An even more expensive view

Kimball House

Wednesday night Amherst Town Meeting voted to place an Agricultural Preservation Restriction on land already owned by the town that was purchased for municipal use (an ill fated attempt to build an elementary school there failed--one of only a few times Amherst voters turned down the sacred schools) as the final moving part in a complicated deal hatched five years ago to preserve the view of privately owned Kimball House.

This was the fourth time Town Meeting deliberated the fate of this parcel as former School Committee member Vladimir Morales failed three times previously to get Amherst Town Meeting to designate the entire 66 acre parcel as "permanent conservation land."

The land was not locked into this protective designation because insiders wanted to keep options open to use it in the future as a possible "exchange" for municipal development on other land in town that borders conservation property.

Five years ago when Town Meeting missed the two-thirds vote required (96-60) Francesca Maltese, then Chair of the Conservation Commission, said prophetically "Even if no one can build on Wentworth Farm, to leverage this and take some of other piece of conservation land out of conservation is almost an ethical issue to deal with. We don't want to use Wentworth Farm to break the covenant on another piece.''

And that's exactly what just happened--except the covenant was broken for a private individual. As part of the deal to remove land from the state APR program so Roger Cherewatti could build his spacious abode behind the Kimball House rather than on it, the town had to pay the state $268,000 (half down the other half over five years) plus find 10 acres of land somewhere in town to replicate the APR land lost on North East Street. And time was just about up for finding that land, otherwise the town would pay the state another $100,000.

Mr. Cherewatti's other house (577 No East St): $2 million valuation

So if the town needs to build, say, a fire station in South Amherst that treads a tad too close to APR land (and Amherst has a LOT of APR land) Wentworth Farm is no longer available as a trade.

Ghostly view west: Smoke stack from UMass $9 million Paradis boiler plant

A town meeting member reminded the body that part of the deal five years ago was the property would be farmed, and he demanded to know if that part of the bargain was being kept. Sure enough. Last year the Cherewatti's received approval from the Department of Agriculture to construct a one acre irrigation pond (for crops) on the remaining APR land.

Mr. Cherewatti's view to the east

And I suppose it's easy to assume that Mr. Cherewatti got the best end of the deal. Either way, he was going to build his beautiful home; but now he has two of them. And this year he will pay the town $40,000 in taxes for the pleasure of his views.

But for anyone traveling along North East Street he provides a beautiful view--for free.

Glory, glory

Amherst's "Sacred Dead Tablets" in storage

So as Civil War battles go the losses at Fort Wagner (under 1700 total with 90% of them Union attackers) were relatively minor; like the damage done to the Empire of Japan’s capital city of Tokyo by Doolittle’s B-25 bombers only four months after Pearl Harbor.

But they both made history because of a far greater symbolic meaning. And as such should always be remembered.

The ill-fated attack on Fort Wagner led by the 54'th Massachusetts Volunteers dispelled the notion that black soldiers couldn’t (or wouldn’t) fight. And the daring air raid on Tokyo sent a message to Japan early on: you messed with wrong country.

Amherst Town Meeting will take up the issue of restoring the Civil War tablets and placing them back in Amherst Town Hall where they were proudly displayed back in the early 1900’s. Two members of the Community Preservation Committee issued a minority report suggesting the total cost to clean all six and display two tablets at $65,000 is $20,000 too high.

Hmmm…Amherst spent almost $300,000 to preserve the Kimball House in North Amherst (now dwarfed by the aircraft carrier sized house behind it) but we can’t spend one-quarter of that to restore and display these donated tablets to honor locals who served--especially those who gave their "last measure of devotion"?

West Springfield City Hall

The Kimball House in North Amherst

An Expensive View

Last year Town Meeting spent $287,000 tax dollars to preserve the view of the Kimball House in North Amherst. Not to purchase the land leading from the road to the front door but a complicated buy out with the state of APR designation for the land out back.

Umm yeah, I guess you can still see the Kimball House.

Kimball-&-Bits

$omething old, $omething new...

So Amherst Town Meeting coughed up $278,000 to bribe the state to release APR property so Mr. Cherewatti could build his new home on 1.7 acres of land just to the rear of the historic brick Kimball house. He originally wanted to tear down the structure and build on its footprint, but Amherst do-gooders liked the view and wished to preserve it (a digital photo would have been a lot cheaper).

Mr. Cherewatti contributed $25,000 cash and $8,000 in APR property to the deal. He still owns the Kimball House, although he can't demolish it (and has done some recent renovations). The Cherewatti’s also sponsor family fund that donates money up to $500 in Challenge Grants to local youths and families in the area.

Their brand new LARGE abode will probably be in the top-ten assessed homes in Amherst, thus paying significant property taxes. And, with no school aged children, will have minimal to no impact on town services.