I actually kind of dislike all those listicals you can't avoid on the Internet these days. WAY too many of them, almost all with the same pitch designed to get you to click: "You won't believe #4," or maybe it was #7.
But certainly one of the more reputable entities out there is USA Today, still one of the top circulating print newspapers in the nation. So their "Top Ten" actually means something.
And hey, who wants to be only #3? So let's vote up to #1 the Lord Jeffery Inn, both an anchor and an icon for our downtown.
Amherst College President Biddy Martin (speaking extemporaneously)
Perhapsit was the home field advantage, speaking from the comfort of a newly refurbished historic inn, or the friendly audience of local business and civic leaders--the "usual suspects" at an Amherst Chamber of Commerce event--or maybe her lifelong background in higher education...but more likely all of the above, as this morning Amherst College President, going on seven months now, Carolyn "Biddy" Martin gave an engaging fireside chat to a receptive audience of 86 smartly dressed men and women at the Amherst College owned Lord Jeffery Inn. First and foremost, President Martin wanted to dispel the outdated notion (from back in the day when Emily Dickinson was putting quill pen to paper) that Amherst College is an elitist, blue blood private school for the privileged. She cited the telling statistics that over half the current enrollment are a combination of international students and students of color and almost one-quarter are eligible for a PELL Grant .
She highlighted her background at Cornell and the University of Wisconsin-Madison which are both "land grant" institutions expected by charter to serve the local community. And so it will be with Amherst College, where the fortunes of the town and the college named after the town are so deeply intertwined.
Ms. Martin's short list of top priorities include hiring new faculty in the current competitive market. The education boom of the 1960s swelled the ranks of professors, who are now retiring in droves. While competition from demanding Asian colleges and universities for liberal arts professors only adds to supply problems.
She proudly pointed out the new $200 million life sciences building, which will require the next four or five years to complete and will be second to none on a national scale. One unusual component (at least for a liberal arts college) will be an "incubator" for the study of entrepreneurship. Not a space for business start ups, like at UMass or Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, but a center for students to learn about the social value of starting a business.
Coincidentally enough fellow Amherst resident Donna Kelley, associate professor of entrepreneurship at Babson College, made national news last week for a major study she co-authored on women's entrepreneurship encompassing 59 economies, that found American women have greater fear of failure than American men when contemplating business creation.
Precisely the problem education can rectify--the earlier the better. Kelley also recently co-taught a Junior Achievement course at Amherst's Crocker Farm Elementary School, where her daughter is a student.
When the new Amherst College science center opens sometime in 2017, the four-story, 220,000-square-foot building will be the largest structure on campus, and an impressive trophy to attract new faculty and students.
But expensive new bricks and mortar buildings are not the only means for dispensing higher education--at least not in this digital age. Ms. Martin pointed out the importance of distance learning online as a cost effective adjunct for face-to-face communication, where maintaining an 8-1 student teacher ratio is costly. A lesson the Amherst public schools could stand learning.
If anyone in the audience harbored any uncertainty about the first female president in the 190 year history of the college, they left the Dickinson Room with those doubts dispelled.
After a too long hiatus of three years the historic--now LEED certified--Lord Jeffery Inn, revived by a $14 million overhaul, has returned to service as a downtown anchor just off the Amherst town common.
Amherst College President Biddy Martin welcomes the crowd
The project was originally announced as a $20 million endeavor but the stock market chill took a major bite out of Inn owner Amherst College's $1.3 billion endowment, so revitalization plans went into hibernation.
The return of the majestic old Inn that first opened in 1926 is good news for Amherst College, providing a high profile location to entertain important visitors and even better news for the bottom line of the town's coffers. Like their 111 year old Amherst Golf Course, the Lord Jeff Inn is on the tax rolls with an assessed value to jump from the current $2.4 million already up from $832,600 last year resulting in significant tax monies paid to the town to provide vital services.
Representative Ellen Story: Along with Jones Library the Lord Jeff is the "heart" of Amherst
Amherst also enacted the extra local option tax on food and lodging thus providing yet another lucrative benefit of having a new hotel/restaurant open for business. All in all, a great day for downtown Amherst.
Staff and dignitaries on one side spectators and media on the other
I owe you a draft beer Mr Marx, payable on opening night spring, 2011 at the Boltwood Tavern--assuming the newly renovated Lord Jeff Inn keeps the concept of a low-key, relatively inexpensive pub as part of the fancy more expensive Inn with rooms and fine dining.
Okay maybe it's not the ultra ritzy $24-30 million renovation originally planned, but I'll take a lousy $14 million anytime (seven times the current assessed value). Just get her opened again!
In addition to bringing folks to the downtown the Inn will pay significantly more property taxes (currently $30,000) increasing by a factor of 5 or 6. And they will also pay the newly increased lodging tax and meals tax. All in all, a bonanza for the town tax coffers and a much needed shot in the arm for downtown economic development.
So yes, as an Amherst Town Meeting member with too many years business experience I will of course support the property tax break for Atkins Farm stand my South Amherst business neighbor. But if somebody asked me over the past 20 years or so for a list of the top retail businesses in Amherst, Atkins would be high on my list.
And I remember 45 years or so ago when they were neck-and-neck with Wentworth Farms for farm stand fresh produce sales. At the time Atkins was on the other side of the main road and they had a GIANT bright red apple on top of the tiny farm stand.
But today anytime you drive or cycle by during business hours the Atkins parking lot is overflowing. Wentworth Farms is long gone.
Good for me of course since the building I have occupied for the past 26 years or so was originally apple storage for Wentworth Farms, thus if they had not gone belly up due to Atkins…
But how about the Lord Jeffery Inn? Yeah, I know--they are owned by tax-exempt Amherst College who has a BILLION in their endowment. But a year ago it was a LOT higher than that. Thus they cancelled the $20 million renovation of their cozy Inn, although they seem to find the cash to do millions in renovations to their other tax-exempt infrastructure.
Now the decaying Lord Jeff sits forlornly in town center as a high profile public embarrassment. Why not offer Amherst College a tax break over the next five years or so to do the damn renovation?
The Lord Jeff generates collateral business for everybody in the downtown and when Amherst increases the hotel/motel tax to 6% (that too, I will support) the Lord Jeff would pass thru over $100,000 annually to the town.
If we can subsidize Atkins why not Amherst College?
