On Jan. 30, 2017, Rita K. Burke and 91 other Town Meeting members voted to overturn the results of a fair and legal election in which the voters of Amherst accepted a 5% override for two co-located schools.
According to your article on last week’s front page, Ms. Burke and her friends cost Amherst taxpayers $30 million and counting. The vote is on tallyvotes.org for anyone to see.
And then, on Nov. 2, 2021, the voters of Amherst approved a $35 million expenditure to renovate and expand the Jones Library. Again, these same people employed “strategic” means (filed a frivolous lawsuit to cause delay), driving up the library cost by $15 million and counting. Money that could have otherwise gone to a new fire station and DPW hub. Just the energy savings from the new school, the one that the voters approved, would have saved another $5 million toward our capital needs.
Contrary to popular belief, money does not grow on trees.
Amherst now has two of the 10 worst (physically) schools in the state and Amherst is one of only two municipalities in western Massachusetts (along with North Adams) without a modern, up-to-date library. Maybe more people would actually go to the library if the roof didn’t leak and the air conditioning didn’t fail periodically.
And who cares how many people went to the library in 2020. We voted for a new library, what’s the problem? What do you call it when a small, self-appointed group overturns the results of not one but two elections? We voted, doesn’t that mean something? Anything? Apparently, not.
And what about the $50-plus million you already cost us? Who is going to pay for this mess for the next 50 years? The answer is your grandchildren! Sorry if this makes you uncomfortable, it is just the fact.
Kevin Collins
Amherst