Daily Hampshire Gazette – Ira Bryck: Stop unsustainable Jones Library expansion

I urge the city council to support Cathy Schoen’s motion to stop the library project by telling the city manager not to sign a contract with the FAA architects, so that there are no more Another $500,000 spent on additional “value engineering” to reduce expansion by eliminating much of what was promised in the original plan, supported by only 3,000 of our 40,000 residents. My sense is that at least two-thirds of the City Council, as well as the City Manager, understand the enormous net downsides of the expansion plan, whether it was an initial pipe dream or the current nightmare. You owe your allegiance to the well-being of our city. We have multiple infrastructure needs more urgent than this turbulent campaign. Be more courageous and vote against the continuation of this process which is not starting. Don’t let it go on and on. Tell the council, manager and your city that you support catching up on much-delayed maintenance work and find a way to bring the Jones up to speed at a lower cost; then move forward with hiring teachers, repairing roads, and building the necessary fire station and public works facilities.

Ira Bryck

Amherst