Saturday, September 13, 2008

Why I don't show off



Not that he was showing off of course:

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

today is Fonda's free houseburning over near the harp. So much for her affordable housing campaign.

Larry, you should document our tax dollars spent on the biggest lamdowner in Massachusetts.

Anonymous said...

Sorry my iPhone changed cinda to fonda

Larry Kelley said...

Yeah, it would he hard to confuse Cinda Jones with Jane Fonda.

Hey at least they are paying property taxes on the old home...although next year I'm sure that will go down rather dramatically.

And they will probably save around $10,000 on demolition costs as the town will probably take care of that after the Fire Department is done.

maryd said...

Keep in mind the value of the training for AFD.

Larry Kelley said...

I always do.

Anonymous said...

I am thinking more lead paint (which you KNOW is all over the outside) and asbestos (which likely is inside) and how much cheaper it is to just burn it....

One does have to ask that question...

Anonymous said...

"Keep in mind the value of the training for AFD."

yes good training. do they always train by gutting houses and removing vinyl siding, filling roll-off dumpsters to the hilt? that seems more like demolition to me.

let me tell you a little story. as i was contemplating who in town might be interested in helping fund my academy square proposal, created under the auspices of the 250th subcommittee for arts and literature, i thought of cinda's family. you see, not only did the committee think it was great i came up with all of the connective ideas for the development of the site, they also figured i should secure the funding. i guess their lack of hope and vision precluded them from thinking it would be possible for them to negotiate the politics of the fund-raising. so i call cindy, and suggest the jones' might be the perfect family, one who by their own proclamation is 7 generations deep, to fund the 250th legacy piece. her reply: (paraphrased) we are not interested in public art. we are involved in creating affordable housing in town. ok, doesn't like art, wants to create more rentals. hmmmmmm? then, as we were about to end the conversation, she mentions how they are going to be burning down the house behind my house, since it had frozen up over winter break.

after i thought about it for a while i realized....in one breath she is into affordable housing, and the next breath she is telling me she is burning down some affordable housing.

this does not rest easy. first, the house on cowls road was a long known mega party house...i mean i saw parties with 300+ people and bands and raging bonfires. not exactly a landlords' dream house. i reckon it was a long time thorn they wished was gone.

second...it was being managed by kamins. where were they over winter break to check up on the property when the students left for christmas break? it is a fairly common event, i would speculate, that silly students freeze houses up. i mean it happened to my old house twice before i got it. it seems kamins would be well apprised of this and have it be part of their protocol: to check their house charges when at possible risk...if i owned property, i sure would. you read between those lines.

third, you can see the lumberyard's inventory growing, and what i hear is that results from poor lumber sales. so the inventory is growing. another house on cowls road is piled close and high with fresh cuts. they managed to rent it out, miraculously. burning down that house would really open up the stockyard, now wouldn't it?

fourth, what about the insurance money for the freeze-up? wouldn't that have paid for the necessary repairs? where did they use that money?

fifth, i inspected the house after the freeze-up, and it was not bad at all. the interior was largly solid wood paneling, which showed ZERO water damage, a few of the hardwood floors were buckled, and most certainly would have had to replace the heating system. my estimate to get the house up and running is 15k max, especially the way a slumlord would fix it up. insurance should have covered that.
the exterior was in fine condition, perfect slate roof and recent vinyl siding and windows.

to me it is very clear what the plan was, and the culmination was sticking it to amherst under the FALSE veil of AFD training. clouds of lead paint smoke and asbestos particulates are great. wish i still lived next door so i could have breathed deep the stench of corporate greed.

Anonymous said...

Yes, it seems this rental house was a problem if they often had loud parties, and yes, the Cowlses did save money be having the A.F.D. demo it. The real issue to me is, it's too bad they didn't recycle some of the old wood, windows, slates, etc. And, do we really need all that soot in the air? I'm sure there are better places to burn down a house than in the valley. However, I bet that Cowls needs the extra room for their business, and Amherst does need to promote local business as much as possible to help the tax base.

Anonymous said...

"too bad they didn't recycle some of the old wood, windows, slates, etc"....preposterous, that would be less potential product brother evan could sell at the building supply!

"extra room for their business"...for the lumber they aren't selling

"Amherst does need to promote local business as much as possible to help the tax base"...as larry pointed out already, they will be paying less taxes. it's the small businesses that need the help. geez they already use cowls road as their private lumber stacking row. ever seen those unlicensed forklifts and loaders blocking traffic? stacks within inches of hydrants? and there is the "wetland" woodchip disposal pile on the west side of sunderland road...stephanie sidestepped that when i brought it up with her. and there is the storm drain from cowls road that dumps typically silt laden waters directly into eastman brook, near the burnhouse. i noticed this summer how their recent detention pond on cowls road was breeched in a storm, the catch basin was covered in silt, the one that leads to eastman brook. how about the additional sawmill noise and truck traffic that has resulted from their new sawmill? oh yes, this summer there was the 500' hydraulic fluid slick on cowls road from a severely leaking loader. i guess they could use more freebies.

Anonymous said...

Dude, maybe you and Ed should get together for a good rant.

Anonymous said...

Ed is starting to wonder if Cinda knows (or thinks) something about the new "party house" ordinance that others haven't yet figured out.

Could be interesting....