Still sinking in a sand trap

So at Monday night's illustrious Select Board meeting our highly-paid bean-counter bureaucrats presented a how-we-doing budget analysis now that FY2010 is one-quarter completed.

(Naturally ACTV screwed up the live broadcast so us taxpayers have yet to see it, but I grabbed a PDF of the Select Board media package from the town website.)

Municipally owned and operated Cherry Hill Golf Course revenues stand at a pathetic $88,350 compared to $97,675 at this time two years ago. And expenses--you know that other half of the simple but important equation-- were $81,658 compared to $71,178 two years ago.

In other words revenues are down 9% while expenses are up 11.4%. Nice combination if you can afford it.

In the private sector when met with declining revenues we try to cut expenses. Last quarter, while millions of workers were laid off nationwide, about the only segment to show an employment gain was (BIG) government.

Be afraid. Be very afraid!

The Amherst Bulletin reported (but forgets to follow up)

Banned again.

Monday, 9:10 AM

Since he only uploads about once a month, I don’t visit Town Manager Larry Shaffer’s blog very often but checked it out late last week for the first time in a while. I left a comment on his August 7 disingenuous post cheering Cherry Hill:

Town Manager's post


Blogger LarryK4 said...

Yes Larry, but the purported "profit" does not include hidden costs like employee benefits, insurance, and capital improvements (underground storage tank, security fencing and greens mower) which combined come to over $100-K.

August 27, 2009 9:46 PM

Amazingly he posted again (wow twice in a month) on the rainy afternoon of August 29 (a Saturday no less) hyping the “grand opening “ of the Plum Brook Soccer fields. So obviously he saw my Comment from two days before, and decided to censor it (he has "moderation" enabled so Comments must be approved before they get posted.)

Now if the Town Manager simply had a privately-owned personal blog he could do anything he wants with comments, but since his blog is hosted on the town web page paid for with tax dollars he should respect the First Amendment.

After all, I thought the People’s Republic of Amherst was the town “where only the H is silent.”

Cherry Hill: the pampering continues...

Yes Alisa, Cherry Hill Golf Course is the ONLY seasonal beer and wine license in the town.

The category was specifically created for Cherry Hill ten or 12 years ago and at about half the charge of a comparably license. The argument was they were only open for seven months out of the year so pro-rate the charge. Amazing how business friendly the town can be with itself, eh?

So back when Cherry Hill was an Enterprise Fund it was charged $700 (never paid it of course). And yes having alcohol out there probably increases the liability insurance but who cares, the insurance—like the brand new $22,000 lawn mower they bought last July—comes out of a different fund other than their Operation Budget.

And that is why I say Mark ‘Harpo’ Power got such a great, sweetheart deal, a few years back when Czar Anne Awad and Barry Del Castilho gifted him (in a no-bid contract) complete use of the new Clubhouse for only $150/month--and that included the liquor license (which alone should have been $100 per month)

And of course Mr. Power was granted a three-year contract by the former town manager. Yet when a management company offers to take the entire turkey off our hands for $30,000 per year, the new town manager turns him down because they wanted a three-year contract.

Funny how quick Aaron Hayden wanted to rubber stamp the damn thing and move on. You would think a mid-level, long-time Amherst College employee would not be so quick to do a favor for their main competition.

Amherst College does own Amherst Golf Course, the only other nine-hole operation in town. Although, unlike Cherry Hill, they do pay taxes on it ($7,000 last year.)

Come to think of it, Mr. Hayden probably should have abstained on that vote.

A little better...

UPDATE: 6:15 PM.
Amherst Bully: sort of on top of things (click to read)
So yeah, I feel like I’m sending up a flare on a beautiful Friday afternoon.

Will the Bricks-and-Mortar media take note? Probably not. They could not find any interns to fill in for the month of July.

But anyway: Could we get a report on what happened during Thursday’s Hampshire County Retirement Board meeting (you know the folks who expend millions of tax dollars) where Ms. Awad wanted to feather her nest with taxpayer funds for her retirement in South Hadley?
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Original Post: early Friday morning
Well let me just reaffirm how much I look forward to Mr. Shaffer blogging on the town website.

So he believes there’s no negative way to spin Cherry Hill’s annual “BIG fish that got away” tall tale, eh?

Well, how about the town document that clearly exposes last year—you know, Mr. Shaffer when you told the media that “no tax money” was involved in the business—Cherry Hill required $20,435 in tax money? Or that same document showing they only lost $10,000 the year before, when Dan Engstrom was still in charge rather than these LSSE superstars.

So why should we believe anything you now say about that money pit?
Maybe it’s time you moved to South Hadley with that other liar.

Mid May Bully puff piece Click here
Of course if he were “watching it close” you gotta wonder why LSSE did not send him the idiotic press release before sending it to the local media

Mid-May Town Meeting (UGH!)


God I had forgotten about Assistant Town Manager John Musante's twitchy performance at the Select Board meeting about a month earlier (Damn I'm so glad Blogger creates a, hopefully, permanent public record.

Amherst Bully (for them) article And you just know next year at this time these idiots are going to issue a press release about how well the Golf Course did by ignoring this $22,000 item, the $30,000 in employee benefits and insurance and of course the $30,000 we could have had free and clear simply to walk away from the Turkey.