 Oh, I see a lot of attendees. Good morning, everybody. End of demand. That's great. We're happy to be back here in the virtual space. And no free coffee. No free coffee and I'm down to tea. I know I feel bad for you, Brianna. And we've got hands. I see Ken's already got his hands up. So I see that we have about 12 people and more filtering in. I'm just going to say a couple of logistics before we kind of get into the conversation. So as some of you might remember, you are invited to come in and ask your questions live. You can raise your hand as Ken and some others have already done. Or you could use the Q&A function and pop your question into the Q&A to be read to the group. All right. So before we get started in our conversation, I want to invite Paul and Sean if they have any general updates, town information, things you want people to know before we kind of launch. Sure, because people have their hands up and we want to get to whatever they want to talk about first. I do want to mention yesterday was the first time we had people at Hickory Ridge. We have a interactive tour information session going on at Hickory Ridge yesterday. We had, I think over 50 people there today. We had people at 3.30 to five and you can come at 3.30 to hear the sort of information session or just come anytime and there's people there to help guide you through. And then tomorrow Saturday at 10.30. It's beautiful. You get to walk around the land. Brianna was, Brianna has helped organize it. Do you want to say add anything to that, Bri? Yeah, absolutely. So we're welcoming people on the site. You can give us your feedback, ask your questions. If you're not able to make it, we do have a page on our engagement website, and it's called, engage amherst slash Hickory, where we've already got almost 50 ideas and different upvotes and comments generated from the community. So feel free to put your idea there. If you can't join us today or tomorrow. And we also, along that vein, we have our American rescue plan act funding engagement opportunities coming up virtual workshops, as well as a place for you to ask questions and soon coming up. If you're not able to make it, you can go to amherst dot org slash a RPA. Brianna, can I add put one more shout out for. The resident capital request window is open. And it's posted on the website. It's on the joint capital planning committee page. That window is open until around mid November. And every year we get several requests from the public. At the town manager will then consider for his capital plan. So if you have any questions, you can contact me or Sonya Aldrich and we can walk you through it. Great. Thank you, Sean. So as Paul mentioned, we do have a couple of hands already. And I think we can maybe start there. We did brand this conversation as discussing the capital projects and amherst, especially the library and how that fits into the equation, but we obviously will take any questions on any topic. So Ken is the first hand. So Ken, if you would want to unmute and introduce yourself, please. Thank you. Good morning. I'm Ken Rosenthal. I live on Sunset Avenue. At the start, I have a very short one and then a little longer. The short one is Brianna on the website where we talk about a voting coming up in the election and how to vote. We say that we can vote by mail, but it doesn't say how to request your ballot. If you want to vote by mail. So I need to know whether I can. I can request my ballot by writing online or calling in my telephone or whether I have to come into the town hall and do it. So if you could just fix that. So you would tell people like me, how to request the ballot that would help. That's a little one. The bigger one is. We're celebrating a couple of wonderful anniversaries. We wouldn't be here except for the two colleges in the university. I think we're all here because of them. We're celebrating the 500th anniversary of Amherst college. And this weekend in person, close to 700 people are coming to Hampshire college to celebrate. It's 50th anniversary. 50 plus one in admitting students. And it's not just these institutions that we celebrate, but we should celebrate the town's role in bringing them here. The town very self-consciously welcomed. And help these places to establish themselves. I know from the history of Amherst college. And I know it personally because I worked with the town. At Hampshire college, especially the town manager, then Alan Tory in, in helping the college to exist. And it was really very, very cooperative. So my question is, and then I'll leave it to you. Is the town doing anything as a town to celebrate these great anniversaries? Because I think it's important for the townspeople to know how proud all the townspeople should be of Amherst. And for the visitors to know how pleased the town is that these institutions are here and celebrating their great anniversaries. Thank you for taking my question. Those are great comments. Ken. So, you know, I believe the council will be looking at that. They have, we have not at this point. And I just want to correct the Hampshire and obviously as an alum, I will be going to Hampshire's reunion, but it's a next weekend. I'm not sure we sometimes people say this week as the 15th to 17th. So yeah, so it's a really exciting that they're able to do it in person. So yes, I think you raised a really good point because we do see ourselves in partnership with the colleges and the university. And, you know, we should the town should do a little bit more than what we've done so far. So I think that's a great idea. Thank you, Ken. Thank you. Okay, I do see that Phyllis has a hand. So Phyllis, if you could unmute and introduce yourself. Phyllis Lara, I always follow Ken so I have to keep the tradition. You co-opted me. I was going to really encourage people to talk about Hickory Ridge and their ideas and go to the town council. And I was also going to suggest the anniversary of Hampshire college next weekend because of you and Paul. One thing the town council has done in prior years is to pass some kind of resolution. So at a minimum, I think that should be done. You know, to honor both of Amherst college, the 200th and Hampshire's major anniversary. So that's really a big deal for our town to have these major institutions here that luckily Hampshire is going to have these major institutions here. So I'm glad to hear that. And then the third thing, again, the election, Ken mentioned the ballots, but the League of Women voters of which I am a member is having all these candidate forums. There was one last night for the counselors at large. They're going to be district counselors. It's going to be the school committee next Thursday. And on the 21st, there's going to be the Oliver Smith will elector in the housing authority. Thank you, Phyllis. It was nice to see you yesterday. Phyllis mentioned the candidates forums. They are on our community calendar on our website, but you can also find them at the League of Women Voter site LWVA.org. I just want to follow up. So unbeknownst to me, our council president is here and she's already working on the proclamation. She's been working on the proclamations, Ken for both the colleges. So those are in the works, and she's will be the sponsor of them. Okay. So I do see another hand and we do have some pre-submitted questions that we received earlier. So I am going to ask Thomas to unmute and introduce. Good morning. Can you hear me? Yes. Super. Thomas Johnson, I live on Southeast Street. The main topic this morning is sort of capital projects like the library. But I would like to talk a little bit and ask you a question about the related issue of budgeting for operations and maintenance. We all know that capital projects be it for land, for conservation facilities like the library often involve some type of donation, which makes it more attractive in the fiscal burden on the town less. But we can't say the same for O and M expenses. And I have noticed that, you know, many of the trails in the wonderful network and in Amherst suffer from lack of maintenance. I live at the foot of Mount Pollux and see it there. In the case of the library, I read on the website that if I remember correctly, between 11 and 13 million dollars of the overall cost is attributable to what was referred to as deferred maintenance. So my question is, as we go to the ballot box on November 2nd and are asked or decide whether to make this large investment in the library, how can we feel assured that the board of trustees of the library and the town are taking into account the O and M expenses over the coming decades for the library and we don't find ourselves in a position 25 years from now where maintenance has been deferred and the investment we make today, it has been, well, you know, has been diminished, has not been made as sustainable as it should be. Thank you. Let's throw a section. Sure. So I think a couple of things that I would say on that one is that in the past, we haven't invested in capital the way that we should have invested in capital, the percentage of the budget that we put towards capital projects, which includes some, some levels of maintenance, depending on the size, was a much lower percentage than where we're striving now. And so that's one of the reasons why we're trying to get to 10% of our tax levy for capital so that we can do these capital projects and have funding available to do the maintenance and repair projects that we need to do. I think the other thing that we need to do with these four building projects is have really robust maintenance plans from the beginning and stick to them. We've talked about setting aside reserves for maintenance for the future, but having a really well done maintenance plan that we work on with the designer from the beginning for all these new buildings and that we stick to it is the way we want to proceed. Yeah, I just go ahead, Mr. Johnson. No, I'd like to hear your comment and I'd like to respond to Sean. Sure. So yeah, so for years, we've been under investing in our capital. We haven't had new buildings built for four decades. Typically a town like this, we would be looking at a building a decade type, type of replacement model. And we haven't done the investment, but over the last five, six years, we've been building, picking more and more of our operating budget and devoting it to capital, which includes maintenance. And so that's an important piece of what we've been trying to do as a as a town. And the, you know, I think the large different maintenance number for the library is that it's not just maintenance. It's when you, when you start making major changes to a building, you start to trigger a lot of ADA requirements. And then that triggers additional expenses. So those are additional things that come into play when you're doing major overhauls of buildings. Right. Okay. So if I'm understanding you, the way the town budgets is that, you know, major maintenance, let's say roof repairs or whatever would come out of the capital budget as opposed to kind of recurrent. Yeah. I mean, you have a budget set aside for, for maintenance. So if it's all or whatever. If it's a level of maintenance project that you'd qualify as sort of a capital repair, so anything major, maybe over $10,000, that would likely come out of the capital plan. If it's something under, you know, if it's just, if it's whether it's be staffing, you know, having people available to go and fix things as they break. If it's lower levels of types of maintenance, then we have maintenance budgets within the operating budget. Okay. Well, I would just like to say conclusion that, that I think it's useful if the town, when it presents major new investments like the library, like Hickory Ridge really is upfront with the residents about, okay, you know, here's what the upfront costs are. And here are what the downstream costs are. And if, if that means because we're improving the quality of life, improving the quality of educational facilities and so on, that, you know, the town and its residents need to look at it in higher taxes. So be it, you know, that's, that's part of the responsibility of governing and living. And if, and if we all want to improve these things, we need to realize the costs, you know, go on for some time. Thank you. Excellent point. Thank you, Thomas. So I just want to remind we have some new people who have joined, you can feel free to raise your hand if you want to ask a question live, or you can use the Q&A function. I do have a couple of questions that were sent to me previously that I am going to share with the group, but feel free to raise your hands or put a new question into the chat box there. So I've got a number of questions here that were sent in and I'll kind of group these two together. They're asking if there's any truth to the rumor that the library expansion will lead to the closure of branch libraries one, and if there's any truth to the fact that new technology at the library will lead to staff layoffs. So we just want to address potential closure of branch libraries and potential staff layoffs due to the project. Is that something that this group can answer? I think we have Sharon Sherry here. We can invite her in. She might want to address this. Okay. Yes, she does. So let's invite Sharon, our library director. If you just want to unmute. Hey everybody. Good morning. Thank you so much for doing this and I really appreciate the question and the opportunity to answer it. So first regarding the branches. No, absolutely not. They're not going anywhere. They are such a foundation to library services, but they're not going anywhere. They're not going anywhere. They're not going anywhere. They're not going anywhere. They're just a quality of life in the town of Amherst. The trustees are absolutely committed to maintaining them. And more importantly, it just so happens that. Both buildings are owned by the town, the North Amherst library building and the months in memorial library building and the deeds for both of those buildings require that libraries be maintained in those buildings. And, and of course, nobody wants that. So, um, for all those reasons, no, the branches are totally awesome and safe. And we're, we're lucky to be able to have them. Let me just sharpen their chair. I think that's a really good point. Also that, um, you know, we are, uh, we have an anonymous, anonymous donor who's, um, uh, committed to putting an addition and, um, making the North Amherst library accessible. And with that investment, it's going to be a spectacular new facility that will serve North Amherst with a meeting room, uh, handicap accessible rest rooms, plus the, uh, with a lift to get up to the historic, um, North Amherst library. So we clearly wouldn't be making that kind of investment if we had any contemplation of not keeping the branches open. So thank you, Paul. And so regarding, uh, the automated materials handling system, um, you know, upgrading our system to using, uh, RFID and, and having this book sorter, um, as people are calling it. So, so here we are, we're going to increase the size of the building. We're going to make it accessible and welcoming to everybody and increase and usage will increase as a result. It's, it's a documented fact. That's what happens after these library building projects. Um, and so one of the concerns, the library trustees have seen all along during these past 10 years that we've been planning for this has been making sure that library operations, once the library is expanded and renovated, making sure that it continues to be affordable. And so one way to do this is by utilizing technology. And, and so actually by using this technology, which is kind of, it's pretty much mainstream for libraries that are being renovated nowadays, uh, that circulate a certain amount. And as you all have heard, the Jones library is the 21st busiest public library in the state of Massachusetts. So having this system is going to help staff manage the increased usage by, by performing tasks that staff don't need to be doing. And instead it will allow staff to be forward facing smiles, you know, focusing on the patrons. It's all about the patrons, right? Um, and, and so combine that with the new open floor plan kind of that will be going on. We will, we will not be needing to add staff. So it was all about managing operational expenses, personnel expenses, moving forward. Absolutely not. Nobody, no staff member is going to lose their job. Um, yeah. Yeah. So that's, that's my answer. I've got another one here in the queue that might be relevant to Sharon. I'm not sure if you want to stick around for, for, for one more. Um, this other one asks how likely is it that the Jones would receive another NBLC grant in the next five years? If the one on offer is rejected. So if the fabulous question. Um, so if the town votes no on November 2nd, then no. Um, so our, the Jones library's systems, uh, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, et cetera, the, the atrium, they're all at the end of life. They're all, it's time for them to be replaced. And so the next NBLC grant round is not going to happen for another eight to 10 years, give or take. We don't have that kind of time. So we will not be applying for another, uh, construction grant through the NBLC. Instead we would, the trustees would, would start back at the beginning. We would write a new building program that, that only involves repairing, uh, existing systems and, and staying within our existing footprint. Thank you. Great. Great. Thank you, Sharon. I, uh, will bring you back in if we have more, if you have more to say on library specific questions, we appreciate you being here. Thank you. So we do have some other questions and a couple of clarifications. I think that we got posted from one of the trustees, um, Alex Lefebvre, they say three to seven years until the next grant round would open in two to five years from application to award. So just adding some additional details to what Sharon said there. So I have a question here from Jeff. He wants to know, has any consideration been given to developing a long range capital plan that does not require a debt exclusion tax override? So we can model that and we have looked at things like that. It really stretches out. Um, it really stretches out. If, if we're committed to doing these four projects, then it really stretches out when the projects can be completed. Um, or it changes the mix of how much we put towards, towards capital right now, we're trying to maintain that 10% for capital and do as many of the projects as we can within that 10%. Um, so if we were not going to do debt exclusion, we would have to stretch these out much longer. And the thing that we were really worried about as we go farther into the future and we push things out is that there are other capital needs that aren't even on people's radar right now that are going to be coming up soon. There's high school, middle school or aging buildings. Um, the North fire station is an aging building. Um, that's why there is, as Paul mentioned, we've gone several decades without replacing a building. There is urgency to get these buildings done so that we're ready for the next wave of major capital repairs that are coming down the pipe. Um, in the next 20 or 30 years. Yeah, just to add, add to that. And the time to do it is now because interest rates are incredibly low. Um, we're, I mean, Sean, the last time we did a short-term borrowing was what percent? Yeah. I mean, we did short-term borrowing at half. I think it was 0.4% 0.4%. We did a long-term borrowing around a percent. And I agree with you, Paul. I think our biggest challenge right now is time. And the longer we go without doing one of these projects or getting moving on these projects, the bigger the challenges. Interest rates could rise. The cost of construction will certainly rise. We know that that goes up, you know, around 4% per year. Um, and then as I mentioned, the longer we wait, the more chance that we have that these projects bump up against the next wave of projects. Um, and that causes more difficulties in planning and budgeting. So, um, the time is probably our biggest challenge right now. And, and we want to get moving. And I've, I've been in this field long enough to know when interest rates were in the 6% range and that just fundamentally transforms what you can do in terms of, uh, within your existing budget. So when we're, you know, again, we're trying to hit while the iron's hot. We've been lucky for many years now about having very low interest rates. And we just hit our bond reaffirmed at, at double A, which is a very good, uh, interest rates that we will get when we go into the market. So, um, I think we're poised to really take aggressive action on many of these projects. I have a couple more questions here in the queue and we're coming in. Um, we'll pursuing the one town one plan require two debt exclusions. And if Paul, if you don't mind saying what one town one plan is first and then answering, please. Yeah. So when I was hired five years ago, one of the, the select board at the time had these four major, um, capital projects on the radar screen. Uh, and we, there, I serve a plan to move forward on them. And it was to, and one of the goals was to not pit them against each other, not have the library in the schools in the town, all sort of vying for the same resident taxpayer money. So we want, we put together a plan where everybody bought in that the schools, the library in the town all said, yes, this is a plan we can, everybody was going to get there and get their turn. And we, we phased it according to when money was available for the capital projects, i.e. the schools in the library have access to state money, which they have a secured the town building, Sapphire and the DPW do not have access to state money. So those were, were inserted when we could make them all work together. And so we came up with a really creative plan, I think that draws on a number of factors. It, you know, we are, our debt is dropping off to near zero in the next three years. We're going to have virtually no long-term debt on our books, which is just unheard of for enterprise the size of Amherst. And then we've also, as Sean started mentioned, was that we started to elbow room out in our budget to make sure that we were devoting enough in our, from our, the money that we are devoting to our, our ongoing budget for capital. And last year took a bit of a hit because that's how we balanced the budget during the pandemic, but we're moving back up to that 10% of the levy that number. And then at the same time, we've been sort of been very frugal in holding, you know, setting money aside as sort of a reserve to smooth out the increases over time. So we knew there was going to be some, some bumps. But there's really virtually no way to do all four building projects at this moment at the time, in the timeframe that we're challenged to do it and without at least one debt exclusion. And that, you know, that's, that's what we have presented to the, both the select board and then to the council. And they, and it's, it's pretty compelling evidence. I think when you, when you look at the numbers, that that's necessary. Sean, is there anything you want to add to that? No, only, but I just wanted to just reaffirm that the plan only requires one debt exclusion. We don't need to do two. Great. Thank you for that clarification. So I have another comment that came in from Alex that I'm going to read, and then there's a question from, I believe it's. And I'm sorry if I'm saying that wrong. Also anyone who's newly joined us, please feel free to put your question in the Q&A or raise your hand so we can hear from you live. If you're on a phone, you would press star nine to raise your hand. So Alex added that all current 17 libraries on waiting list would need to be offered a grant and receive or reject the award before the next round would even be open to apply. The MVLC has estimated that would likely be three to seven years. That's why the timing is uncertain. There are currently 40 libraries waiting to apply for this next round. You don't need to. Oh. She said, I don't need to share, but I did. There you go. Read the whole thing before. Yeah. I got a lead with do not share. And Ivana. And again, sorry if I'm saying this wrong. They asked, what is the Evan. Yeah. It could be Evan. It could be Ivana. Very sorry. Either way. What is the future of participatory budgeting in Amherst? So Paul, you can maybe add to the sort of formal participatory budgeting process that the committee looked at. I mentioned earlier that we do have some sort of participatory budgeting like processes going on right now. One was the community preservation act window, which just wrapped up. So that's no longer available to submit new projects, but we did get a lot of interest in CPA this year. There were a lot of projects submitted a lot of good projects from what I can tell so far. And those are all posted on the town's website on under community preservation act FY 23 proposals. So people can go take a look at some of the projects that members of the community have submitted. And then the other thing that I mentioned earlier was that the resident capital request window is open. This is a, any resident in town can submit a capital project, which will be reviewed by the town manager. And then that individual will also have the opportunity to present their project to the joint capital planning committee, which is a committee in town that reviews the capital plan and makes recommendations to the town manager on the capital plan. So that's a capital plan. So not exactly participatory budgeting, but to two processes we have where the public can submit funding requests. Yeah. So, so the charter called for a participatory budgeting commission, which did meet from the beginning of the charter and they concluded their work this summer. There's some interruption due to the pandemic, but they've delivered a report to the council and made a presentation to the council about participatory budgeting. And the conclusion was pretty much that given the constraints of the budget, setting aside a sum of money, a significant sum of money, like some communities do, i.e. city of Cambridge was not within the realm of the town of Amherst, but they really did encourage more participation in the budget making process, which is why we've done the resident capital requests. We will have a public forum on the budget before priorities are set in November. We'll have a, there'll be a public, we'll do a major presentation on financial indicators, which we look back at 10 years and look at projection of 10 years worth of data on our budget. And then we ask people to weigh in on things and their priorities. And there's lots of ways to log in. You know, we've said, you know, Brianna really has set up this engage Amherst website where lots of different projects are there. And it's a way for people to, if you have a question, you can pose it there and it stays there. We have a designated staff person who will answer it and then it stays there. So you can sort of see a menu of all the questions that have been posed. It's not like, you know, it gets asked once and then nobody sees it again. And there's also places for people just to comment, weigh in. And, you know, like we talked about the Hickory Ridge thing being there. And we've got, I think up there a 40, 50 people who already weighed in on things. So that will be the case with the budget as well. We tried to give as many sort of entry points for people through either through CPA or the operating budget or capital budget. As we can, as early as we can. And, but all along the way we're readily accessible. If you have an idea, just email us or talk to one of your counselors or something like that. It's a small town and it's good to advance them. Well, can I add one more that Brianna talked a little bit about already, which is we presented our first spending plan for American rescue act funds, which is a grant related to COVID from the federal government. The town is receiving about $12 million. And so we did a first proposal to the council on Monday night. And now we're in a community engagement phase for the month of October. There are a number of engagement sessions coming up. I think the first ones on the 13th. It's on the calendar where people can weigh in and let us know if they like the plan, don't like the plan, have other ideas. There's also, as Brianna mentioned earlier, there's going to be a survey that is going to be put out there where you can provide feedback that way and also again, submit alternative ideas. And so as Paul said, we're really trying to interact as much as we can on these different opportunities. We've got a question here from Anna. Anna says hi all thanks for doing this hugely helpful. What is the best way for residents to estimate project costs and submitting capital requests, especially for those who aren't familiar with municipal budgeting? It's a very good question. Yeah, it's a really good question. Yeah, so it kind of depends on what it is. So one option I've seen people do in the past is call a contractor or somebody in the field who is related to the, to the project being requested and just ask them for a rough estimate of what they think it would cost. That would be sort of like, I think maybe what I would propose to do first, if that's not an option, you could certainly reach out to staff and we could try to point you in the right direction as to how to estimate that worst case scenario, maybe you submit it with, with no budget there, you just submit the project idea, then we work with you. But I would start by trying to talk to somebody who's an expert in the field to get an estimate and if not, then reach out to staff and we'll try to support that. Yeah, I think it's, you know, that's a, it's a good question because it's really hard for people in the general public to say, I would like a playground that on the South Amherst Common, right? I have no idea what that would cost and, but we can give some reference points. We know what the one at Kendrick Park cost, we can say it'll be in this range. We can provide some guidance to that end. And it's not a be all and all number. It's to, it's, it's to encourage people to put things in with a rough, rough idea of what it might cost. That's not going to be the actual final number most likely because we'll have to get more, obviously get in more details than a, than a resident would be able to do. If someone's saying they'd like, you know, solar on top of all of our buildings or something like that, we'd say, okay, we can help sort of gauge what that number might be, what the range is. So I don't think, I would say don't get hung up on what the number is and don't, you know, kill yourself because public procurement and the public sector is just a lot different than, than what you might do at your own home. So I was just about to invite our council president and your district to counselor Lynn Griezmer to come in the room, but her hand is raised so she beat me to it. So I am going to invite Lynn and if you could unmute. Welcome Lynn. I pressed the wrong button. But thank you. I want to add another point on the library. And that is that the council in looking at this issue very closely, and I have to say over a period of two years. Also asked for the library to obtain an estimate of what all of the repairs would cost if we were going to just repair the library. And ultimately between fixing all of the, or replacing all of the existing systems, doing things such as replacing carpeting, et cetera, and making it handicap accessible. We end up with an amount of money that's about equal to the same amount of money that the town will pay toward the library. That of course is complimented by the fundraising of the Jones library trustees and friends. And it's complimented by a very sizable grant from the state through the mass portal library commissioners. So the real choice is do you want the existing library with the same facade that will be there even if we renovate it. The same building will be there even if we renovate it. Do you want that? Or do you want a modern library? And either one is at the same cost. And so this is an issue I personally struggled with. And after spending the two years that I did getting to know the issue, it's public information. I voted in favor of accepting the MBOC grant. So there you have my opinion. Yeah. And just build enough of what Lynn said, we had our, we had our financial advisor model those two different scenarios. Whether we do take the MBOC grant money or do the, there was a couple of different repair options or different phasings. And we had our financial advisor take that with the different interest rates that, that they project and model it. And the cost did come out very similar regardless of what option we chose. Thank you for adding that point, Lynn. Anything else you want to share? We've got about 20 community members in the room right now. No, I look forward to touring Hickory Ridge myself. I'm planning to do that this afternoon. And I also really, really encourage people to use the website engage Amherst and Paul, close your ears, because we'll also have a thing on the website soon. Inviting people to comment on the town managers regarding his annual evaluation. I'll be using that. I'll be using that a lot. I was going out of a hundred of those. Okay. Do you think I know. Thank you. Thank you. But Lynn, if we see you this afternoon, make sure you wear boots. It does get a little damp out there. I have to say. Kind of like when we went to see the farm the other day. Yes. We'll see you this afternoon, Lynn. Thank you. Okay. So for anyone who's joined, we, oh, we've got a new question in the room. I just was going to encourage you to pop your questions into the Q&A or raise your hand. To share a question or comment with us. What would happen to the special collections if the M. BLC grant is rejected? So if Sharon's still in the room, if you are unable to answer. There she is. Okay. If you could just. On you. Sure. So can you repeat the question again? If the MBLC. Repeat the question again. Yes. So what would happen to the special collections? If the MBLC grant is rejected? Okay. Yeah. So no matter what, if the entire project is voted down, the trustees will start over and go through the JCPC process. We would have to establish another feasibility committee, write another building program. We would go to JCPC. That would be for next year process. Because we're missing it for this year, I think. And we would ask money to hire an architect and an OPM and, you know, kind of start the process over again. Anyway, so a part of that would be what do we do with special collect, collections within the existing footprint of the building? And I have, I don't have the answer to that, but. With, but by remaining in our footprint. And if there are other things that we need to do, for example, add a teen space, it would mean other spaces would have to get smaller. So I don't know how the needs of special collections and ESL, how those would fall into place. And let me just frame out what, when Sharon talks about JCPC process that to people not in, you know, that's how we talk about it. It's really our capital planning process. The joint capital planning committee has represented this from the town, the school department, the school committee, and the board of library trustees. And that's where all the capital projects go and they get reviewed and as a group again, so we're sort of talking to each other and sort of prioritizing all projects on equal footing instead of different groups trying to advocate independently for their project. So that's, that's a, we have a relatively formalized process for considering capital requests and they all get funneled through this one single process and we look at how much money we have available and what we're going to spend it on. Hopefully that answered your question that whoever posted that, if not, feel free to post a clarifying question or comment. Thank you, Sharon, for that. Okay, so I don't see any hands or questions in the queue currently. Are there things, Paul and Sean, that you wanted to share that you hadn't got asked? I know we've had a lot of great questions already, but are there some points or facts about the process or anything else that's going on that you want to share while we wait for some more questions? Hmm. I want to congratulate Sean on being the new father number three for you. Thank you. I appreciate it. Why he's tired today. No, I'll just remind people that there is a, as we talked about earlier, there was an engage page on ARPA. There's an engage page on engage Amherst page on Hickory Ridge. There was also an engage, one of the earlier ones, there was an engage Amherst page set up on these four building projects and the, and the plan. And so if anybody wants to kind of freshen up on what that plan is and all the resources related to it, you can go to that engage Amherst and find it. I think it's called finance in our future is what we named that project page. It's got the presentation of finance committee, which really lays out in more detail the plan to fund the four building projects and the different cautions and the different strategies and all the, you know, we try to really do a full comprehensive presentation on that. And then there's also links to the Q and A's that have been out there and some videos. There's a lot of good information on that engage Amherst page. That includes this library project. So I'd like to shift gears a little bit and talk about COVID. You know, like we have a lot of new developments coming up. And if they haven't been a nice announcement, they will be soon. So there are different strategies when we're adjusting COVID-19. Our numbers are going down. There was the spike during the Delta variant that we all witnessed and that has pretty much tapered off at both the university and in the community numbers. We have just formed a partnership with the university to provide community testing in the town. They've always provided community testing, but you had to go on campus to get the testing and many of our members of our community were hesitant to do that. And it was sort of inconvenient. So now we have a, you can pick up a test starting on Tuesday at the board of health at the health department in the banks community center. It'll be a little baggy with all the things you need in it. You can go to your car, do the test or take it home with you at your convenience. And then you can drop it in a drop box that we have at the banks community center that will get picked up every day at 9 30 and taken over to the university for processing and within certainly within 24 hours, hopefully during the week, you'll get your results back. So that's going to be a free, easy way to get tested for COVID-19. That's a great new partnership with the university. And then for vaccinations, which is another important tool for us. We are having vaccination clinics every Thursday afternoon. I think from four to six, it is, it's on, I believe it's on our website. We're also continuing with our vaccination program at, for the homebound and for first responders and working with the schools, I think they're preparing for a vaccination program at the schools when that, when that those tests, those vaccines get approved for younger students. This will include the booster. When that gets, when that gets, we get the supply right now. It's kind of a supply issue for the Pfizer. But as soon as we get it and have adequate dosages, we will be publicizing that so we can, you'll be able to get your booster shot if that's what you're looking for. If you haven't been vaccinated, that's readily available right now for all three different things. And then so those are the two, the two big things is getting tested and the vaccine. Thanks, Paul. And just so everyone's aware, this information will be all on our COVID website. The information regarding the test sites and the procedures and how to access everything is being kind of worked out and will be posted there. If you have any questions, you can call the COVID's concerns line or email us. Is it okay to go back to the library? We have a couple more questions that came in to the queue. So. Okay, we've got a couple of questions that are coming in. Thank you. So does the library project endanger funding for a new elementary school? We've heard this before who wants to take that one. So, so I would say no, I mean, that's exactly why we developed a plan to do all four. The schools in particular are really on their own track with the MSBA and the debt exclusion vote. They, they were first in the queue back in 2015, 2016 and now, you know, now they're still in that MSBA queue again and they're following along that MSBA path. And so they're on a debt exclusion vote. So the funding that will go for that project is different than the funding that's going for the library, the fire station, the DPW, and the fire station is coming out of our existing capital funds that we allocate each year. So we have, that's why we came up with this one plan specifically not to pit these against each other. Thank you, Sean. And Kent wants us to please clarify that if the library project is turned down in favor of a repair of the present building, none of the outside sources of funding available for the project would be available for these repairs. So more or less the town would be paying the entire cost for the repair if that's the way things go. Do either of you want to add anything to that? Only that, that's how we modeled it. So when we talked about the cost being roughly the same between the MBLC project and the repair project. For the repair project, we assume there was no additional funding outside of outside of the town funding. So. And just to reference what Mr. Johnson said earlier in the, in the session here. You know, it's much, much easier to go out and ask people to support a new, new building project than it is to say, would you be willing to donate money for a maintenance contract for the elevator system or something like that. So I think that that, you know, that that's the reference point that they, the trustees have committed to raising multiple millions of dollars for this project and they've already, they're well on their way to making that happen. So that there is a significant private fundraising component to this project that will really show the community support for it. I think. And the one thing I'd add to that, Paul, too, when we talk about deferred maintenance, it's sort of like two buckets of deferred maintenance, they're sort of just the repairs that maybe didn't get done over the years. And then there's things like building code changes that are, you know, some of the big ticket items and the repair project or things that are more related to the building was built, I don't know, 20 or 30 or 40 government, whenever we did the renovation years ago, and now the code is changed and the things we have to do differently that cost more money. And we sort of lump it all into this bucket of deferred maintenance, but they're a little bit different. All right, we've got a comment and a question from Michelle. One of our shared goals is to beef up our equity lens and ensure that our capital projects serve all community members. How will the town, including the library, building project committee work to include black, indigenous people of color and other marginalized voices in the next phase of planning for the library and for future capital projects? So I'll start with that and you can jump in. So that's a really good point, Michelle. And we're actually looking at things through sort of two lenses. One is the sustainability lens and the other is racial equity lens. And so for all of our expenditures and all of our capital planning, those are the two things that we're sort of the council has articulated that as a high goal. And that's how we're building our budgets through those two lenses. For the library project in particular, there are two seats that are failed that are community seats that are on the committee on the Jones library building committee that we are seeking to fill interviewing some folks today and hopefully, hopefully we'll find some people who will represent large numbers of people. And I think there's going to be a lot of other ways for people to be engaged as this planning goes forward. And Paul, the one thing I would add to that too is we recently established a diversity, equity and inclusion coordinator. And then we're looking to fill another position that these positions once they're filled will bring that lens to everything we do or will magnify that lens with everything we do. And so I'm sure they will play a role with our outreach efforts and the feedback that we get. I'm really glad Sharon raised her hand because I know the library has done a lot of work in this area. Oh, hi everybody. So this question is terrifying to me and which is why I have to answer it. So let me start with over the summer, a fellow Amherst employee told me that members of our community don't feel welcome coming into the Jones library because they feel it's a white space. And so I've been spending a lot of time thinking about this, a really lot of time thinking about this. The library systems mission has always been to provide buildings and programs and services that are open to everyone in the community. But if members of the community are not comfortable coming into our buildings or taking part in our programs and services that we are not meeting our mission. And to my knowledge, the library has never had this conversation. And it's time we do. One of the goals of the expansion renovation project is to make the Jones building welcoming to all. I am one member of the Jones library building committee and I will be advocating for a community outreach process that decenters whiteness. I envision a design development process which is evaluating all the spaces in the building in terms of inclusivity. And I'm excited to see the results of this project and this process. And again, I'm absolutely ready to listen. Thank you for asking the question. Thank you so much, Sharon. We appreciate your response there. Okay. We are getting close to our. We're getting close to our project. And I'm excited to see the results of this project. And this process. And again, I'm, I'm absolutely ready to listen. Thank you for asking the question. We're getting close to our hour. We do have some time left. I'd love to invite any last questions or raised hands. I do see Thomas. So Thomas, why don't you come on in and unmute yourself? Thanks. Just to follow up on what Sharon just said. Research shows that. In many communities. There can be negative effects. Interpersonal trust can decline. Social capital can decline. And. Such communities have to be proactive. In, in, you know, some people would call it social engineering to, to mitigate those, those impacts. And institutions like the public library. Public library. Are central to that. So I'm glad to hear Sharon mentioning her efforts. But I'll state the obvious in, in, in that is that, aside from the, you know, the features of the new building is important as they will be. It's the type of programming. That's offered by libraries, which is most important. I'll leave it at that. Hopefully this will be an ongoing discussion because it's critical. And I think it's important to not feel good about supporting. The expansion of the library without proactive efforts to. Increase its use by our diverse community. I also just wanted to add that. You know, when, when, when libraries are. Supported initially. You know, you know, you know, many libraries in many cases, the original donors not only provide for the capital expense of the construction and so on or the book collection, but they also provide for an endowment, a long-term endowment. I don't know if that was the case of the Jones. I think it might have been for the Forbes, but I do hope that as the trustees. I think it's really important to have the funding. Fundraising for, for, for, you know, now for the expansion and so on, that they do talk to potential donors about. Also contributing to an endowment. It's, it's not unusual. It's a, it's, it's, it's actually can be very useful. Thank you. Thank you, Thomas. And the library does have an endowment sharing or Sean, do I talk about that sharing. Am I still unmuted? Can you hear me? Yeah. Yeah. The endowment. The value gush that it's the highest it's ever been. It's breaking on 10 million. And we do take a 4% draw from that every year. And let me go back a little bit, Thomas, to. I appreciate your comments about programming. You're absolutely right. I, and staff, you know, I think we're working on that. So not only programs, but also. So the art that we hang on our walls, the displays, the book displays that were, that were showing as people enter the building. You know, we used to have that big. Painting that it was the first thing people would see of a wealthy white man in the beautiful red robes. And that is no longer the first thing people see when they enter the building. So I don't know what the building would look like because this is the part where I need to stop and listen. And, and, and this is why the community engagement process is so important. I just want to sit down with people, you know, genuine people who absolutely want to want to give opinions and feedback. And I want to listen to that and make it happen. Thank you. Great. Thank you, Sharon. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I don't see any hands raised. I don't see any more questions in the queue. This is being recorded and we will put it up online shortly for anybody who wants to share it with friends. If you have questions that you didn't feel comfortable asking or didn't get a chance to ask, feel free to email us at info at Amherst and may.gov. But before we wrap up, I want to give. Our guests and Paul. Sean, anything. Sure. Thank you for coming and we're, you know, we're going into really kick off our budget season very soon. So don't hesitate to either send your input to the council, the town manager, you can send it to me. We have a budget. For I'm coming up soon after the financial indicators meeting. So definitely get involved and share your feedback with us. So I just, yeah, I support what Sean said, you know, the financial indicators is. Interesting to us, maybe not be interesting to everybody, but it's a lot of really detailed information. That's November 15th scheduled for right now. And I do, I like Brianna, thanks for putting this together. It was so gratifying to see so many people here today, and we can't wait to get back to when we can do it in person and make it a little bit more less formal. That's the value of this, this interaction is where you can be sitting at a table, having coffee and people can ask their own individual questions. So, so that would be fun when we get to get there and we will eventually I'm sure. And I will just say if anyone needs help navigating some of the resources, the meetings, the websites, we mentioned a lot of those today, please reach out again, you can reach out to me directly or send us a quick email at info at Amherstimea.gov and I can get you connected to anything that we mentioned in more today. So I want to thank everybody for joining us. I want to thank Sean and Paul. And we will see you next time. Thanks everybody. Bye everybody.