Residents fired up at Monday's Amherst Town Board meeting

Amherst, N.Y. (WBEN) - Tensions were high at the Amherst Town Board meeting on Monday as dozens of residents expressed their frustration over the $11 million MusicalFare bond and to support the permissive referendum petition.

One of the residents who spoke at the meeting described the petition, which received over ,4500 signatures, as a historic event for the Town of Amherst.

"Can you ask yourselves, how and why this is happening? How and why, as far as I know, the first time in history for the Town of Amherst that the residents have petitioned for a permissive referendum? That's over 200 years of history," the resident said during her speech. "Now, under your leadership, is the first time that the residents have been moved to exercise this right. We feel like this is our Boston Tea Party. We are revolting against taxation without representation."

Another resident who spoke during the meeting expressed his concern with the bond, and believes this is a blatant misuse of tax dollars.

"It was heartwarming to see so many people wanting to sign our petition, to vote, on the $11 million this board wanted to borrow to build a theatre at Westwood. Let it be known that we are not against MusicalFare. We are against the spending of our tax dollars for non-essential projects," they said.

Later in the meeting, a man was asked by a police officer to step away from the microphone after Amherst Supervisor Brian Kulpa told him his time was up, which caused an out roar in the crowd.