AMHERST — Possible revisions to a 38-year-old agreement between the Jones Library and Amherst officials, a document that guides the legal and financial relationship between the entities, are being discussed.
Austin Sarat, president of the trustees, said at the board’s meeting Wednesday that he is beginning conversations with Town Manager Paul Bockelman about a memorandum of understanding that has been in place since 1984. But Sarat said there is no commitment to a specific final result.
“Conversation is open now in a way that a year ago we weren’t even thinking about,” Sarat said.
The agreement signed by trustees and by the former Select Board puts the responsibility of administering the Jones in the hands of the elected trustees, who oversee its director.
The memorandum of understanding, though, denotes library staff members as municipal employees, and subjects the library budget and its capital requests to the same practices as other town departments. At the time, that meant library spending was subject to eventual approval of Town Meeting, and is now voted on by the Town Council.
Sarat said after the meeting that there is no specific request being made by trustees aside from having the conversation about the long-term future of town support for library operations.
The discussion about the memorandum of understanding comes as a $36.3 million project to expand and renovate the main branch of the Jones Library is expected to get underway sometime next year. In addition, the town is working with an anonymous donor on enlarging the North Amherst branch library, making the town-owned building accessible and adding public bathrooms.
Meanwhile, trustees unanimously approved a preservation restriction agreement that will protect the appearance of the 1928 building from Amity Street.
Trustee Alex Lefebvre said the agreement means that exterior changes to the North Amherst building and property will be minimized when the building project is underway.
Trustees also voted 6-0 in support of a budget request of $2.74 million for fiscal year 2023.
That spending plan is up $19,011, or 0.7%, from the $2.72 million being spent this year. Full-time positions are being retained, though there will be more reliance on part-time substitutes.
The Jones is expecting to get $2.14 million in taxpayer support from the town, a 2.5% increase, and to use $332,543 from the Jones Inc. endowment, for a 4% draw rate from the account. The budget is also built with state aid totaling $52,275, with the remaining money coming from the Friends of the Jones Libraries and various fees.
As of Feb. 28, the endowment stood at $9.31 million, and the Woodbury Fund, which was used to overhaul a large meeting room in the building’s basement several years ago, has $769,351, according to figures from trustee Robert Pam. Another $273,000, held in the van Steenberg account, will go toward the building project.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
