[The following commentary first appeared as a series of three articles in March 1997, in the Milford Cabinet. It was written by Richard Verrochi, an Amherst Selectman. It appears here with the permission of Mr. Verrochi.]
The publication and distribution of this work was made possible by a grant from a privately owned, Amherst based corporation. No taxpayer money was involved in any way. The views represented are solely those of the author, and should not be construed to be the plans or policy of the Town of Amherst or the Board of Selectmen.
This is not a work of fiction; rather, it is a work of conjecture. The objective is to invite you to think, argue, and conjecture about the future of Amherst.
I have tried to place myself in the year 2010, and to look back at the Town from a Selectman's perspective. You may disagree with my conclusions or suppositions, but I do ask that you read this work to the end. Some aspect of it will touch you and affect you, because Amherst is not only my home, but yours.
I must always credit Dorothy Davis, who made the emphatic point to me that a town is merely an address to which we send mail, but a community is a place where people come together to solve mutual problems. Amherst has always been a community of concerned citizens, doing what they believe is right for our Town, our children, and our future.
The population of Amherst has changed in the thirteen years since 1997. The principle dynamic of this change has been the school system's reputation for excellence.
Our educational "Field of Dreams" began with the development of excellent elementary and middle schools in the 1970's and 1980's. But the true catalyst of change was the opening of the Souhegan High School in the early 1990's. Some commentators have opined that the Souhegan School Board must have retained a public relations firm to help generate the wonderful image and publicity which brought hordes of students to Amherst and Mont Vernon.
A more realistic view would simply examine the surrounding communities' educational systems: each has its drawbacks. Milford has all but abandoned its financial commitment to education; Hollis has constructed a new high school that was overpopulated on the day it opened; Merrimack's lengthy battle with the Christian Coalition and the New Right has left a lingering but emphatically negative image of the Town's school system; Bedford's continuing refusal to build a new high school and its willingness to send students to central-city Manchester West High School has been a major deterrent to families moving into Town. As Fidelity, Optima Health, and major electronics and software companies have expanded into the Nashua region, corporate human resource officers have carefully pointed out Amherst, and secondly Mont Vernon, as the towns for families.
As a result of all this, Amherst has continued to build 75 to 125 new homes each year. These four, five and six bedroom houses have been populated by families with children. The 1997 population of 11,000 has risen to 16,000 in 2010.
The demand for housing has been strong, helping to steadily increase values. This market strength has persuaded more and more "Empty Nesters" to sell their larger homes and make the decision regarding where they will live in their later years. With a few upscale condominiums having been built in the Town, some have stayed, but two-thirds of the "Empty Nesters" have left.
In the 1980's and 1990's, much discussion was focused on the make-up of Amherst's adult population. Statistically, the population was a bell curve, rising at age 35 and falling at age 60. The common explanation for this anomaly was that you could not afford to move into Amherst until you were well established in life, and you could not afford to stay in Amherst if you lived on a retirement income. This anomaly has become even more pronounced, with no starter homes, no young professional couples without children moving into Town, and an even greater rate of out-migration of "Empty Nesters" as educational needs are fulfilled.
Most towns are populated with adults spread across the age spectrum. But Amherst has developed the concept of the "Premium Town", where residents willingly pay a premium tax rate so that their children can go to a premium school system. Home buyers shop the educational systems and subscribe to the theory that you get what you pay for. The result is that a family's commitment to Amherst is defined by its commitment to their children's education. When the educational commitment is completed, the commitment to Amherst is over, and it becomes time to move on.
This overriding factor in our demographic development has been called the "Educational Dynamic". Where residents in other towns live in the same place for 30 or 40 years, Amherst residents stay until High School Graduation Day. Amherst has become a parents' town, but not a grandparents' town.
Although efforts have been made to improve Route 101A, the lack of a direct Bypass to Nashua and Route 3 has resulted in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Development along the road has been restricted, with no new curb cuts allowed. All new development must be along access roads which funnel traffic to existing stop lights. Computer controlled traffic signals manage and direct traffic, with express lanes to Nashua existing in the center of the roadway behind jersey barriers. Since 1997, traffic along Route 101A has approximately doubled, exceeding the planned capacity of the road.
Route 101 to Manchester has had the highest rate of traffic growth of any road segment in New Hampshire. With an annual rate of increase of more that 8%, traffic has tripled since 1997. But this is the only road in the area on which the State had some foresight. Begun as intersection improvements in Bedford in the early 1990's, the road is now a four lane highway (in some cases six lanes) providing major east-west and north-south links.
In the south end of Amherst, Route 122 has absorbed much of the traffic wanting to avoid Route 101A. The road has been straightened, widened and improved to allow fast transit, along with much more traffic.
The impact of the different ways that each of these three roads has developed has been very important. Route 101 has essentially become a limited access highway, with traffic noise and exhaust smells spilling from the road. Neighborhoods and properties abutting the highway have become quite undesirable for residential use. Non-retail development, in the form of small office parks and research centers, has occurred. However the volume of traffic and the limited access along Route 101 has made even these uses difficult unless they are developed on interior access roads funneling to pre-existing intersections.
Route 101A's salvation as an east-west road lies in the express lanes built in the center of the road. With access only at Route 101 and Pennichuck Square, these lanes provide lifeblood for commuters who need to speed along at 50 MPH. Small overpasses and underpasses (built at substantial expense) allow for cross traffic. The momentum of development has increasingly crowded new commercial enterprises along the road in Amherst. The Town is now home to a Home Depot, T J Maxx, and Kids R Us. What was the Bon Terrain Industrial Park was rezoned for commercial use. With access on both Route 101A and Route 122, the former industrial park has become the Amherst Factory Outlet Center, with 140 stores representing companies from around the world.
Route 122 has swiftly transitioned from a meandering, picturesque state highway to a primary arterial rod. With widening and straightening, the road handles in the year 2010 the same volume of traffic as Route 101 did in 1997.
Governance of the Town and individual citizen involvement has changed dramatically. The late 1990's brought about the most dramatic change, as direct ballot voting on the Town budget and other issues eventually eliminated Town Meeting. Except for the sparsely attended budget and ballot voting hearings, the largest meeting of Amherst's voters occurs in a brief, crowded moment at the polls. Because of the extended length of the ballot and the lack of volunteer ballot counters, the Town invested in electronic scanners which provide final results within minutes of the closing of the polls.
Although meetings have declined, communication within the Town has increased. The Selectmen and Town Administrator use every means possible, from direct mail to e-mail, to communicate their positions to the taxpayer. As a result, the taxpayers find themselves better informed than ever before on issues facing the Town. The greatest benefit generated by the direct ballot vote is this increased level of information, education, and informed voting.
From the Selectmen's point of view, the direct ballot vote and its resultant informed voters have been beneficial. The Selectmen's budget has been passed by wide margins because of the communication efforts. The reward for the Selectmen's hard work has been complete acceptance by the voters.
Volunteerism died with the end of the twentieth century. Fewer and fewer competent residents of the Town were willing to accept positions of responsibility. As a result, both the Planning Board and the Zoning Board of Appeals have been disbanded. A professional planner now makes all site plan approvals, and variances are acted upon by the Board of Selectmen, who meet each Monday evening and half a day on Saturday.
The darkest day for volunteerism occurred shortly after the beginning of the new century. At the urging of and pressure from the members of the Volunteer Fire Department, the Town instituted a very expensive retirement system for volunteer firemen. The program also granted vesting for previous years of service in the Department. With the passage of this benefit by the Town, the most experienced firemen, particularly the unit officers, immediately retired. With almost half of the Volunteer Fire Department opting for this immediate retirement, the Town was in an urgent situation, requiring the establishment of a full-time, paid fire department. Needless to say, most urgent situations are very expensive, and this was no exception. This new retirement program, represented to the Town as a retention tool, actually brought about the quick demise of the Volunteer Fire Department.
Across the board, as the population of Amherst expanded, volunteerism declined. Although this sounds counter-intuitive, thoughtful consideration shows that residents feel more alienated in the larger Town, with little or no sense of community with one another.
The turn of the century brought a major investment in a Recreation Center, built as what was known as Cemetery Fields. Costing more than $3.5 million, the facility has gyms, swimming pools, meeting rooms, tennis courts, racquet ball courts, soccer fields, and, of course, an ice hockey rink.
Establishment of the Recreation Center also required staff to operate it. In 1997, the Town had 1.5 full-time recreation employees; in 2010, we have 13 full-time and 10 part-time employees. Among the full-time employees are a hockey coach and a swimming coach. In the same way that Amherst was a powerhouse in soccer in the 1990's, the Town is now State and Regional champion in soccer, swimming, hockey, and lacrosse.
Despite the best efforts of the Selectmen, the Recreation Department and its facilities are almost 100% devoted to children, with little allocation of resources to adults and senior citizens. As a family town, devoted to children, Amherst cannot generate much support for adult and senior programs.
The crown jewel of Amherst is its educational system. High quality education, in the broadest sense of that phrase, is the raison d'être of the community.
With the waves of school children entering the Town in the 1990's, the physical facilities of the school department were soon overwhelmed. As the new century approached, the Town made major investments in new physical plant totaling more than $25 million.
Located with the new Recreation Center at Cemetery Fields, new middle and elementary schools were constructed. With a capacity of 1200 students, the middle school is an architectural marvel, beautifully integrated into the hillside. The elementary school, with eventual capacity of 600 students, was built to be as expandable as possible.
The existing Amherst Middle School was transferred to the Souhegan High School to create a new campus and scientific/computer technology center. The additional classroom space available to Souhegan through this change will deal with future expansion until the year 2020. A major new athletic facility was also constructed on the Souhegan campus in 2005.
With this expanded capacity, both Souhegan and the Amherst School Districts actively solicit tuition-paying students from other towns. Tuition is set at 125% of the cost of education, with a ceiling of 250 students accepted from outside the Town. Currently, for the school year 2010-2011, 220 students are paying $15,000 each to attend school in Amherst.
The "Educational Dynamic" continues to be the most important factor in decision-making within the Town. Although early attempts were made through direct ballot voting to contain and reduce spending on education, the continuing raison d'être of Amherst is excellent education. Those who felt, in the late 1990's, that direct ballot voting would curtail educational spending and taxes were surprised and disappointed at the tidal wave of support that the young parents of the Town gave to education.
An observation on American taxpayers is that they are willing to pay for use-specific taxes, such as gasoline taxes for roads, or local property taxes for town and school services. The philosophy of local control and getting what you pay for determines the willingness of the taxpayer to pay the bill. In Amherst, the taxpayer pays a premium tax rate, but receives premium education in return. This is what the taxpayer wants.
With an average assessment of $190,000, the 1997 taxes on a typical four bedroom colonial home were $5,000. The revaluation of property in 2006 raised this average assessment to $240,000, almost as high as the property's fair market value during the white hot real estate market of the 1980's. Regardless of assessments and fair market values, the concern of every taxpayer is the bill paid each year.
New buildings, new schools, salary increases, and a paid full-time fire department have all had their impact on tax bills. Although the added properties in the commercial zones have helped to offset the expanded costs of Town services, nothing has been able to offset the cost of increased educational spending.
Along with the increased costs of operating the schools, the "Flight of the Empty Nesters" is the most important change affecting taxes. In 1997, only one-third of the homes in Amherst had school-age children. Two-thirds of the homes paid significant tax bills, but were not users of the educational system. These "Empty Nesters" helped to subsidize the cost of education to contain tax bills.
In 2010, the ratio has become reversed. Two-thirds of the homes have school-age children, while only one-third are "Empty Nesters". The subsidy has declined, and the cost to all taxpayers has increased.
At the turn of the century, much attention was given to the shift of one-third school-age/two-thirds "Empty Nesters". Although the Town passed abatement programs which were designed to assist "Empty Nesters" in dealing with taxes, a ten or fifteen percent discount was ineffective in the face of property tax increases averaging 8.5% per year since 1997.
In 2010, the tax bill on a four bedroom colonial home, assessed at the new value of $240,000, is $13,000 per year, paid in monthly installments to the Town.
Robert Frost wrote about "The Road Not Taken". It may appear that Amherst has many roads and bridges to the twenty-first century, but every road sign points to the school system and the "Educational Dynamic".
Underlying every assumption and supposition in this work is the belief that the educational system of Amherst is of tantamount importance to the residents. The willingness to pay premium taxes for a premium educational system creates a conundrum: if we have quality education, hordes of students will move into Town until the cost of living in Amherst makes it financially impossible for most people to come.
Frost wonders wistfully about his "Road Not Taken". Amherst residents can only wonder about the Town without a premium educational system. The commitment to education within the Town is so strong that no deviation from the current road is possible.
The "Educational Dynamic" defines Amherst and controls every facet of life within the Town, from taxes to recreation. Given this commitment to education, no alternative bridge to the twenty-first century is possible.
As taxes rise, the population of the Town will be defined by it's ability to pay. As we cross the bridge into the twenty-first century, only those able to pay the very expensive toll will continue to live in Amherst.
You can also read Real Issues Facing The Town Of Amherst by George Bower.
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Last updated by SWC on 1 June 1997