Tired cheerleader

As usual the Daily Hampshire Gazette issued one of those wishy-washy, two-thumbs halfheartedly up for the recent town/gown agreement between Umass and Amherst that will generate a paltry $100,000 per year for the next five years to our beleaguered town.

Of course a hundred grand is nothing to sneeze at; but, when it could have and should have been FIVE TIMES that amount it’s just a little hard to celebrate. Obviously the crusty old Gazette lacks excitement, so the least little thing gets them up on the party dance floor (to the strains of Lawrence Welk no doubt).

Okay so if I were the Mayor of Amherst, how would I have handled the negotiation? Let them eat cake! I mean, let them drink beer! Or…we could have threatened to raise their water rates to the level that Hadley charges (what are they going to do boycott water?).

Last year that would have raised an additional $400,000 on water payments alone. And then we could have threatened to charge a differential between water and sewer (as we did for everybody EXCEPT Umass all during the 1990’s) thus raising another $150,000.

So it’s either pay $550,000 more for water/sewer OR make out a check to the Town of Amherst General Fund (so the money can be used for anything) for, say, $400,000 and we will leave your water/sewer rates alone, thus saving you $150,000. Everybody wins--especially the citizens of Amherst.