AMHERST — A new book being released this week by a former member of the Amherst Town Council is drawing on her experiences as an elected municipal leader, with hopes that lessons included might help replace divisions with understanding and purposeful action.

Shalini Bahl-Milne, who represented District 5 from 2018 through 2023, has written “Return to Mindfulness: Disrupting Default Habits for Personal Fulfillment, Effective Leadership and Global Impact.” The book focuses on eight mindfulness skills, such as awareness, energy and inner calm.

“I truly believe that the eight mindfulness skills and evidence-based practices and real life reminders are essential to thrive individually and collectively in this polarized world facing big challenges,” Bahl-Milne wrote in an email.

The chapters focusing on curiosity and compassion use examples from her time as a councilor. With curiosity, Bahl-Milne explains that this became an essential skill to understand the impact of a proposed moratorium on large-scale solar installations, a measure she voted against.

On compassion, she writes, “I do believe that compassion — seeking to understand rather than judge — is an important skill we can all benefit from as residents and so can the town councilors. Disrupting our confirmation bias, only listening to people within the echo chamber, is another big factor getting in the way of good legislation.”

She points to the legislative process guide she helped create as a document future town councilors could use and adapt as needed to exercise skills explained in the book.

Filings against teachers

The union representing teachers, paraprofessionals and clerical staff is demanding that the Amherst school district explain why there has been what they contend is a sudden increase in 51A filings of child abuse or neglect against school staff.

A statement was recently issued by the union after a teacher at the Amherst Regional Middle School lost her job, even though her colleagues say she was exonerated following the 51A filing. The union told the Regional School Committee in December that she should be reinstated.

“The district appears to be weaponizing the 51A, making it the go-to action, instead of giving educators due process,” APEA Executive Board member Alexander Lopez said in a statement.

The union claims that the state Department of Children and Families has investigated and cleared individuals from three of the 51A filings, while others are pending. In total, six 51A filings were filed in 36 days.

Housing Authority

Two new members are needed for the Amherst Housing Authority, with a possible selection at the Town Council’s Feb. 6 meeting.

Candidate statements of interest are due by Tuesday at 4 p.m. to Clerk of the Town Council Athena O’Keeffe by email at okeeffea@amherstma.gov, hand-delivered at Town Hall, or sent by mail to 4 Boltwood Ave., Amherst 01002.

Amherst College student center

Construction on a new student center and dining commons, expected to open in the summer of 2026, is underway at the former site of the Merrill Science Building on the Amherst College campus.

The college website describes the project as connecting the upper and lower campus, offering students, faculty and staff welcoming spaces, and serving as a crossroads that will allow people to gather and interact across interests and affinities:

“Nothing is more important than creating a place where students — all students — can come together, forge community and make Amherst their own.”

Part of Merrill’s concrete structure is being removed down to the third-floor level, with a new mass timber structure to be built on top. “Repurposing the majority of the concrete in the Merrill Science Building dramatically reduces the project’s overall carbon footprint, and using technologically advanced wood construction is a low-carbon design strategy,” the college website notes.

Salt intake grows

A University of Massachusetts economist is finding that Americans, already consuming more salt than recommended by health experts, often turn to more salty foods, even when offered reformulated products that contain less sodium

Christian Rojas, professor of resource economics, found that shifting consumer behaviors wiped out 90% of the sodium reduction observed in manufactured products over an eight-year period.

Manufacturers were responding to the National Salt Reduction Initiative, a five-year campaign launched in 2009 to reduce Americans’ sodium intake 20% by removing salt from food products. With co-author Ezgi Cengiz, an economist at North Carolina State University, Rojas found that if consumers had maintained the same grocery-buying habits in place before the initiative, salt intake would have declined by 53%. Instead, sodium intake declined by less than 5%.

“We observed that consumers were reluctant to fully adopt reformulated products,” Rojas said. “Manufacturers can be reluctant to change their products because people get used to certain tastes and flavors. In this case, we believe that firms may have reformulated too quickly.”

Meetings

MONDAY: Library trustees, 4 p.m., Town Council, 6:30 p.m., Town Hall.

TUESDAY: Amherst Regional School Committee, 6:30 p.m., high school library.

THURSDAY: Zoning Board of Appeals, 6 p.m.