AMHERST — A program that would generate money for public art through a surcharge on upcoming public capital projects will not be considered by Town Meeting until next spring.
The Select Board recently decided against putting the Percent for Art bylaw on the warrant for fall Town Meeting, which begins Nov. 14.
Select Board member Alisa Brewer said there were too many questions about the bylaw, including when it would go into effect and which capital projects would be affected.
“The concern is we don’t want to set this up for failure,” Brewer said.
The bylaw, if adopted, would assess an 0.5 percent surcharge on capital projects.
This means that if the town spends $100 million on the school, library, new Department of Public Works headquarters and new fire station in South Amherst, the Percent for Art would generate $500,000.
Cambridge is the only other community in the state that has used the program, and so far has created more than 200 pieces of art.
Town Meeting last spring asked the Public Art Commission to do more study, expressing concern that only visual arts, and not performing arts, would be able to tap into the funding.
Commission member Eric Broudy said he has no problems with the delay, observing that the Wildwood School project, which will be on the Nov. 8 presidential election ballot, was no longer going to be eligible.
If the bylaw is adopted next spring, that would allow the library project, with up to $17 million in town money, to help fund $85,000 in art projects.
“Next up would be the library renovation, and I’m advised that the spring meeting would be fine to capture that project if the bylaw passed,” Broudy said.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
