Town-gown partnership hits a snag

By Nick Grabbe
Staff Writer

Published on July 20, 2007

An agreement between Amherst Town Hall and the University of Massachusetts is in limbo because of the departure of Chancellor John Lombardi.

The agreement covers payments to Amherst by UMass for fire protection, the status of Mark's Meadow School, cooperation between the two police departments, water and sewer rates and a proposal to merge the reception of emergency calls, said Town Manager Laurence Shaffer.

The dialogue began in December, when Shaffer suggested to Lombardi that the campus was not paying its fair share of the costs of fire protection.

Lombardi responded in April by "agreeing in principle with the equity issue," Shaffer said, but wanted an agreement to cover other town-gown issues as well.

However, April was also the month Lombardi broke off talks for a new contract with UMass President Jack M. Wilson. To further complicate the matter, Lombardi is leaving the area, as he was named the new president of Louisiana State University.

About a month ago, Shaffer sent Lombardi the draft of a "strategic partnership alliance contract," he said. Each issue was presented as an amendment, "so that any one-time revision of one component doesn't negate the entire agreement," Shaffer said.

It's been a difficult time for UMass because of the leadership shake-up proposed by President Wilson and now Lombardi's departure. Under the circumstances, Shaffer is not surprised that he hasn't heard back from UMass officials, he said.

"No agreement has been achieved until it's inked, and conversations are not agreements," he said. "But I believe we're tracking toward an agreement."

UMass spokesman Patrick Callahan would say only that discussions are ongoing.

Shaffer has calculated the number of times the Amherst Fire Department is called to the UMass campus, which is exempt from local taxes.

He looked at the cost to taxpayers of employing firefighters, and concluded that Amherst should receive $400,000 a year in reimbursement from UMass instead of last year's $181,000, he said.

The agreement does not cover the cost to Amherst taxpayers of police officers who spend part of their time dealing with UMass students when they are off campus, Shaffer said. But it does include the agreement between the two police departments on when one will assist the other, he said. Handling emergency calls jointly is a proposal, not an agreement, he said.

Mark's Meadow is a public elementary school owned by UMass, but the town pays no rent to use it. There have been questions over the years about whether the campus or the town is responsible for repairs and improvements.

The proposed agreement seeks equity in the financial trade-offs, Shaffer said.

It stipulates that the building would have value if it were leased and seeks to balance that with the cost to the town of educating the children of graduate students who live in tax-exempt UMass housing, he said.

The agreement would also create a joint committee to coordinate the sharing of information on developments affecting water and sewer rates, Shaffer said.

UMass is Amherst's biggest water customer, but it has achieved, through new equipment, a 40 percent decline in use, requiring an increase in everyone's rates, he said.

Shaffer still wants to press the Legislature to create a fair formula for reimbursing Amherst for the other costs of being the host community for UMass, such as police staffing and road maintenance, he said.

"The benefits of public education are shared by the state, and the costs should be shared, too," he said. "There should be an accounting of what it costs taxpayers to accommodate UMass, and taxpayers should be compensated for that."