Town opts for country-club lifestyle

Published on June 29, 2007

As Amherst Town Meeting worked its way inch by inch, line by line, dollar by dollar, and day after day through the budget portion of the warrant this spring, the priorities of the town became more and more clear.

We representatives decided that you, the people of Amherst, don't really place much value on public safety, as we eliminated a couple of police officers. We decided that the schools are not really all that important to you, as we voted to bless the elementary schools with a whopping 1 percent increase. We also only voted for the 3 percent increase to the regional schools because our hand was forced by the other towns in the region. But what do we need paper and textbooks for anyway? You can't really see those things, so they don't really matter, right?

What your representatives knew you really wanted in your town, above all else, was a country-club kind of lifestyle. Save the golf course! Save the pool! To hell with the schools and safety; we need the appearance of privilege for our poor and huddled masses!

The majority of townsfolk and Town Meeting members can't see into the schools to know that our class sizes are growing each year, or that by April the middle school had run out of paper (leading the daughter of a Town Meeting couple to say, "Mom, my friends complain more about not having any paper than about not having the pool."), or that the schools may just be the most important social service institution we have, providing food, safety and consistency, with an education to boot.

Most of us can't see into the low-income homes to know that the other incredibly valuable social service we provide, a police officer, might just save a child or mother from being beaten, or might earn the trust of a teen, who might then report a crime, rather than committing one. We kept two pools though, so it's all good! Select Board Chairman Gerry Weiss said that he received more mail about the closing of the pool than about any other issue to date. We are all about the country-club lifestyle.

We heard from one of your representatives who said the War Memorial Pool was the only place in town where children from different ethnicities and backgrounds interacted. Hmmm. That person needs to visit a school in town one of these days, or maybe just get out a little more.

We heard from another of your representatives that the golf course serves everyone in town, and that the director has secured a grant to provide equipment for low-income kids. That is all well and good, as long as we acknowledge the fact that once those kids grow up, the vast majority of them will not have free equipment, and will be just like the vast majority of the rest of us, who can't really afford the greens fees to play golf on a regular basis.

Well, Amherst country-clubbers, it's time to make a decision. We can continue on with our country-club kind of town if that's what we want. It's kind of nice to be able to pretend to the world (and ourselves) that we're wealthy enough to have a public golf course and not one but two pools. And it sure is great to not have to disappoint our kids by only having one of the pools open for a summer, even though some kids never have access to any swimming pool. Disappointing our kids with just one pool might be bad for their ... ummm ... what would it be bad for, really? Oh yeah, it might be bad for their country-club sensibilities. But I digress.

We can keep our country-club lifestyle, but with our finances pretty much in ruin, we're going to have to decide to find a way to increase the revenues coming into the town. I was touched after the first vote on the pool failed, when a member of the Finance Committee sorrowfully said to me that if we had only approved some minor economic development zoning amendments five years ago, we'd have those tax revenues now and not be worrying about closing the pool. And we wouldn't have to worry that the golf course is always in the red.

We need more money coming in if we want to continue to spend on unprofitable luxuries like golf and pools. This means, heaven forbid, that we might have to let a new company set up shop. Or maybe build a new student housing development. (Maybe it could have a pool!) Or build more retirement housing (with a pool and golf!) We could even open some new shops on University Drive like Ralph Lauren, Lacoste or Lilly Pulitzer. We could be the ultimate country-club town! And still pay our bills. And have great schools. And even police.

The decision is yours - country club or poor house - and the time to decide is now, because we will be right back here next year. Tennis, er, & golf anyone?

Carol Sharick, a Town Meeting member, works at Amherst College.