Standard Saturday? (In A College Town)

 

Bus stop N. Pleasant Street near Newman Center 11:00 PM last night

So for no apparent rhyme or reason last night was less rowdy than the previous two Saturdays  -- with a lot less foot traffic than usual -- although what passes for standard is still unacceptable:

The "liquor law violations" started a little later than usual as the first arrest seemed to occur at 11:00 PM, one hour later than the previous night.  Although the first call I heard for an AFD ambulance to cart a drunk female UMass student (ETOH) to the hospital came in at 10:45 PM.

APD also investigated a mysterious explosion on Rt 9 near the Hadley border called in by someone at Hawkins Meadow Apartment just after 11:00 PM.  I could also hear Hadley dispatch and patrol officers mention it as well.  Neither department found anything.

Over the next hour APD responded to loud parties at 18 Foxglove Lane, Sand Hill Road in North Amherst, South Whitney Street in East Amherst and they cleared a large crowd in front of 45 Phillips Street (contiguous with UMass) at the request of the tenants, who said the large crowd was not "invited."

Between midnight and 1:00 AM police responded to three more loud parties: two of them at apartment complexes and one large home based party at 15 Taylor Street which garnered the young female hostess a $300 noise ticket.

During that same one hour period AFD would respond to three separate intoxicated student incidents (ETOH) all of them requiring transport to Cooley Dickinson Hospital.

At 1:10 AM on South Pleasant Street, a stone's throw from town center, APD performed a Field Sobriety Test on a college aged driver (who was hopping on one foot and listing badly when I passed by) and based on the results placed him "under" for DUI.  AT 1:35 AM police responded to a fight in town center called in by an AFD vehicle returning to quarters.

Meanwhile in neighboring Hadley, at 1:40 AM,  police responded to reports of a young college aged female staggering down the middle of a main road.  At 1:45 AM UMass PD called in AFD to transport a young ETOH female who was vomiting.

Five minutes later, at 1:50 AM, AFD responded to Amherst Police Department headquarters at 111 Main Street to evaluate a young female who had been in a fight (and apparently did not fare all that well).

At 1:55 AM, Amherst College police requested two ambulances for two young female students, one ETOH and the other "having trouble breathing."  Both were located in the same men's bathroom.

And with that I called it a night, or I should say morning. APD and AFD did not.  

 

Lawn ornament vandalized last night at a house near UMass

Buzz Off!

The town will issue an "Eastern Equine Encephalitis" alert later today; as a result the Hot Summer Nights outdoor showing of The Muppets this evening has been cancelled.

A 2nd dead horse in Belchertown tested positive this afternoon for EEE and one died last week from the mosquito borne disease.

The Muppets are certainly awesome, but not to die for.

Amherst Being Amherst

Noon protest @ TD Bank, Amherst town center:  Pipelines, climate change, the usual

Long Remembered

 Southwick cemetery a little before noon

Under a picture perfect clear-as-the-eye-can-see blue sky with just enough breeze to bring the flags and pendants and "colors" snapping to life, today was a Memorial Day to remember.  As they all should be.

Counting Hadley's parade yesterday I managed to attend three small town Memorial Day celebrations -- Amherst, Hadley and Southwick -- and if my kids were queried  Hadley would probably win "best in show" but only because of the quantity of candy thrown from the procession.

Kids scramble for candy

Marching bands, police, fire, military, tractors, trucks, antique cars, boy scouts, girl scouts, politicians all marching before crowds of thankful cheering spectators.  The only thing missing -- thanks to the "sequester" -- were those magnificent war birds screaming low and fast in tight formation causing all eyes to instantly snap skyward. 

And instantly make you think, "Thank God they are ours."

Memorial Day without a flyover is kind of like an Irish wake without a toast. 

Amherst

 

Amherst Color Guard

APD

 

AFD

Veteran Agent, Amherst Politicians

Hadley

 

UMPD

 

Boy Scouts

 

Hadley Politicians and Senator Rosenberg

Tractors

Antique Truck

Lonely At The Top

 

And our flag was no longer there

Last night's thunderstorm took out our really BIG town center flag, which was recovered down by the Police Station.  Disadvantage of large size is strong wind has more to work with. Alan Snow is hoping to have it back up and flapping by the weekend.

They're Back

 Amherst Rotary Town Fair getting ready for action

Ah yes, that brief period when Amherst town center is transformed back to a simpler time, before the University became a bustling big city -- bringing our small town with it.

When you could leave your doors unlocked at night, buy a hammer in the downtown, or when most families in town had milk delivered to their front porch.

The town has changed, children have not.  

Rising Sun Over Amherst

To commemorate the arrival tomorrow of middle school students from Kanegasaki, our Sister City for past twenty years, the flag of Japan now shares a town hall turret with Old Glory and the Massachusetts state flag.

Not far from Amherst Town Hall the weathered United Nations flag flies from a dedicated pole, and underneath the flag of Tibet recently flew freely to symbolize a yearning to be free.

But of course this coming 9/11, the commemorative American flags will not be allowed to fly in the downtown.

This One's For You

Amherst Town Flags at half staff for former Town Manager Allen Torrey

Perhaps one of the reasons Amherst still has a Town Meeting/Select Board/Town Manager form of government is because our very first Town Manager -- Allen Torrey -- was such a good one.  

According to current Town Manager John Musante:  "Consistent with the Town's policy and past practice of lowering Town flags to half mast upon the death of a current/former Select Board member or current Town employee, Town flags were lowered in his honor."

Celebrate & Mourn

 Odd juxtaposition: Commemorative flag, Christmas decoration, main flag at half staff

No, the seldom seen 20 some-odd commemorative American flags are not up in town center to commemorative Martin Luther King Day.  They are flying to herald Inauguration Day.

On the night of September 10, 2001 -- The Eve of Destruction -- the Amherst Select Board voted 4-1 to allow 29 commemorative flags to fly on six "holidays" and once every four years for Inauguration Day (and yes, amazingly, they even flew for President Bush's two terms).

9/11 has become a seventh infrequent occasion for the commemorative flags to fly, only once every five years.  As some of you may remember, this past 9/11 the town received international notoriety for not flying the flags to remember the most historic day of our lifetime.

The main flag is currently at half-staff to mourn the passing of Pfc. Antonio Syrakos of Lynn, who died January 10, 2013 in an off base accident near Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Governor Patrick routinely lowers the flag for any state resident in the military who dies, be it in combat on foreign soil, or an accident back here in America.

Another even more sobering statistic of the casualties caused by war:  This past year Army suicides outpaced military combat casualties in Afghanistan.

Mourning Overload?

 Amherst Town Center, this morning

Yes the town flag is once again at half staff by Governor's orders, this time for U.S. Army Major Steven Brothers of Arlington, Massachusetts who died on May 30 from leukemia .  This now makes the 5th time in a week, all for military personnel, 80% of whom died by non-military related causes.

Makes you wonder if folks by now are starting to get desensitized to Old Glory in that position of mourning?

The federal government only recognizes four annual occasions for the flag to fly at half staff:  Pearl Harbor Day (December 7 for you young'uns), Peace Officers Day (5/15), Memorial Day and most recently 9/11.  Of course special occasions do occur like the death of a former high ranking political figure, or to mourn mass murders like Virginia Tech and the most recent Colorado theatre shootings.

A timely example is President Obama noting the passing of astronaut Neil Armstrong with just such a well deserved honor this coming Friday.

On Monday night the Amherst Select Board mentioned a number of times as their predecessors have done over the past ten years, that the town does recognize and mourn 9/11 by flying the town flag (that does fly 24/7 all year) at half staff.

I particularly remember Selectman Robie Hubley (secretly married to SB chair Anne Awad at the time) seven years ago saying he brought the flag down to half staff in town center "with my own bare hands".  Of course once the photo op was finished Mr. Hubley forgot to return the next day to bring the flag back up to full staff and it stayed down for the next two or three days.

And my fear this year is that the Governor will have the flag down on 9/8, 9/9, 9/10 for state reasons, and by 9/11 it will be a little less noticeable. Combine that with the recent decision of the Select Board not to fly the 29 commemorative flags in town center on 9/11, and you are heading down a dangerous path:

 "Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it."

Public Art: Both Sides of The River

Old Courthouse lawn Northampton city center

Amherst Cinema building town center

Like a shining beacon upon a hill

Brighter Downtown

New flowers for town center

A generation or two before the  permaculture movement became a media darling, the old fashioned Amherst Garden Club has been doing its horticultural thing, including maintaining the planters in town center.

And if gardens strike your fancy, the Amherst Historical Society is sponsoring a "garden tour" today from 9:30 AM until 4:00 PM.

MIA

Bare flagpole Sunday morning

So it's not often the town center flag makes the weekend police logs, but some of you may have noticed the big new pride and joy of Francis Scott Key went missing early Saturday evening.  No, it was not Pat Church; just an equipment malfunction.  The original fasteners from the smaller flag couldn't handle the extra force created by such a big beautiful flag flapping in the wind.

 Big new US flag, small POW/MIA flag underneath

Old Glory was taken down and I'm told required three officers to properly fold, and went back up this morning.  Meanwhile the larger POW/MIA flag that flies underneath the American flag is still MIA.  Until found, or a new one ordered, the smaller one that accompanied the previous, modest sized US flag will fly, looking more like a postage stamp compared to the big one above it.

As we prepare to celebrate the birth of our nation and the continuing 150th anniversary of the Civil War, where President Lincoln championed a "new birth of freedom", perhaps the town should take up a collection to buy a b-i-g-g-e-r POW/MIA flag to remember the 1,664 Americans listed as "missing and unaccounted for from the Vietnam war."

And See If Anyone Salutes

Amherst Town Hall 

I've never been a huge fan of Flag Day because it seems a little too contrived--you either respect the flag 24/7 or you do not. In fact, a few years ago I asked the Select Board to trade Flag Day for 9/11 as one of the days the 29 commemorative flags are allowed to fly in town center, thus keeping the six-day restriction in place.

Some of you may have noticed the return of the flag on Town Hall. It disappeared a couple years ago when the building exterior was undergoing repointing and town officials simply got out of the habit of putting it up.

The flag first appeared soon after 9/11 when Amherst was taking a PR drubbing over ill-timed flag disparaging public comments made just 12 hours before civilian aircraft turned the Twin Towers into dust.  At the time Select Board member Anne Awad voiced her displeasure with the Town Hall flag saying it looked like somebody was trapped inside the building and using it to draw attention to their plight.

Perhaps a subliminal result of endless footage aired of helpless civilians trapped on the upper floors of the towers waiving their clothing to get first responders attention.

Last year the town also purchased an extra large flag for the main pole in town center--but only on the same occasions the 29 commemorative flags are allowed to fly.  Now I'm told that BIGGER flag will start flying 24/7 (after I complained a few years ago the town added illumination to the main pole) every day, except for when the weather is particularly inclement.

Bigger American Flag flew for Memorial Day

That starts as soon as town officials can find the b-i-g-g-e-r POW flag that accompanies the b-i-g-g-e-r American flag.  Let's hope they find it by July 4th.
Actually let's hope they find it today as the current flag is a tad, err, TATTERED. 

  UPDATE: 2:15 PM Yeah!

 

New flag is up. LONG may she wave

Guess who's coming to town?

Fanelli Amusements returns to Amherst Town Common

Nothing says small town (village center) feel better than the traveling carnival, sponsored by the Amherst Rotary Club, setting up for  a weekend of good old fashioned fun.  Rides, games, fried food, flashing lights, and a throng of teenagers just learning to strut.  What more could you ask for?  (Besides sunny weather).

The few, the proud...

 Downtown Amherst 8:45 AM

So this morning, not quite as early as usual, the 29 commemorative flags returned to their lofty perch in the downtown to commemorate Patriots' Day, one of the few (six) "holidays" the flags are allowed to fly free and proud.

Seven days if you count 9/11, but then Amherst only allows that commemoration once every five years, so this will not occur again until 2016, on the fifteenth anniversary.

President Bush called 9/11  "Patriot Day" when signing an executive order for the American flag to fly at half staff every 9/11 for as long as the republic stands, joining only a handful of days remembered in such a mournful way.

Annually, as it should.

A Hopping Good Time

 Easter Bunny comes to Amherst Town Common

Children and parents took advantage of the delightful weather and the convenient Amherst town common downtown location to hang out with the Easter Bunny and practice hopping in a couple of bounce houses, as well as sharpen agility via a bounce house obstacle course this morning at a free event sponsored by Vita Nova Church.  

Plus of course, an Easter egg hunt.  Thankfully, there were no reports of pushy parents fighting to discover the most hidden eggs.  

Here's mud in your eye

UPDATE Jan 30, 2013:

According to Ms. Brooks, she was found guilty of a first offense DUI on September 7, 2012. All  
other charges were dropped.

####

One of the more jarring incidents over the  "Blarney Blowout" weekend occurred early Monday morning (1:30 AM) when a 21-year-old drunk UMass student became embroiled in a "road rage" incident in town center which led to a high speed chase down Amity Street, some of it on the wrong side of the road, a wide turn on University Drive where police pulled over and arrested both drivers before they killed one another, or an innocent bystander.

The road rage continued however as the young lady did not take too kindly to the interdiction by an Amherst Police officer.  She spit on him.  Yes, spit.

Courtney M Brooks, 85 Eastern Ave, Rochester, NH, age 21 was arrested for Operating Under the Influence, speeding, marked lanes violation, marijuana possession, possession of pepper spray without a proper license AND assault on an officer.

Christopher Alviani, 169 Rocky Hill Road, Hadley, MA, age 24 was arrested for Operating Under the Influence, speeding, following too closely.

Springfield Republican catches up with this story

Occupy Amherst Town Hall

Amherst Town Hall in the middle of a storm 12:15 PM

Occupiers pulled a George-Washington-crossing-the-Delaware and successfully orchestrated an occupation of Amherst Town Hall...which is closed on Saturday.

And even if they managed to shut it down during normal business hours, would anyone in town even notice?