UMass, Amherst & Hampshire Colleges account for 27% of all AFD calls
On Thursday all the head honchos -- Select Board, Finance Committee, Town Manager John Musante and Finance Director Sandy Pooler -- will meet in Town Hall for the unveiling of the Town Manager's Fiscal 2015 budget.
Don't expect any earth shattering changes. Although maybe, finally, a much overdue increase in staffing for our beleaguered public safety departments.
One thing that should be discussed is reimbursement monies from our three institutes of higher education. You know, the reason why Amherst is a "college town."
The main one of course is UMass. The original 5-year "Strategic Agreement", which pays the town $350,000 in new monies annually, expired June 30, 2012 but was extended for a year.
NFD mutual aid ambulance, AFD Engine 3 Pierpont Dorm UMass for ETOH student
In 2013 Amherst Fire Department responded to UMass 1,162 times with 843 of those (73%) responses for medical emergencies requiring an ambulance, with 219 of those (26%) for "substance abuse." So that means the other 319 responses required a fire engine. Ambulance runs generate insurance revenues, fire engine runs do not.
AFD Engine 2 on scene Crossett Dorm Amherst College
Although after the Crossett Christmas incident last month let's hope they go back to the $120,000 they gave us in 2007.
In 2013 AFD responded to Hampshire College 184 times with 71 of those responses (only 39%) for medical emergencies requiring an ambulance, with 17 of those (24%) for "substance abuse." The other 113 of those responses required a fire engine.
AFD crew heading toward Hampshire Dining Commons for an ETOH female 12:20 AM
So out of the three institutes of higher education AFD protects, Hampshire College has by far the higher percentage of responses requiring expensive equipment that does not generate insurance reimbursement.
Last year Hampshire College paid the town zero, zip, nada for emergency services received by the town. And as a tax exempt educational institute they paid almost nothing in property taxes. Yet they are one of the most expensive colleges in America at $57,130 per year.
And last year Hampshire announced it would offer an "undocumented student" $25,000 per year to cover those high tuition expenses. At least that student will be well protected (at local taxpayer expense).
Total cost of attending Hampshire is $57,130. It's not a commuter school.
ReplyDeleteCome on Amherst College, you've got a $1.6 billion endowment. Loosen up and pay your share.
ReplyDeleteHampshire has an endowment for the illegal alien tuition so it's not being paid by any taxes.
ReplyDeleteBut the public safety protection that student will get via AFD IS paid for by taxes.
ReplyDeleteAnd the fact that I had to sign up for the selective service to receive federal aid so I could attend UMass, as a legal citizen, drives me nuts about this move by Hampshire.
ReplyDelete"They're basically Americans" without any sacrifice.
Larry, when you only look at number of calls, you can get some very skewed statistics -- which is what you have here. Not all fire calls cost the town the same amount of money -- and hence percentage of calls does not correspond to percentage of resource consumption.
ReplyDeleteFor example ,the tragic Rolling Green fire and those recent runs for burst water pipes would each be counted as a "fire" call -- and yes, did involve rolling at least one fire truck, at least for a while.
But the Rolling Green fire involved rolling all of the trucks (and a bunch of other town's as well, including for station coverage), a significant chunk of the police resources (and initially the UMPD's as well), and they were down there for a couple of days before it was completely out and the body recovered.
By contrast, and I don't dismiss the importance of them going, but they went to the Mullins Center, quickly concluded that the sprinkler alarm had been triggered by a burst pipe and not fire activating sprinkler heads, and left. And would have left a lot quicker if they were needed somewhere else, while they couldn't have left Rolling Green...
Furthermore, stuff gets broken at a working fire -- not intentionally but it does -- which means that everything has to be overhauled after a major event like Rolling Green. This is not only personnel time but parts, some of which tend to be rather expensive, and that's if they can do the repairs themselves -- it's even more expensive if they have to take the truck somewhere.
So while the cost to the town for the run to the Mullins Center was a few gallons of Diesel fuel and a brief commitment of personnel who could have quickly been diverted elsewhere for a more pressing emergency, the Rolling Green fire was a major expense in terms of overtime, equipment and the rest.
If you want to be intellectually honest Larry, you have to admit this. It's disingenuous to calculate the cost of the fire protection to the colleges on the number of calls without adjusting for what those calls were for and the average cost of each one of them.
At least in the case of UMass, any money that UM gives the town is going to be money that the UM students are giving the town and I argue that -- relative to resources they consume -- the UM students are already paying an unfairly high portion of the town budget.
ReplyDeleteHalf the students live off campus and are paying property taxes via their rents. Even those who live in North Village are essentially paying them because UM wouldn't be able to charge what it does if the other rental rates in town were lower -- if it were not for the property taxes being passed on to those tenants.
Half the town taxes go to K-12, which very few of the students use -- and those who do in NVA are way offset by those in Puffton who don't. Students consume police resources -- yet students also provide income to the town via the police department, not just the $300 noise fines but half of all the tickets that not only the APD but UMPD write goes to the town.
If you think about it, the UM students are really getting screwed -- and the true "freeloaders" are the families with Section 8 vouchers (whose property taxes are being paid by the Federal Govt) and those living in AHA-owned properties that aren't taxed in the first place.
They have kids in the schools, and we won't even get into consumption of police resources.
So, Larry, why aren't you asking the Amherst Housing Authority to kick in some money here?
In fact, Hampshire does pay property taxes on numerous of it's non-educational properties. I know this because I pay the bills. If my quick calculation is correct, the FY13 total of taxes paid is approximately $80,000.
ReplyDeleteAnd last year Amherst College (in addition to the $90K "gift") paid the town $491,364 for the small part of their vast empire that is on the tax rolls: 31 single family, 5 two-family and 3 three-family houses, the profitable (unlike the town's own Cherry Hill) Amherst Golf Course on South Pleasant Street, the Dakin Property (purchased for $4.3 million in 2005) contiguous with the golf course and the scenic overlook at 69 South Pleasant Street.
ReplyDeleteOf course there is always my Etna/Dana/Greenwich/Prescott solution:
ReplyDeleteThe state legislature "disincorporates" Amherst (SCOTUS upheld their right to do that in the 1930s) and Amherst no longer exists -- it becomes a "reservation" like the Quabbin.
UMass then administers everything, K-12 schools (or contracts for them), fire, police, public works, etc.
As to private property -- i.e. your homes -- there is what happened when the Quabbin was built. The state paid $1, said "sucks to be you" and took possession of the homes (and demolished them). Owners had to sue (at their own expense) for whatever fraction of the actual value they could get.
Or the Commonwealth allows you to retain ownership, but you pay property taxes (in whatever amount the state dictates) directly to the state -- with neither control over how much nor what they are spent for.
In either case, there is no longer any local government -- of any sort -- it is just UMass administrators, selected indirectly by the Governor (whom you still can vote for or against).
And everything is run by UMass -- without any local control.
Be careful for what you ask for because this *is* the situation at other land grant universities -- UMass has a uniquely small campus, in part because an earlier generation of Amherst residents petitioned then-AG Ed Brooke to stop UM from expanding.
The other option, of course, is to abandon the investment in remote hard-to-access Amherst and build a new university elsewhere. Think of the political plum such a thing would be -- think of all the communities that would love to have it.
Yes, Ed, leave it to you to always veer into crazyland. Either UMass is going to be relocated, or even better, the town of Amherst is going to be dissolved, there's always a paranoid apocalyptic bit of schadenfreude that you can be counted on providing.
ReplyDeleteSix-year-old Dr. Ed looks like any other little boy, but looks can be deceiving: he is a monster, a mutant with godlike mental powers. Early on, he isolated the small town of Amherst, MA. In fact, the handful of inhabitants do not even know if he destroyed the rest of the world or if he whisked them away to some uncharted territory. Ed has also eliminated electricity, automobiles, and television signals. He controls the weather and what supplies can be found in the grocery store. Ed creates and destroys as he pleases (such as when he made and killed a "three-headed gopher"), and controls when and what the residents can watch on the TV. Your next stop... The Twilight Zone.
ReplyDeleteI was gonna guess "Star Trek." (the original of course.)
ReplyDelete"remote hard-to-access Amherst"
ReplyDelete============
Ed, ever been to Orono?
Great data, Larry. When you add up the number of calls, regardless of what they're "for", Dr. Ed, and divide by the number of days in the year, it is clear that a large and consistent proportion of public safety responses in our town are devoted to these (mostly) non-taxing paying entities. Some reckoning is in order.
ReplyDeleteEd, ever been to Orono?
ReplyDeleteOrono is served by not one but two exits on I-95 -- the Kelly Avenue & Stillwater Avenue exits. Both are considerably closer than Larry's house is to UMass, and I-95 is posted at 65MPH. US Route 2 goes through the middle of the campus.
Orono is 9 miles north of Bangor, the state's third largest city and just about geographically in the middle of the state. (Seriously folks, it is.
The Downeaster -- Amtrak passenger rail -- is now going to Brunswick (beyond Portland) and quite likely will be going to Bangor within the next 18 months (if not sooner) and there is an active rail line that passes within walking distance of the campus.
(Had it not exploded in rural Quebec Province, the train carrying crude oil would have been on these tracks the next day, and as the railroad that owns them has filed bankruptcy there may be issues extending passenger rail beyond Bangor, although I'm told it definitely is going that far.)
Bangor International Airport is the old Dow AFB with a runway that I believe is two miles long.
Now compare that to Amherst where it's well over a half hour drive to a highway heading to the state's population center (i.e. East), the airport is literally in another state, and there is no passenger rail (direct or otherwise) to where most of the state's population is (inside I-495).
Add on the fact that UMaine has vast amounts of build-able land that they aren't using while UMass has developed just about everything that isn't wetlands and you really aren't talking the same situation...
Having said that however, Orono is my model of what I believe is going to happen to Amherst.
ReplyDeleteLike Massachusetts, the population of Maine has shifted to the southern two counties and what was once a small normal school (Gorham State Teacher's College has dramatically expanded over the past four decades to become the University of Southern Maine -- an institution that (on the undergraduate level at least) rivals the Orono campus for the title of "flagship."
Kids prefer USM because it is closer to home, because they can find part time jobs (and ones that pay more than the college-town ones), and because it is in Portland where there are things to do.
Even Orono is only a half hour from the beach (Acadia National Park) and an hour from Sugarloaf & Sunday River. Heading out of Amherst, you want to plan on at least another hour for both.
So yes, I've been to Orono and for a more compact state such as Massachustts, Amherst is even more remote and isolated.
Yes, Ed, leave it to you to always veer into crazyland. Either UMass is going to be relocated, or even better, the town of Amherst is going to be dissolved, there's always a paranoid apocalyptic bit of schadenfreude that you can be counted on providing.
ReplyDeleteThree/four decades ago, the Commonwealth had a major investment in both Belchertown and Northampton -- lots of buildings, lots of people employed and did anyone honestly ever anticipate that they would just abandon it?
The Belchertown State school was a court order, but I don't believe that Northampton State Hospital was, and it was just shut down with the buildings left to fall into ruins and now be demolished.
Information technology and the internet has changed higher education as much (if not more than) the psych drugs changed mental health. It is no longer necessary to confine students to within walking distance of the library, and there are some dramatic savings of expense to the state if they don't.
500-seat lecture hall classes are not optimum education, almost anyone knows that, and if those classes, the first two years of college, were to be replaced by largely on-line courses that students can take in their local high schools as Florida is already doing, they wouldn't need to be in Amherst.
Back to Orono -- one can get a nursing degree from (I believe them) by taking the first couple years of classes in what is literally an old high school converted to a community center (not unlike the Bang's Center), and then finish up by driving up to Augusta (not Orono) once a week.
You can throw all the insults you want, but reality is that Amherst is a long way from Boston, a UMass Amherst education costs way more than anyone can afford, and technology has changed everything.
Having said that, however, one needs to remember that Amherst doesn't have many friends in the General Court -- Stan'll tell you that -- and if Amherst demands too much from a state that doesn't want to provide it, the state may take a heavy-handed approach in the other direction....
When you add up the number of calls, regardless of what they're "for"
ReplyDeleteOK, the university buys a fire truck, uses the fire station it already owns (kicking the AFD out of it), and cross-trains its very large police department to be firefighters as well.
This is done elsewhere, it is why the unofficial nickname of the NY/NJ Port Authority Police is "Guns & Hoses." UMass already has a quasi-FD in EH&S (complete with two vehicles equipped with sirens & red light bars), quite a few of the maintainers (janitors)are firefighters and/or EMTs with their volunteer hometown departments -- it wouldn't be hard for UMass to do this.
UMass then awards its ambulance contract to Lifeline, Caltaldo or any other of a number of state-licensed private ambulance companies and saves a lot of money because these companies charge a whole lot less per run.
They are both non-union & non-civil service and I'll probably agree with Jeff Parr on what I suspect he'll say about their personnel not being as experienced and/or well-trained, and there was that recent incident involving the Lifeline guy and his gun, -- but they are cheaper.
Of course the legislature would have to define UMass as a municipality -- but wait, it's already done that. And the UMPD would have to have a mutual-aid agreement with the Town of Amherst, but wait, they already have one.
So Amherst gets screwed. You loose all the money from those quite lucrative (100% payment)ambulance runs, and if there ever actually is a working fire at UMass, the AFD gets to deal with it anyway under mutual aid.
Umass doesn't own an amherst fire station. Please explain that
ReplyDeleteEd Umass doesn't own a fire station, please explain your rationale
ReplyDeleteEd said, "OK, the university buys a fire truck, uses the fire station it already owns (kicking the AFD out of it),"
ReplyDeleteJust one more of his "facts" that sound good in his head. Someone could go through all his posts and point out all his BS, but ain't nobody got time for that!
People really need to learn to ignore Ed. When we engage him his posts become longer and more frequent. Please, everyone. For the sake of this blog, ignore Ed. I don't think he will ever actually go away but maybe there would be fewer posts to skip over.
ReplyDeleteNever debate with an insane person, you should know better.
ReplyDeleteEd's not all there folks, don't waste your time.
Most of the time his posts are excruciatingly dull, but occasionally there's a real gem. It was mesmerizing to watch him squirm and twist in the wind after Kurt Geryk confronted him on his weird and creepy obsession with Enku and his wife.
ReplyDeleteIf "twisting in the wind" is saying that there are two women who don't have the degrees they ought to have in order to have the jobs they do, and that I, who put in the time and effort to obtain said degrees, am offended by that -- I plead guilty.
ReplyDeleteBut so too must every lawyer, psychologist, engineer and social worker who has put in the time & effort to obtain the required degree(s) in their profession.
If the degrees are to mean anything, then those at the top levels of the profession ought to have them. Or they do mean nothing....
And I say again that I don't engage in unfounded character attacks on other people and don't particularly appreciate them being made against me. It is not because I don't know how to, it is because of something that happened some years back when I did, I am very very good at it and more than capable of doing it in self defense if I have to, although I really would prefer not to.
I think Kurt's wife is incompetent. I think Kurt's wife is mean. And I don't think that Kurt's wife has the degrees (both doctorate and teaching certificate) that she should have in order to have the job she does.
And I don't see any evidence that any of the three aforementioned statements isn't true, nor that they do not constitute legitimate criticism that any member of the public has to raise about any government official in a free country.
I will say the same thing about Enku Gelaye with the addendum that she is a liar, that she has lied to my face, and persisted in the lie when I confronted her with evidence that it was a lie.
Lying is the absolute worst thing in my book.
This is straightforward "good government" -- those two women should not be IN government. That is an opinion that a citizen has the right to express in a free country, it is something that I have every right to say, and it is something that I'm not going to be intimidated into not saying.
And it is Kurt who is actually becoming rather creepy, and flirting with a violation of the State's Ethics Laws in the process, because -- as I've pointed out in the past -- he's not an administrator of the district. Maria is.
I do not see how I can be any more straightforward than this -- and I'm serious about the below-the-belt character attacking.
Oh, and as to the North Amherst Fire Station, does somebody actually have a copy of a deed from the university to the Town of Amherst? Because otherwise that building's sitting on UMass land which means that UMass owns it. And even if it belongs to the town, does the town have a deeded right of access to it? (Remember, you've got to cross UM land to get to it.)
Remember too that you would loose your volunteer engine company that staffs that station, regardless. But go slice another pound of flesh off the goose that is laying your golden eggs -- but don't cry when she dies.
And don't cry when I point out that UMass is overly expensive and treats students badly, particularly if my proposal to remedy both is published and that I am well paid for writing it....
Westfield is prospering in the manufacture of buggy whips, isn't it? And the days of having to be physically present in Amherst to learn are over as well...
I just realized three other things -- and they are definitely going into what I'm working on.
ReplyDeleteIf the existing UM campus was considered a municipality, with it's own fire department and (contracted) ambulance service, that would mean three things.
First, all of the tickets written by the UMPD would go to UMass instead of Amherst.
Second, the 12,000 or so kids living in UM dorms wouldn't be residents of Amherst anymore, and as they are almost all low/no income, Amherst's per-capita income would rise dramatically.
This would change your "cherry sheet" (state aid allotment) and change other things ranging from public health funds to number of Section 8 vouchers the AHA can issue. (They'd loose at least half the ones they have now.)
The money the state would "save" on the "cherry sheet" itself would pay for a fire department and then some...
Third, shifting the 12,000 people from Amherst to UMass would give the state greater flexibility and leverage in highway funding & improving because those aren't Amherst citizens anymore and the rules regarding municipalities impinging on adjacent ones could kick in.
Evil Grin....
Thank you folks....
"incompetent" and "mean"? Aren't you forgetting something, Ed? Would you like me to remind you of the other adjective you've used more than once to describe Maria Geryk, the incongruous one that makes your obsession seem especially weird and creepy?
ReplyDeletePlease everyone. Ignore the poster whose name shall not be named. Don't engage.
ReplyDeleteWould you like me to remind you of the other adjective you've used more than once to describe Maria Geryk, the incongruous one that makes your obsession seem especially weird and creepy?
ReplyDeleteYes, please do. And is too much to ask that it be an adjective that I actually used, in something that I actually wrote?
Or is this like when Eddie Hull wasn't bright enough to know what the word "asinine" actually meant and presumed it meant something other than what it actually does?
Ignore the poster whose name shall not be named. Don't engage.
ReplyDeleteYes, please do. Particularly when making fallacious allegations about him -- and fallacious is not a sexual reference, that word has a slightly different spelling.
(I thought it would be easier to mention that now, and not after some moron confused the two words.)
I do have other things to do.
Although I really would like to know what adjective it was that some schmuck misinterpreted -- assuming that I actually wrote it, which may be a very big assumption in and of that alone.
The adjective is "cute".
ReplyDeleteI still don't see that adjective.
ReplyDeleteThe silence is deafening.
Dr. no name maybe it was INSANE, kind of like you? No sorry, that's just your condition.
ReplyDeleteExxxxxxxxxxxxcuse me.
They're coming to take me away, ha-ha. To the funnyfarm where life is happy all the time. See you there, big boy...
go ahead and have your personal opinion about degree requirements for school superintendent, but:
ReplyDelete"...Superintendent of schools are required to hold a "certification" issued by the state in which they work. State certification is typically earned by completing a course of study prescribed by the state, usually 60 graduate hours above the bachelor degree and an internship. While not required by any state, many school boards prefer that their Superintendent hold a doctoral degree.
"School boards are responsible for establishing the qualifications for a superintendents in their districts. Each public school district or private institution will probably have slight variations to the superintendent's minimum job qualifications. The federal government does not have any laws that dictate the qualifications for a school superintendent. State laws govern the certification requirements for various levels of educator positions, including teachers and administrators. A graduate degree, state certification, education management coursework and experience tend to be common requirements for the superintendent position."
"Education:
A master's degree is often the minimum formal education requirement for a school superintendent."
"Experience
Two to five years of experience in school administration is a common job requirement for a superintendent...Management experience above the principal level, such as that of a curriculum administrator, is also an asset."
Geryk's 31 year path: undergrad special education, then...teacher, then...adjustment counselor, then...school psychologist, while earning...60 degree credits beyond bachelors (masters plus 30), then...interim supt, then...director of special education, then...director of pupil personnel services, then...interim supt Amherst, and currently...supt of Amherst Regional Public Schools. Throw in remarkable interpersonal and communication skills, unmatched references and support from educational and political leadership...
Everyone knows experience, reputation, vision, and work ethic trump a doctoral degree any day.
The adjective is "cute".
ReplyDeleteIt's exactly like when Eddie Hull wasn't bright enough to know the meaning of "Asinine", except this time a different true genius doesn't know that "cute" has more than one meaning.
Wonderful.
Where I'm from, "cute" can also be an exceedingly sarcastic expression of disapproval relative to something that another has done and/or the manner in which it was done.
For example "That was real f***ing cute" in response to being told that someone has gotten a tall truck stuck under the railroad bridge.
It might be helpful to read the American Heritage dictionary entry for "cute" which I've pasted below.
Pay particular attention to the second and third definitions -- which aren't so incongruous now, are they?
cute (kyt)
adj. cut·er, cut·est
1. Delightfully pretty or dainty.
2. Obviously contrived to charm; precious: "[He] mugs so ferociously he kills the humorit's an insufferably cute performance" (David Ansen).
3. Shrewd; clever.
[Short for acute.]
cutely adv.
cuteness n.
Word History: Cute is a good example of how a shortened form of a word can take on a life of its own, developing a sense that dissociates it from the longer word from which it was derived. Cute was originally a shortened form of acute in the sense "keenly perceptive or discerning, shrewd." In this sense cute is first recorded in a dictionary published in 1731. Probably cute came to be used as a term of approbation for things demonstrating acuteness, and so it went on to develop its own sense of "pretty, fetching," first recorded with reference to "gals" in 1838.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Maria G is a joke -- someone whom the DECE quietly roll their eyes about -- and think about removing that little part about letting the local school committee set the qualifications.
ReplyDeleteThe adjective is "cute".
ReplyDeleteAs in:
Anonymous said...
Awww... it's so cute when Larry tries to discuss national (or even state) issues. You keep on keeping on, you intrepid townie, you!
January 14, 2014 at 4:49 PM
Blogger Larry Kelley said...
Even cuter when a CAN who comes here daily disses the quality of my discourse.
January 14, 2014 at 5:27 PM
I guess Larry Kelly is "creepy" too, isn't he?
Look at it this way:
ReplyDeleteIf they weren't here all day commenting, they'd be running for office.
will someone please link to Ed's reference to the superintendent as being "cute" so we can assess his use of the word within its context? When did he say that?
ReplyDeleteI also wonder if anyone can find and share an example of anyone ever using the word "cute" as an adjective to describe any current or past male school or town administrator?
ReplyDeleteI also wonder if anyone can find and share an example of anyone ever using the word "cute" as an adjective to describe any current or past male school or town administrator?
ReplyDeleteSo Larry Kelley is female?
Larry, does your wife know about this????
Look, A-holes, I don't intend to play this game. IF I even used the word -- and I'm not saying I didn't, only that I don't remember doing so -- it was ever bit as derogatory as I would have directed it toward a male administrator -- except that a male administrator as incompetent as Maria G would never have been hired -- and if he had, he'd been fired way before now.
Maria G is an incompetent schmuck. "Schmuck" is a Yiddish insult directed at men -- if you know what the word means, you will understand why it is inherently directed at men.
I'm evaluating the schmuck known as Maria by *male* standards -- and if we believe in equality (and I'm not so sure we do) then she's every bit as deserving of being fired as she would be were she male.
And enough of these character attacks on me or I'll respond in kind. And I'm rather good at something known as "psychological warfare" -- push me just a little bit more and you'll find out just how good I am....
Regarding Ed's post at 2:02am, I had no idea that Larry is a school or town administrator. Maybe Ed could fill us in on what position Larry works in for our town.
ReplyDeleteIf I didn't remember saying something I was being accused of saying, I would say that, and not vehemently defend the meaning of what I didn't remember saying.
ReplyDeleteIf I didn't remember saying something I was being accused of saying, I would say that, and not vehemently defend the meaning of what I didn't remember saying.
ReplyDeleteTwo words: Scooter Libby.
He went to jail for an email he had forgotten he wrote -- or read -- I forget which. People do forget things, you know...
I say a lot of things, and it's an expression I use in a certain way, and it is entirely possible that I might have used it.
I doubt it, and if it's even out there, it's more likely than not that someone else wrote it, but rather than trying to prove that I didn't do something that I don't think I did -- even if I am correct and didn't do it -- it's easier to prove that the whole thing is both moot & irrelevant even if I did.
Besides, I want to believe that there is a scintilla of something behind this -- that it was a misunderstanding and not a complete malicious fabrication -- even if it was, I'm still willing to presume that it wasn't.
But the lack of a quotation and citation is telling, isn't it?
Maybe Ed could fill us in on what position Larry works in for our town.
ReplyDelete"Muckraking" Journalist?
http://onlyintherepublicofamherst.blogspot.com/2011/01/town-manager-presents-no-override.html
ReplyDeleteEd said...
Catherine S., Maria G, and at least (2) of the finalists all like Banana Bread.
As do I. Will all of them come over to my apartment and bake me some? Will they wash my dirty dishes as well? Maybe sort my assorted dirty clothes into the appropriate hampers?
Folk, there are a lot of responsibilities and no small amount of money involved in this decision -- just because she is cute is not quite good enough of a reason to hire her...
I really do like freshly-baked Banana Bread....
Ed said...
So, if it's not Maria on Thursday night, expect the howling to begin.
And if it is Maria on Thursday night, expect the WAR to begin. This will be the open indication to all of just how corrupt the ARSD is and as to the benefits of school choice and home schooling.
If Maria G is hired without my being shown a clear reason why she is more qualified than the other two candidates with the doctorate she lacks --- something I am currently busting my a** to get -- then I will consider her an illegitimate fraud and act accordingly.
If Maria G is hired because she is cute and has a hot body then it will be very clear to absolutely everyone that this is all a chirade and that working within the system is ineffective and that we need to openly attack it. And we will. War will have been declared...
You children are declaring war on people with whom you truly do not wish to fight -- can we please make this a fair process where we look at qualifications and not whom she is married to?????
Or do we have war?
Ed said...
Ed the perennial graduate student who doesn't have any kids, (or an EdD,) and who thinks Amherst is a "cesspool" and can't wait to leave it, is here to offer us all the "facts" about why Kohn is the man for the job..
First, I have more of an education than Maria G has -- I have all three of her degrees and a couple more. Second, it is not just parents for whom the schools exist, but for the community as a whole -- walk away from that and you walk right into the argument of "why should I pay to educate other people's children" and then the concept of all municipal services being on a user-fee basis.
No, I don't think Amherst is just a cesspool, I consider it a purgutorial cesspool, 45.47 square miles surrounded by reality. But that neither negates the fact that I am a 4th Generation teacher nor that I care about the right of all children to obtain an education.
I can't seem to recall when I said that Kohn was qualified or that Maria G was not (although unlike her, *I* have a clasroom teaching certificate) -- all I did (am doing) is asking for someone to show me some real reason why she is qualified and he is not.
Not that he is old and she is cute, not that he got fired from a job that Maria G wouldn't even have been interviewed for (at this stage in her career) but something resembling facts.
Instead, I am attacked -- the USAF say that "when you are getting shot at, it means that you are over the target." There appear to be some folks damn scared that their "fix" for Maria G won't work, that the search isn't rigged well enough...
And at this point I am just asking questions.... H***, if Maria G is half as good as you twits claim she is, why bother attacking me when you can itemize her accomplishments????
ARE there any????
Larry, you know as well as I do that crap quoted below doesn't resemble anything that I would wrote -- someone is parodying me and you know that. And if you have a scintilla of personal integrity and or honor, you will remove it.
ReplyDeleteAnd if you don't Larry, it speaks volumes to your lack of moral character and your lack of personal integrity.
And to the person who posted that c**p -- I've never hit (or in any other way intentionally harmed) another human being in my life before, but if I knew with absolute certainty that I was looking at you right now, you'd be en-route to the morgue and I to jail.
Yes, you've finally managed to make Ed loose his temper. And Larry, I'm calling you on this -- do you not have the personal integrity you claim you do?