Jones Library

If you want to peruse the Jones Library in Amherst, Massachusetts one more time before its expansion project begins, you’re running low on time.

It took years of planning, a referendum and several city council votes that almost iced it, but the Jones Library renovation project is moving forward in Amherst, Massachusetts. WAMC spoke with the library’s director about what comes next for the building and its books.

Local leaders in Amherst, Massachusetts, gave an annual address on the state of the town last week, touting headway made on bylaws, projects and more – all while touching on work that still needs to be done.

A re-tooled plan to expand the Jones Library in Amherst, Massachusetts has been going before various committees, about a month before library officials put the project out to bid again. Some hope dropping certain aspects of the project will be enough to get shovels in the ground.

A project to expand and renovate the Jones Library in Amherst, Massachusetts has been the subject of much debate by the town council lately. Earlier this month, councilors narrowly rejected a motion to recommend stopping it, and on Monday, June 17, the body rejected another involving a new contract with the project’s architects.

Officials in Amherst, Massachusetts have been revisiting plans to renovate the town's library. The multi-million-dollar project was knocked off-course recently, when the only general contractor bid it received was almost 20 percent higher than expected.

Renovations to one of the busiest libraries in western Massachusetts could potentially begin in the very near future.