Bad Boy, Bad Boy...what's he gonna do?

So we know the Town Manager has no respect for the sixty year tradition of local Boy Scouts selling Christmas trees in town center; but will he also destroy the tradition of town participation in the most sacred of American holidays—the 4’th of July?

Since the Gazette heavily hyped the “Town Manager Report” to the Select Board tonight at 9:05 pm with a banner headline this morning reading “Shaffer to speak on parade-sign policy tonight”, it’s a safe bet we will know the answer by around 9:20 pm.

For you play-by-play types here are the options:

He plays the ‘Nuclear Option’ and pulls our permit.
He plays the ‘Shock and Awe Option’ and pulls town vehicles.
He plays the ‘Hippocratic Oath Option’ and does nothing.
He plays the ‘Sword of Damocles Option’ and recommends the Select board form a Committee to take over the July 4’th Parade (merging with the Fireworks that the town now runs), either as early as this year or certainly the next.

Tune in tonight as I will attend the meeting not as a July 4’th Parade Committee member but as a Citizen Blogger.

Scenes from Amherst Town Center

UPDATE: 5:45 pm Well I guess if you drove thru town center today (as I did a few times) you would assume Blue Bloods, errr, I mean Blue Signs will capture the two coveted Select Board seats--not to mention the lone School Committee seat.

So if anybody is interested--and the 60% of you from outside Amherst probably are not—here’s my prediction for the election:
Greeney first (behold the power of the Red sign) O’Keeffe second, Stein third, Rhodes fourth and the most entertaining candidate Dave Keenan dead last.

Sanderson over Romero (in spite of the cool animatronic Marinette truck and her red, white and blue signage) for School Committee.
Amherst Redevelopment Authority: Peg Roberts and Aaron Hayden.

12:30 pm: Note the difference between unstaged photos A (above), where they had not yet spotted me; and photo B: obviously these folks get all excited when they think the results could get wider exposure.

Now I know why the Powers That Be, establishment coalition chose BLUE for all their candidates’ signs. You don’t get any more blue state than Massachusetts and out of the 351 municipalities you don’t get any bluer than Amherst.

The Chinese got it right: Red rocks!