 This program is brought to you by Cable Franchise Vs and generous donations from viewers like you. Good evening and welcome to the Amherst Weekly Report from Amherst Media. I'm Claire Healy and here are the stories today out of Amherst, Massachusetts. The Jones Library in Amherst received approval for an outdoor tent from the Amherst Planning Board on Wednesday, September 16th for an outdoor public technology project. The sheltering tent would provide internet access to Amherst area residents at outdoor socially distanced computer stations. The Jones Library's goal is to continue to serve as a point of connectivity for residents who don't have internet access at home. We spoke with Matthew Burby, head of information services at the Jones Library about the project. We hope to have a tent out on the front lawn of the Jones Library soon that will offer somewhere between, you know, six to ten socially distanced computer stations under it, as well as some staff assistance from folks on my reference team who would normally be the folks offering the assistance in the library. We're hustling because we really, we recognize A, that, you know, this is a need that has been out there and been pressing for folks for a while. And B, being an outdoor operation, you know, we're going to run into weather problems, you know, presumably. And we are hoping to, we're hoping to run this, you know, through the fall for as long as the weather allows. And then, again, if it's proving to be useful and the demand is there, we're going to try our best to keep offering it for as long as we can. Currently, the library is offering outdoor holds and pickups for books and DVDs. Holds can be placed online or by phone, and residents will be contacted when the materials are available for pickup. The library also provides a print from home service, allowing people to submit up to ten pages per day for free printing. To learn more about library services during the pandemic, visit the Jones Library website or call their reference line. The University of Massachusetts Amherst has agreed to guarantee no layoffs through January 2021 after tense negotiations between the university, the professional staff union, and the university staff association. The PSU and USA alleged that the university had threatened to lay off a combined 450 employees if they did not agree to the university's then proposal. The Amherst town council submitted a letter to Chancellor Kumball Subhaswamy expressing their concerns about the layoffs and furloughs and their impact on the Amherst community. In a message to the campus community from Chancellor Subhaswamy Wednesday afternoon, the chancellor announced updated specifics regarding workplace reductions. He said that the adjusted plan was to place 140 employees on indefinite furlough, reduce the hours of another 60 employees, and have all other PSU, USA, and non-unit employees take 10 days of furlough between October and December of this year. In this message, he also announced a hiring freeze, among other changes. Thursday evening, Amherst's CDBG advisory committee held a public hearing. CDBG stands for Community Development Block Grant Funds and the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development designated Amherst eligible for these funds. CDBG funds support housing community development projects and social services and activities that benefit low and moderate income citizens. In the meeting, the public hearing reviewed ongoing activities from 2018 and 2019 grants as well as the priorities for 2021 grants. On the agenda for 2018 and 2019 activities to review were the ADA self-evaluation and transition plan, the East Hadley Road multi-use path, pre-development funding for Valley CDC, the Amherst Survival Center Food Pantry, Family Outreach of Amherst Housing Stabilization, the Literacy Project Adult Education, Center for New Americans English Classes, and Big Brothers Big Sisters Youth Mentoring. For 2021, they listed as application priorities on the agenda, social services, non-social services such as housing and public infrastructure, and targeting areas and neighborhoods where non-social services can take place. Next, following up on a previous story about Amherst schools going online, the Amherst Pelham Education Association has released a statement clarifying their stance on the opening plan. In the statement, they wanted to clarify what they said were two pieces of amiss information. The first of which was that, quote, the APEA does not want remote learning to be like it was last spring. And they pointed to distance learning improvement plans made over the summer and submitted to the school committee as evidence of plans for remote learning to be different than it was. The second clarification was that, quote, the APEA tentatively accepted the district's proposed phase model back in August. Next, Amherst announced that it will join the national group GARE, which stands for the Government Alliance on Race and Equity. Amherst town manager Paul Backelman sent a memo to the town displaying this as part of larger steps the town hopes to take towards racial equity. The town has announced its intentions to work with the Racial Equity Task Force and DFUN 413 towards promoting more racial equity initiatives in Amherst. One recent move to that end is Backelman's announcement that activist groups like DFUN 413 will help him vet candidates for a committee to review police practices. He had suggested in a memo, September 13th, the creation of this interview team to vet candidates for this committee and invited DFUN 413 and the Racial Equity Task Force to nominate an Amherst resident to sit on that interview team. And finally, Amherst residents may have noticed hazy skies and a particularly red sun these past few days. Forecasters have attributed this to smoke reaching the east coast from fires in California and said that smoke particles are what give the sun the bright red appearance. Air quality here is still at decent levels, as opposed to the hazardous levels it's reached in the west coast. New England residents will only continue to see this red sun and hazy skies for maybe a couple more days, and forecasters said we will avoid any more intense sky discoloration. That's all for this week. Thank you so much for tuning in to the Amherst Weekly Report with Amherst Media. We hope you have a wonderful weekend and you can join us at the same time next week.