AMHERST — The Town Council approved $1.18 million in Community Preservation Act projects this week, including bringing more affordable housing to town, rebuilding and replacing the track at Amherst Regional High School and making improvements to hiking trails and town conservation land.
The projects were recommended by the CPA Committee and received unanimous backing from the council. At-Large Councilor Mandi Jo Hanneke, chairwoman of the Community Resources Committee, said many of the projects have an even greater importance due to the effects of the pandemic, including those aimed at providing more variety of housing and outdoor recreation.
The spending includes $200,000 that will go to the Municipal Affordable Housing Trust for its ongoing work to create housing options for low- and moderate-income families and individuals, and an additional $234,208 for Valley Community Development’s first-time homebuyers and mortgage subsidy program that will benefit up to 30 families
Another $157,500 will go to the regional schools as Amherst’s share of the track and field replacement project, and $25,000 for building and repairing bridges on trails, installing boardwalks, kiosks and signs, and other upgrades, to sites including the Epstein and Stosz properties and parts of the Wentworth and Fort River farms.
“Trails, they are in high use right now, and the project at the high school for the track, again that’s something that is in high use right now,” Hanneke said.
Other CPA spending includes $4,500 for window restoration at the North Amherst Community Farm, $25,000 to inventory and photograph up to 80 historic buildings identified by the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission and $50,000 to restore 50 to 60 damaged headstones in the 1870 section of West Cemetery.
Meantime, the council also unanimously approved an $11.57 million one-month budget that will carry the town through the month of July, at which time a full-year budget is expected to be adopted.
At-Large Councilor Andy Steinberg, who is chairman of the Finance Committee, said the one-month budget will be folded into the larger budget next month.
“The purpose of this one-month budget is to allow the town to operate during the month of July while we take a little more time to develop budgets, see what the Legislature is doing and review the actual FY21 budget,” Steinberg said.
The one-month budget includes $1.62 million for town operations, $805,000 for the elementary schools, $1.37 million for the regional schools and $135,000 for Jones Library services, as well as $6.19 million for the Hampshire County Retirement System assessment and $35,928 for the regional lockup.
The one-month budget also covers the sewer, water, solid waste and transportation enterprise funds.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
