Swimming with the guppies

One of the nice things about venerable Amherst College is that they annually provide affordable swim lessons for Amherst children; the entire AC Swim Team provides a super-low teacher/student ratio (sometimes simply a private lesson) in the meticulously maintained Pratt Pool.

My eight-year-old has patronized the program for 3 or 4 years now, and even my two-year-old is now participating.

This past year the town of Amherst did not open the outdoor War Memorial Pool for the first time in over fifty years (where lots of swim lessons normally would occur) and the indoor Middle School Pool is no longer available to average citizens (Leisure Services empire is too busy running the Golf Course.)

So this Amherst College program is now even more invaluable.

Morning Mist

The cost of doing business

So yes, as an Amherst Town Meeting member with too many years business experience I will of course support the property tax break for Atkins Farm stand my South Amherst business neighbor. But if somebody asked me over the past 20 years or so for a list of the top retail businesses in Amherst, Atkins would be high on my list.

And I remember 45 years or so ago when they were neck-and-neck with Wentworth Farms for farm stand fresh produce sales. At the time Atkins was on the other side of the main road and they had a GIANT bright red apple on top of the tiny farm stand.

But today anytime you drive or cycle by during business hours the Atkins parking lot is overflowing. Wentworth Farms is long gone.

Good for me of course since the building I have occupied for the past 26 years or so was originally apple storage for Wentworth Farms, thus if they had not gone belly up due to Atkins…

But how about the Lord Jeffery Inn? Yeah, I know--they are owned by tax-exempt Amherst College who has a BILLION in their endowment. But a year ago it was a LOT higher than that. Thus they cancelled the $20 million renovation of their cozy Inn, although they seem to find the cash to do millions in renovations to their other tax-exempt infrastructure.

Now the decaying Lord Jeff sits forlornly in town center as a high profile public embarrassment. Why not offer Amherst College a tax break over the next five years or so to do the damn renovation?

The Lord Jeff generates collateral business for everybody in the downtown and when Amherst increases the hotel/motel tax to 6% (that too, I will support) the Lord Jeff would pass thru over $100,000 annually to the town.

If we can subsidize Atkins why not Amherst College?

Strictly business (of the non-profit kind)

A recommendation from the Amherst College Advisory Budget Committee:

"Plans for major renovation or building projects, with the possible exception of the Merrill Science Center project, should remain on hold"

It sounds like they dare not speak the name but that recommendation must mean the Lord Jeffery Inn will remain shuttered, so it can continue to cast a grim shadow over the downtown.

Great timing guys! The state will up the local hotel/motel tax from 4% to 6% (the last year of operation the Lord Jeff generated $40,000 to the town at the old rate.)

And it's not like the Umass Campus Center Hotel is going to start paying the tax anytime soon (North and South Korea will be reunited first) since Senator Stan Rosenberg wants town officials to lay off picking on poor little Umass for more money.

Amherst College can buy the Fiber Arts building for $2.3 million (twice accessed value) renovate houses on Snell street and Hitchcock Street into offices taking them all off the tax rolls and spend millions more renovating the tax exempt ornate buildings leading into town center, but to Hell with the Lord Jeff.

A pox upon them!

The emperor has new clothes

22 Snell Street

So that whooshing sound you hear and the glare reflecting off bright white siding is the look and sound of local tax dollars evaporating.

Yes Amherst College, the #1 landowner in town, is taking yet more property off the tax rolls. Last year they paid Amherst $330,000 (or about the tuition of 6 0r 7 students out of 1,648) mostly due to 44 houses they own and rent to professors, thus making them the largest single taxpayer in town (they also pay taxes on the Lord Jeff Inn and, unlike the town's Cherry Hill Golf Course, their more successful Amherst Golf Course.)

However, they recently purchased the Fiber Arts Building in town center for $2.3 million--but since it was only valued at $1 million the loss of tax revenue is $16,000. And with these two houses now going off the tax rolls that will be an additional drain of $15,500.

Not to mention they are using them for commercial office space which if owned by a private individual doing that extensive expensive amount of renovation work could almost double the valuation. And if Barry Roberts can’t lease the business space they are abandoning in the downtown, he can always request abatement from the assessor.

Yeah I know, Amherst College “donated” $100,000 last year to the town. Yippee. That does not even cover the $120,000 in fire and ambulance costs the taxpayers incurred servicing them.

Meanwhile the Lord Jeff Inn sits forlornly like blight on the downtown because Amherst College nixed/postponed the renovation project. That too cost Amherst tax money because--unlike the Umass Campus Center Hotel--the historic Lord Jeff did collect the 4% local hotel/motel tax and last year that amounted to $40,000 (plus the state is talking about raising it to 6% to help out local communities.)

So come on President Marx, I know the endowment took a hit and decreased to only $1 billion. But with Amherst public schools implementing devastating cuts, our award winning public safety departments stretched to the breaking point and state aid drying up like the War Memorial Pool, it’s time to for Amherst College to step up.
14 Hitchcock Street



The Bully Reports:
Fiber Arts Building dead in downtown center

Deadbeat Umass Hotel

Just a little respect

And let's remember Army Maj. Steven Hutchison as well



-----Original Message-----
From: amherstac@aol.com
To: marx@amherst.edu; sh.events@state.ma.us
Sent: Fri, 15 May 2009 3:09 pm
Subject: Your majestic American flag on Chapel Hill

Hey Tony,

So Wednesday was one of those state-wide local edicts issued by our Governor to fly the flag at half-staff, commemorating the ultimate sacrifice of Massachusetts resident Explosive Ordinance Disposalman John Trahan, age 22--and with that "job description" you can imagine how he died (at least it was quick .)

But today is Peace Officers' Day--and the President of the United States has ordered all flags to half-staff to commemorate those men and women in blue who have also given up their "last measure of devotion" to keep us safe.

Your flag on Chapel Hill is the most prominent in Amherst. Could you maybe please (since the College tends to bring it down to half-staff for employees) subscribe to the Mass state listserve for those rare occasions when the Governor orders it down, and also observe the Federal ones as well (also rare) for flag protocol? Memorial Day is coming up.

Top be perfectly honest, it's kind of embarrassing.

Larry Kelley


Previous Amherst College observances

Please come to Boltwood...

And you don't even have to be the number one fan of the man from Tennessee.

11:30 AM

So tonight marks the final moments of operation for a downtown legend, linchpin, anchor, or…just plain old icon. The Lord Jeff Inn and Boltwood Tavern expire tonight after a couple generations of serving the general public from that ornate, prime, mid-town center location.

While I’m not a big fan of business run by non-profits or government, the venerable Lord Jeff--owned by tax-exempt Amherst College but always kept on the tax rolls—earned my respect.

Unlike the Campus Center Hotel, owned by Umass (or I should say us taxpayers) The Jeff at least, always tried to survive under private sector conditions.

And now, due to forces above their control… Not a good thing. Bad for Amherst taxpayers who have to pick up the property tax slack and certainly horrible for the image of owner Amherst College, arguably the number one ranked Liberal Arts College in America.

According to an April 13,2007 Amherst Bulletin article (yeah, appropriately enough, a Friday): Tony Marx, the president of Amherst College, called the inn "a beachhead in the center of town" and admitted it is "not the magnet it could be."

Yeah Tony--and we know the historic importance of a ‘beachhead’. What if Canadian and US forces surrendered those prime beachheads on D-day because the cost was so significant? Kira would be studying German or French today, rather than Chinese.

Let’s hope Tony appears tonight for the Irish wake and buys a round (or two).

AC: The pillaging continues

So let me get this strait: during this economic downturn Amherst College can afford to pay $2.3 million for an office building in the heart of the downtown that is currently valued at less than half that amount, but they will allow the Lord Jeff Inn to go to seed?

Okay, new rule: whenever a tax exempt entity—especially the LARGEST landowner in town—buys endangered commercial property and takes it off the tax rolls, they should maintain the tax payment to the town that the private owner paid.

This year Mrs. Hastings paid the town $16,000 on that building; next year (or whenever the leases are up for the Doctors, Lawyers, and Psychologists and Amherst College sends them packing) the building will net zero tax revenue.

AC invokes Roseannadanna's "never mind"

So let me get this strait Tony: Amherst College still has about a Billion dollars in the endowment; and you are already half-way to the $425 Million fundraising goal only announced publicly this week (the first such effort since 2001) and yet you can’t come up with a lousy $20 million to follow thru on the much hyped, eagerly awaited renovations to the esteemed Lord Jeffery Inn, an anchor business (more like the Rock of Gibraltar) for generations in the heart of downtown Amherst?

Four months ago Amherst College “donated” $120,000 to the town (after public disclosure our ambulance/fire runs the previous year cost Amherst taxpayers about that amount). And the Lord Jeff paid the town $32,000 in property taxes and perhaps that same amount in revenues from the 4% local hotel/motel lodging tax.

So this coming year (and now it looks like the next couple years as well) Amherst College will probably still require the same amount (over $100-K) of emergency services provided by AFD--only now the Lord Jeff will pay zero hotel/motel tax and will probably ask for an abatement on property taxes since the business will be generating zero income.

Meanwhile they are abandoning the playing field to the Umass Campus Center Hotel –that just announced a $9.2 million overhaul (at taxpayer expense of course) and they pay neither property taxes nor the local hotel motel tax. And they are located FAR from downtown Amherst.

All-in-all, bad for the taxpayers of Amherst, bad for downtown business, and beyond bad for the image of the #1 Liberal Arts College in America.

Gee Tony, maybe you should have had that lunch with Dave Keenan a while back—he would have told you (in a most colorful way) that this is insanity.

And could you not have at least waited until after the November 4 election to drop this bomb? Now Mr. Hayden (I would hope a highly regarded Amherst College employee) is going to take a beating on this issue probably as early as tonight at the League of Women Voters’ candidate’s night.

Mr. Morales has already played the race card, likening Aaron to “John McCain.” Now with this awful announcement they will by tying him to the College and suggesting he helped pass out diseased blanket to the darn Indians.

Hey Tony, it's okay with me if you fly that majestic American flag on Chapel High at half-staff next week when the Jeff closes.