Town Manager and most of Select Board vote "No" to moving Vince O'Connor's land grab article to tonight
A couple of non binding "resolutions" passed Town Meeting Monday night -- the drone ban and let's buy a $3 million apartment complex -- but both of them were so watered down via revisions that they will have no impact whatsoever on the real world. Not that Amherst lives in the real world.
Just as academics in our enlightened community decry the public schools "teaching to the tests," it seems Town Meeting activists are tailoring their petitions simply to pass Town Meeting. Not a very high hurdle to clear.
The original drone article stated that "No agency of the town will operate drones capable of violating the constitutional rights of residents ..." Since any drone is "capable" of that, the wording pretty much amounted to a ban.
But what passed Town Meeting was reworded to say nobody can operate drones, "In a manner that violates the constitutional rights of residents." Which is kind of like saying no baseball bats will be used in a manner to purposely break the heads of residents.
Gerry Weiss significantly watered down his article from telling the Select Board to take Echo Village Apartments by eminent domain to, "It is the sense of Town Meeting" that town officials should continue to negotiate with Jamie Cherewatti for purchase of the apartment complex.
Maybe he should have just said, "Pretty please."
Larry did anybody define what a drone is? I'm curious because a lot of these new "drones" are no larger than RC helicopters/planes, and in fact, some of them are RC.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how this will affect RC meets around the valley? There's one just over the line in Hadley on June 8th.
They are all r.c. buddy...
DeleteNo they did not define drone.
ReplyDeleteThe resolutions are non-binding so it really doesn't matter. I think it was aimed at Amherst PD locally, and of course President Obama on a Federal level.
Anon 12:37,
ReplyDeleteWhy has the school system always been *&#@ed up? sorry, I don't get the inference.
He probably meant that the Town of Amherst is more concerned with sticking it's finger up it's ass and worrying about bullshit crap that matters little and shows how ridiculous the town is, than caring about its education system which for the money is far behind many towns in the state. Plus the fact that taxes as they are collected can no longer sustain the level of monies needed to pay for the three million administrative $100k people that proliferate the system all while education is second to hiring new staff to "teach" people about tolerance and racism.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes these are remote controlled quad copters and not drones. Drones are autonomous and can fly beyond line of sight. My RC controlled quadcopter is controlled by me, has a broadcast camera which transmits a signal to me but it can neither fly by itself nor far enough away from me without crashing.
If you don't think the Amherst school system is fucked up, you maybe
ReplyDeleteA) Don't have kids in it
B) Draw a nice paycheck from the Amherst school system
C) Like social engineering
D) Embrace the soft bigotry of low expectations
E) All of the above
That "teacher", you know, the one who is crying like a two year old about racism, is teaching her students how to be a little, well, you know... REMEMBER PEOPLE, THERE'S A REASON SHE LASTED JUST ONE YEAR, THAT'S A SINGLE, LITTLE MEASLY YEAR, IN HAMP! ��
DeleteI still say, this school system needs a couple of cloakrooms.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't hurt...
And a wooden ruler
DeleteI know it will not stem the tide of irrational anger on this blog but....
ReplyDeleteMy daughter is a 2011 graduate of Amherst Regional. She is entering her senior year at Grinnell College. She feels that ARHS adequately prepared her for demanding college work and she has done respectably well. Other recent grads of ARHS will say the same thing. I suspect that there are dozens, if not hundreds who will say that they were prepared for college coming from ARHS. You will find ARHS grads today making significant contributions to their communities across the country.
I know that there are other measures than this for how well a school system functions, and I know that there are problems there to be addressed. I just thought I would add this thimbleful of grateful praise for the Amherst schools to the generally unrebutted chorus of negativity on this blog.
Let the harrumphing begin.
Rich Morse
Now don't go taunting my Anons.
ReplyDeleteWell Dicky,
ReplyDeleteFor her sake, let's hope the nut falls far away from the tree.
Rich,
ReplyDeleteIt's good to hear that things are going well for you daughter. Grinnell's a great school.
I appreciate that you leave your name with your comments, whether I agree with them or not. I would really like to hear a genuine reason why these other people cannot do that.
Nina, nobody but Ed wants a "FUCK YOU ED," like you gave him. I bet it really sucks not being able to debate with someone and give them your opinion...
ReplyDeleteBesides, how can you defend yourself when you don't know where the bullets are coming from?