The attendance peaked at 35
The town probably set a new record for number of meeting participants with a joint meeting of 5 boards/committees and town staff: Select Board, Finance Committee, School Committee, Jones Library Trustees, DPW/Fire Station Study Committee.
And before the digital dust settled the final tally for all four building projects presented came to $100 million in town money, or one tenth of a BILLION.
The purpose of the meeting was to briefly pitch their individual projects and then hear about how the town might finance all of them.
With total town savings in Free Cash and Stabilization at around $12 million only the Fire Station could be immediately paid for out of savings alone. But unfortunately the South Fire Station is scheduled to be the last of the four projects to break ground.
The $67 million Mega School is already scheduled to go first on the November 8 ballot with a debt exclusion that will cost town taxpayers about half that total amount.
And the other project funded via a $12 million debt exclusion with be the $32 million Jones Library expansion with the state paying $15 million and private donations covering $5 million.
The $50 million or so from those two debt exclusions, if passed, will cost the average single family homeowner $500 per year. Amherst already is in the top ten in the state for high property tax rates.
The DPW/Fire Station Study Committee will come to Town Meeting in November with a request for $350,000 in "schematic design" for the DPW project and $75,000 for the "feasibility and site design" of the new Fire Station.
17 comments:
This is a huge amount of money. I don't know about the average house value, but my house seems pretty average and i already pay $12,000 a year in property tax, so I suppose that will mean an additional $1,000.
Obviously, it's prudent for any town to take advantage of any financial resources the state offers us for major building projects. However, I also think it's equally prudent for every town resident, whether a property owner or not, to consider the financial implications taking on such projects will have on them, their children, and the community as a whole. And everyone in town must also consider if the town is right for doing all of these projects. Here is a practical New Englander's views:
The Fire Station is the only immediate must. Do it.
The schools: No way! Do you really want to gamble that the dysfunctional school boards can lead such a huge, expensive, complex building project successfully? They can't even play nicely with each other! Absolutely no to this until we get two 100% new school boards with folks who are experienced in with building something.
The Library: I'm torn. I think this needs a new plan that brings the town together rather than divides it. As a town, we don't seem to agree on the goals or mission of the library: a quiet place or a social place? Until this basic sense of mission is clear, and agreed upon, I don't think we should rocket forward. If this can be clarity and agreement in the next few months, sure go for it. But we're talking Amherst where people can't agree on much of anything.
DPW: Are you kidding me? No. Pave the streets. Build real bike lanes. Build more sidewalks. Then we'll talk about a new building. I was just in Fort Collins, CO, another college town (yes much bigger than us) -- but they have real bike lanes (wide and on both sides of every road) and sidewalks. It's ridiculous that we say we're a green community and we don't have these two essential green features.
$12k in property tax would mean your home/property is worth like $500k.. Humblebrag if ever I saw one.
Pretty soon the fucking taxes will be higher than the mortgage...
That is only $2500 per person. If every man, woman and child in town contributed $250 a year for about 12-15 years (don't forget interest), it would pay for these projects as they are currently wastefully planned.
It is also enough money to send 4762 students through the Amherst school system for a year even at a whopping, record breaking ripoff of $21k. or about 7,000 students in a normal town or about 20,000-30,000 students in a town providing a value. It will pay for 1.5 years of school for the town for every student even at the ripoff rate. You could send almost 7,000 kids through college for this amount at $15k per year....surely one of them would come back and tell the town they are overspending my orders of magnitude, all it would take is one hour in one math class (The town already provides this BTW, perhaps the town administrators could go to math class).
Most construction projects are about 50% labor and about 50% materials (plus about 25% additional permits and regulations, just saying, but we will ignore this). At $50,000,000 in labor, that is 1,000 man years of labor at $50,000 a year (reasonable cost). You then get $50,000,000 materials, that is enough labor for 500 houses at 100,000 per house (generous). Remember, the houses would last lifetimes, the public buildings will need to be rebuild in 40 years. At this much real labor, we are very likely to have multiple injuries and a death.
Ironic when most activities could happen effectively in a steel building that cost $100-200k and is absolutely HUGE, INSULATED and ready to take in all existing equipment. At $200k, you could build 500 of such buildings and Amherst could provide facilities for all public works in this half of the state. Let's make it more real....at $400k per building, you could still have 250 HUGE buildings ready to go....at $800k per building, you could still have 125 MEGAHUGEVOLUMINOUS Buldings and not have a use for 120 of them.
Then there is state money too right? Perhaps someone should just go downtown, find one small business owner that has made it over a year and ask for some real advice.
But that is too real, the government wants money and Amherst will be sure they get it. There is no requirement to provide value. Literally 100x over a realistic budget and folks barely blink.
9.42am - very well put. I couldn't agree more.
How do we get that $250 out of the children? We have no sweat shops anymore, looks like the plan is foiled again.
How many cats and dogs in town? maybe we can get it out of them? What kind of a nutjob are you 10:34?
You don't get $250 out of the children, that is my point. You get way way more from their parents and neighbors....but there is no real way to afford this....that is my point.....and there is no real need for all the extra funds.....that was my real point, that you can have everything you want, you just have to lower the budget to what people and their kids can afford. My point is why are we not building inexpensive effective buildings we can afford like the private sector. Remember after 2008 how many towns in Mass, that has just spent 100s of millions of dollars, had to turn off every other street light to save money? That was just 8 years ago. My point is that this stuff is unaffordable and we will be worse off with it than without it.
It is so easy to spend other peoples money, so so easy. Plus if you want $21,000 out of one kid in Amherst, all you have to do is produce them. Nothing is more profitable in Amherst than the kids, they push $63,000,000 around the town annually. Nothing else generates more income in town except the bigger version of the same, the university. And yes, the dogs and cats generate revenue too. It seems you are not paying attention to how the town gets money. They literally use kids and pets as justification. All of the above also eat and demand more products, thus more taxes x 20 as they buy this stuff from businesses that literally have dozens of taxes that get paid when the dog eats or the kid needs paper.
$100 to build and how much more in interest? Did anyone, that is the Select Board, talk about which projects were the most important? Any sense of priorities or ways to cut back on the library and school buildings to make them workable and a little more plan vanilla? Did the Select Board have any opinions? On the burdens to taxpayers? Does the Select Board see its jobs as saying yes to everything a committee brings to it?
I can't understand how the school administration keeps presenting Fort River and Wildwood schools as unteachable learning environments. Morris in the Gazette says that "project-based learning" cannot take place because of the buildings. A new buzz word, if you haven't ready anything about progressive education since 1920. But guess what, project based learning happens all the time in the elementary schools, all of them. And if the administration thinks these schools are unteachable, unhealthy environments, why haven't they fixed them? If you read this why would you enroll your kids in Amherst schools? Some common sense.
I agree with 1:14
A quick search indicates...
Project Based Learning is a teaching method in which students gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to an authentic, engaging and complex question, problem, or challenge.
Amherst students have already been doing this- and our current buildings have *NOT* impeded these opportunities.
Mike needs to remember that we all don't get a salary like his!
It's a clique thing - Oedipus cycle - every generation - hates the one before - buy these school mums good psychotherapy - save millions - keep granny in her home !!!$&@
Anon 10:34 is Dr.Ed or a twin. Hope there's not two of them.
People of Amherst if you want change? Its in your hands.
Show up on voting day and change things.
Anon 10:34 is Dr.Ed or a twin.
The hell it is...
9:42 I like the practical New Englander advice. I wholeheartedly agree. Just because funds are available, they still need to be matched with tax dollars.
Make that lots of tax dollars.
Post a Comment