I was dismayed by the recent guest column by Mickey Rathbun [“Mismanagement imperils Jones Library funding,” Gazette, Dec. 2]. This came out the same day as a piece on landmark designations in The New York Times by longtime architectural critic Michael Kimmelman. His article addressed the urgent need to move beyond just preserving architectural monuments to focus on the things a community wants to save. This heritage, often intangible, goes far beyond preserving the physical fabric or shell of a structure.

I see the Jones Library renovation project as doing exactly what Kimmelman and others encourage, namely ensuring that Amherst’s beloved main library can best serve the next generations and become a more inclusive community center by addressing not only critical space needs for children, teens, immigrants and minorities, but also creating a permanent place to display an important part of our town’s history with the Civil War tablets that honor the service of Amherst’s African Americans. Rathbun, in contrast, seems to illustrate the kind of obstructive approach Kimmelman deplores, namely as he puts it the way “landmark laws are too often weaponized by NIMBYs, derailing progress.”

Laetitia La Follette

Amherst