Wednesday, June 19, 2013

A Road Too Far

Farview Way, North Amherst

Longtime town resident Allan Carpenter went before the Pubic Works Committee two weeks ago to lobby in behalf of all the residents living on his street.

His modest single family home was built in 1914, four years after the town constructed Farview Way, and he and his wife purchased it in 1952.



This road has not a major renovation since LBJ was President.  For you non-history majors that was in 1964.

Currently, in addition to Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter 17 other single family homes are sprinkled all along Farview Way with a combined assessed value of a little over $5 million, generating $100,000 in property tax revenues paid to the Town annually.

The Public Works Committee was attentive and polite to Mr. Carpenter but offered no hope on the horizon for repaving Farview Way.



Sure the Governor recently cut in half Chapter 90 (road repair) monies,  sending many DPW chiefs into a paroxysm of disbelief.  Amherst was originally promised $1.2 million back when the weather was still cold; although fortunately, we only budgeted for $500,000.

Still, we will end up receiving $618,000.


And since President Obama declared Massachusetts a "disaster area" after the monster snow storm last February, the town should also be seeing an extra $100,000 or so in federal monies.  

Either way, not much consolation for residents of Farview Way. 





18 comments:

Anonymous said...

larry kelly... always taking up the big issues

Larry Kelley said...

It's actually Kelley with an extra e.

Anonymous said...

What a wimp. You would think this was dirt ruts for a covered wagon. Get over it. A bunch of cry babies. Wildflower and Lincoln are just as bad.

Larry Kelley said...

You all should form a union.

Anonymous said...

What I don't get about Amherst is that people in Amherst like to think of themselves as living in the ultimate bastion of liberalism, forward thinking, fairness blah blah blah …… common ……. just fix the roads. I’ll be fine with all the platitudes after the roads are fixed...

Anonymous said...

Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter have contributed much to this community over the years -- their volunteerism has been a small part of their contributions. For pete's sake, let's just fix the bloomin' road!

Walter Graff said...

I went down this road not long ago and couldn't belivehow poorly it is maintained.

Anonymous said...

So many roads are a mess!

The only way to avoid potholes is to drive straight down the middle of the road

So- at this point- The town should make every road one way- to avoid getting hit by oncoming traffic as we straddle the yellow solid lines throughout Amherst.

Anonymous said...

Doesn't look too bad to me. There was a time when many of Amherst's road were dirt roads. Potwine Lane wasn't fully paved until the 1990s. Mill Lane still is unpaved on most of it.

Larry Kelley said...

Try doing a high speed bicycle chase down that road and then get back to me.

Anonymous said...

If you are saying it keeps speeds down that sounds pretty good to me. Too many people in a hurry.

Larry Kelley said...

It's hardly on the main drag so I don't think neighbors are concerned with speeding.

Although I do remember when Hill Boss was going to make "Pave Mill Lane" (where he had just recently moved) his Select Board campaign platform, but then found out ALL his neighbors hated the idea (because of potential speeding).

Anonymous said...

Why in hell would we use tax dollars for infrastructure? Where's the emotional issue? This is Amherst, we only pour tax money into causes. Nope, no homeless people, single mothers, low income housing, some other country, or even a stained glass window. What kind of town would we be if we used peoples tax money to repair a public way. Oh the shame it would bring on us all.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know what the total cost would be to pave Fairview Way?

Anonymous said...

For all the property taxes we pay you'd think we have decent roads. As it stands, the town does a really lousy patch job that barely lasts a year, then has to be done over again. And again. What a waste of time and money.

Anonymous said...


If A Brewer had to drive Farview to get home The Carpenters would have a SB voice to support them

Anonymous said...

We better form a committee and fund a study to see if this should be paved.

Anonymous said...

Hey Larry. How about a top 10 list of bad roads in Amherst? I vote for Mill Ln. Pine St. and High Point dr. They are the roads most likely to rip the wheel off your Prius or bicycle.