that Amherst needs to review and update the overall financial model for funding the major capital needs of the Town. That model, originally developed in 2021 and updated in 2024, describes how the Town would support the four major building projects–the elementary school, library, fire station, and public works buildings. Griesemer suggested that the model should be updated to add the roads and to reflect the growing pressures from other infrastructure needs and contract obligations.

Jennifer Taub (D4) said that asking the colleges to help fund road repairs should be a priority. “I don’t see how we square the financing without Amherst College and UMass stepping up in this critical part of our infrastructure.”

Schoen raised the idea of requiring students with cars to pay local excise tax, saying “if UMass agreed that they couldn’t park in their parking lots if they’re going to park for a semester, for a year without registering the car in Amherst, we would get excise tax money” that could be used to fund road repairs.

The discussion concluded with the vote on the $2.7 million appropriation for roads and sidewalks; it was approved unanimously.

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Charter Review

In other business, the Council continued its deliberations on the recommendations of the Charter Review Committee about changes to the Town’s Charter, discussing the overall process for making changes as well as several of the proposed changes, including:

1. Term limits for Council leadership
2. Voting “quantums” (thresholds)
3. Public forum definitions and process
4. Resident membership on Council committees

The next meeting is on Monday, March 23.