 This program is brought to you by Cable Franchise Vs and generous donations from viewers like you Hello and welcome to the Amherst Weekly Report from Amherst Media I'm Claire Healy and you're watching the news from this past week in Amherst, Massachusetts On Wednesday, January 20th two weeks after a mob stormed the Capitol building a historic and unique presidential inauguration took place Former Vice President Joe Biden took the oath of office to the presidency of the United States at the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. Amid heightened security and reduced crowds Proceeding President Biden swearing in was that of his Vice President Kamala Harris Not only the first woman to serve in the role of the Vice Presidency, but also the first African American and Asian American Vice President Notably absent from the ceremony is now former President Donald Trump, who became the first outgoing President to skip the inauguration of his successor in over a century and a half And instead took a final trip on Air Force One to Florida Former Vice President Mike Pence did, however, attend the inauguration Also in attendance were former Presidents and First Ladies Barack and Michelle Obama George W. Bush and his wife Laura Bush And Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Among those to speak at the inauguration were Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar Missouri Senator Roy Blunt, former Georgetown University President Father Leo O'Donovan And National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman At 22 Gorman became the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history with her poem The Hill We Climb Musical guests included Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez, and Garth Brooks Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath of office to Biden, now the oldest president inaugurated in the nation's history And Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor sworn Harris The day prior, President Biden hosted a memorial service for those who have lost their lives to the coronavirus pandemic And similar memorials were carried out around the country Both Northampton and Amherst participated And at 5.30 p.m. on January 19th, bells could be heard ringing around Amherst's center to commemorate the lives lost to the virus Monday, January 18th, the country celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day Although a little differently than in the past Traditionally a day of service and volunteering, many celebrations moved online Including a day-long series of workshops and speeches from the Resistance Center for Peace and Justice in Northampton In Amherst, the MLK Junior Breakfast Committee canceled their annual scholarship breakfast And instead ran clips from past celebrations Amherst Town Council President Lynn Griezmer was recently re-elected to serve as the Council's president for a third consecutive term by a majority of counselors Joining Griezmer in the role of vice president is District 4 counselor Evan Ross, the youngest member of the council In an interview with Amherst Media, Griezmer talked about the win Council Ross's election, the successes of the Town Council since the last time she was given a new term And priorities on the council's agenda going into this term I am delighted that my fellow counselors were willing to give me a third term I think several of them voiced during the interview that we had to go through, if you will Issues like they knew that we had several things coming up this year that they felt I had the skills to handle Among those are general debates, but also issues regarding capital projects, which I have some experience with And so it's not a job where you operate alone at all In fact, it's a job where I think first and foremost you have to listen, you have to be transparent, and you have to communicate Evan is a terrific counselor. I'm delighted that he was elected vice president And he and I have already met once just as president vice president We've worked together on other things during our terms on the council Evan brings to the council the opposite of me He's young, he is a renter, he is at the beginning of his professional life at the university Evan is a bright young man, and he represents a voice in our community that in many ways the burden falls to him Because he is in fact the youngest member of the council I think he was an outstanding choice by the council for vice president Griezmer said that the town council has quote, amazingly responded to COVID-19 through supporting town manager Paul Backelman's recommendations for a bylaw amendment to create more opportunity for businesses such as outdoor dining and that the council has made adjustments to meetings via Zoom She noted that this year the council has many more bylaws to pass in the coming year, including those from the town's original bylaw review that was required by the charter Griezmer noted one example of the council's recent successes in voting site locations During the year we were challenged by such things as what were we going to do about citing voting locations And the council listening to the public made a quick and rapid change where we were initially thinking we would go with one single location at the high school And upon receiving feedback from the public as well as upon looking into the research about what happens when you do polling location changes We made a rapid decision and moved instead to keeping seven of our original locations and only moving those that we had to, which were three of them to the high school The town council also has several capital projects for the town that are in development such as the effort with the mass school building authority program to build a new elementary school At the same time, we still have other three other cap big capital projects that are out there. One is the library and one of the things that will happen this year is we will start Queuing that up for a decision by the town council as to whether or not we accept the mass board of library commissioners grant or not Or we instead repair the existing facility. The option we do not have is to do nothing We cannot just do nothing. The library needs serious repair. And so either way there's going to have to be money spent on the library The other two big building projects are the DPW and the fire station and we have asked the town manager to do a revision with his staff of a financial model that allows us to look at all of the projects together As well as ongoing capital needs and at the same time to see if we can locate our identify options for locating both the DPW and the fire station We don't have to restrict my priorities but that of the full council. I think racial equity and inclusion is a high priority. I think looking at various policing or other community safety models is a high priority. Our priority is clearly a priority. The capital projects are priority. Economic development is a significant priority and very, very important as we try to figure out what does Amherst look like post COVID and how do we help revive the town where our businesses have been under such enormous stress because of the having to shut down and limit access to so many of our options. Those are some of the things that are high on our list. A new COVID-19 variant from the United Kingdom has made its way to Massachusetts. According to the State Department of Public Health, the person with the variant is a Boston woman in her early 20s. She showed symptoms in January and tested positive for COVID-19. As part of the CDC's process to identify COVID-19 variants, her genetic sample was sent to an out of state laboratory. The State Department of Public Health received her results on Saturday. The woman traveled to the UK and began to show symptoms a day after coming back to Massachusetts. She previously tested negative for COVID-19 before traveling to the UK. There's a new face at Amherst Cinema. After a six-month search, Yasmin Chin Eisenhower has been appointed Executive Director of the Independent Non-profit Movie Theater in downtown Amherst. Her previous role was Associate Director for Learning, Research, and Technology at Smith College. According to a press release from Amherst Cinema, Eisenhower is an avid film enthusiast and brings film distribution and film festival experience to her new role. She's also an Amherst resident. Chair and President of Amherst Cinema's Board of Directors, Salman Hamid, says that it was a challenging year for everyone, but Yasmin Chin Eisenhower is the ideal person to lead Amherst Cinema into a hopeful future. Thank you for tuning in to the Amherst Weekly Report from Amherst Media. I'm Claire Healy, and we'll see you at the same time next week.