AMHERST — For Amherst’s first-ever January inauguration of those elected to townwide office last fall, Monday’s 20-minute ceremony for swearing the oath of office was decidedly low-key.
Beginning at the Town Room at Town Hall prior to a regular meeting of the Town Council, Council President Lynn Griesemer welcomed a small audience of spectators and then invited School Committee and Amherst Housing Authority members and trustees for the Jones Library up to the front of Town Room at Town Hall.
There, the officials took the oath of office administered by Town Clerk Shavena Martin.
Of the 15 individuals eligible to be sworn in, 12 were present, including the five members of the School Committee, the three Housing Authority members and four of the six trustees for the Jones Library. Carol Gray, the Elector under the Oliver Smith Will, was previously sworn in.
The ceremony was unlike the one held in December 2018, when 13 councilors were sworn in as part of Amherst’s change of government and there was significant pomp and circumstance at the high school auditorium. Councilors will not be up for election again until November 2021.
A few spectators were on hand, including some family members to document the occasion by photographing and recording with their cellphones. The lone newcomer, School Committee member Benjamin Joseph Herrington was accompanied by his grade-school son.
During the oath, each repeated after Martin that they would “bear true faith and allegiance to the United States of America and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,” as well as support the Constitution, and duties of the office.
All were also given a book on the open meeting and conflict-of-interest laws.
After signing a document for the town clerk, the officials were congratulated with a handshake from both Griesemer and 3rd Hampshire District state Rep. Mindy Domb.
Griesemer thanked all those elected for their service.
The two trustees absent, Alexandra Lefebvre and Tamson Ely, will be sworn in at a later date, likely at the town clerk’s office as was customary in the past.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
