Dorothy Pam

For Amherst Town Councilor
District 3 (former precincts 4 & 10)

I will represent our District by proposing and supporting policies that balance community, diversity, and affordability to protect our neighborhoods, create sustainability, and locate development appropriately.

COMMUNITY

• Maintain and strengthen friendly, safe, affordable, multi-age, residential neighborhoods where we can walk, bike, and meet our neighbors
• Preserve trees, green space, sunlight, scale and context throughout the town
• Increase student and town interaction—recreation, social services, and involvement in solving real-life problems
  

EDUCATION AND CULTURE

• Develop small, safe, diverse, and welcoming Schools where each student is known and loved
• Continue commitment to Amherst’s high standards in Education and the Arts
• Fully fund Pre-K education
• Create more venues for Theatre, Music, and Visual Arts
• Expand Teen Programs at the Jones Library
  

SERVICES

• Build up-to-date Fire Department and Public Works Facilities
• Require first class services for those in need
• Encourage food self-sufficiency and emphasize green energy for jobs, savings, and sustainability in Western Massachusetts

Did you know that the new Amherst Town Council

• Hires the Town Manager
• Decides the role of resident input in affordable housing, zoning, and development
• Sets priorities for capital projects, including concern for cost, efficiency and tax fairness

We must ensure that the proposed developments serve the common good of the town and protect our visible history, green spaces, and residential neighborhoods.

I pledge myself

• to policies that respect and reflect the interests of Amherst residents
• to ask hard questions
• to be an independent voice
• to preserve our values—educational and artistic excellence

Dorothy Pam is an experienced community activist and educator: founder and leader in senior and intergenerational services, community arts and health fairs, environmental groups. Leader in anti-war, feminist, and political reform activities.

Adjunct instructor at Holyoke Community College (2010—present). Previously: Northwestern Connecticut Community College; Eugenio Maria de Hostos Community College, City University of New York; Louis Armstrong Middle School, NYC; Rebecca Reed Elementary School, Grenada, Mississippi.

Dorothy Pam has "... the values, the “spine” and the critical independence to help the new Council make decisions that benefit all sectors of our town….For me, the key is to elect independent Council members who are not beholden to any special interests, and who have the alertness to keep a balance among our residential neighborhoods, our open farm and conserved green spaces, and the kind of development that will bring revenue to Amherst without damaging the qualities that led many of us to live here."

- Maurianne Adams