So the property was plenty big enough--parking included--for Harkness Road High School, a private, non-profit, co-ed day school established 1987 in what was formerly a retail poultry business situated on five acres.
They educated students in grades seven through twelve, utilizing 2,400 square feet (four rooms) of class space, and averaged approximately 20 students each year.
But now suddenly traffic is an issue with a Mosque? Especially a Mosque in the People's Republic of Amherst where attendance is expected to be two to five people coming for daily prayers, up to 10 people for night prayers and around 50 people attending Friday services, which take place at 1 p.m.
And interestingly the immediate long-time neighbor to the property is a commercial welding business.
But hey, at least the fifty or so complainers are not playing the terrorist card--at least not yet.
Great theater! A fine cast of characters - the (not-so-tolerant) liberal NIMBY residents; the spineless PC town officials; the multicultural upstarts who want to replace the chicken-pot-pie-business-turned-Christian-school-turned-Japanese-organic-farm into a mosque.
ReplyDeleteOnly in the People's Republic.
Traffic concerns = red herring.
Yeah, let's hope this one gets resolved amicably and does not become another 'West Side Story'or 'Vagina Monolgues' tempest in a teapot.
ReplyDeletePeople in the neighborhood should just relax this is a good use for this building. I have coexisted with this group in the Carriage Shops and there have been no problems. These are peaceful loving people who just want to pray and socialize with other people of a similar belief. Let them pray for gods sake and ours.
ReplyDeletePoor Steve Prothers, his property value will decline with a mosque next door. Couldn't have happened to a nicer person.
ReplyDeleteCan't we all just get along?
ReplyDeleteAmherst is crawling with vipers...
ReplyDeleteCrawling.