Sunshine Makes The Best Disinfectant

From: Larry Kelley  
To: Kathy Mazur ; Maria Geryk

Subject: Public Document Request 

Please consider this a re-request of my April 7, 2011 public records request for "copies of all separation, severance, transition or settlement agreements made since January 1, 2005 between the School and its employees with settlement amounts in excess of $5,000." 

This would now include any agreements made since April 7, 2011 up until this morning. In other words, specifically, the case of Robert Detweiler. 

Superior Court Justice Thomas A. Connors recently upheld the Public Records Division finding in a case exactly like the one I patterned my April 7, 2011 request on. 

As you may remember, the Public Records Division told you to release the full agreements including names of the 13 individuals. 

If you still insist on keeping these public records secret I will be forced to take it to Hampshire Superior Court, where Judge Mary-Lou Rup already found in a journalist's favor, forcing South Hadley to release settlement agreement information in the Phoebe Prince case. 

Larry Kelley 
Sent: Fri, Jan 31, 2014 11:18 am

Who Guards The Guardians?

Umass is looking for a "Director of Communications" to add to their luxurious stable of Public Relations folks, namely the Office of News & Media Relations (with a staff of 10). 

This gaggle of course does not include Nancy Buffone, Director of "University Relations," with a staff of three;  or John Kennedy, Vice Chancellor for University Relations.

UMass also has "Newswise" which seems to be just another name for News & Media Relations, although I notice former high-ranking editor at the (Springfield) Republican Larry Rivais now shows up as an "Associate News Editor" after retiring from the Republican on January 1st.

The retreat of journos into public relations jobs is certainly nothing new, but it has become worse over the past ten years or so with the decimation of traditional print media by that darn Internet.

In 1980 for instance Amherst hosted four weekly news publications, and now we're down to just one.  And that one -- The Amherst Bulletin -- had a full time staff of 13 stationed in Amherst back in 1980 (not to mention 15-20 part-timers), and now they are down to just two.

In 1980 the ratio of PR flacks to journalists was 1.2 to one, but by 2010 had climbed to an alarming 4 to one.   And they are better paid and better equipped than the beleaguered journos who try to cover their employer.

So who keeps a discerning eye and a flashlight on UMass, our flagship University and the town's #1 employer?  Hello?  Hello?  Is anyone out there?

UPDATE 5:00 PM

Nancy Buffone's response regarding the "Director of Communications" position. 

A Little Disruption Now And Then

Gotta Go taxi at the scene of a party house

In France the other day an angry mob of cabbie sympathizers attacked an Uber car, damaging both the car and the young businesswoman passenger.

Uber is one of a number of new companies that rely on the ubiquitous phone app to connect customer with product in real time, in this case a ride.

To protect the iconic cab industry the French government enacted a law saying Uber cars must wait 15 minutes before responding to an Internet hail from a customer. 

Which would be kind of like our government passing a law in 1908 saying automobiles cannot go any faster than a horse.

In Amherst, in spite of an extensive PVTA free bus system, the cab industry exploded over the past few years going from one or two sleepy companies to an energetic dozen two years ago. 

But once the town enacted stricter inspection process requiring each cab to have an expensive meter installed the number of companies dropped to nine and certified cabs went from a high of 61 to the current 19.

Since Amherst is a college town it should come as no surprise that this new way of doing business gained an early foothold.  Both UMass and Amherst College have embraced Zipcars which will somewhat impact the local cab industry.

But the real cab killer is  Sobrio, a ride sharing program run by the Student Government Association that connects riders with customers at the tap of a finger.  The program test run last semester was so successful (handling 350-500 rides per weekend) the SGA decided to kill the more expensive less efficient "Sober Shuttle" bus program.

For traditional cab companies doing business in Amherst the handwriting is now etched on an electronic wall. "While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping."

SGA Secretary Lindsay Vitale thoroughly explains Sobrio

Internet Marketing

The Internet has changed everything -- just ask a video store clerk or ink stained newspaper reporter -- but most would argue it has changed things for the better, especially with mass communication.

Internet petition sites make it cookie-cutter simple to promote a cause, and crowd funding sites make it simple for entrepreneurs to raise money for their projects.  The recent success of Food For Thought Books raising over $40,000 is a shining example.  Although "Homeless In A College Town" did not fare quite as well, raising only $7,511 out of a $20,000 goal.

And for a while there we had dueling petition on MoveOn.org over the controversial nut ban at Amherst Regional Public Schools.  The petition opposing the ban has since been deleted but probably had around 100 signatures prior to termination and the supporting petition now has 172 signatures but no activity since well before Christmas.

And the majority of signatures are from outside over enlightened Amherst.

Cinda Jones petition to entice South Amherst's Atkins Farms Country Market garnered over 350 signatures promising undying loyalty to a satellite operation at the new Trolley Barn in North Amherst.

 Trolley Barn, North Amherst

All to no avail as Pauline Lannon, Atkins co-owner recently responded to the public suggestion box saying "We need to put our energy and resources into this store."

 

Atkins Farms Country Market, South Amherst

Twitter is a great resource for instant news all of the time, although broadcasting is so simple it sometimes gets folks in trouble.

Last week the bricks and mortar media (who should know better) made an issue of Northampton Mayor Narkewicz tweeting positive things about potential jury duty service as he was reporting for potential jury service (but before the judge said the shut off your damn smart phones) and again after he -- like a lot of potential jurors -- was dismissed from duty.

reporting for jury duty at the Hampshire County Courthouse
— David Narkewicz (@MayorNarkewicz) January 8, 2014

Mark Whipple has yet to be introduced as the new UMass football head coach and already his Twitter account has over 650 followers, compared to Chancellor Subbaswamy, who has 938 followers, but has been on Twitter for over a year.

Folks in Amherst hope he has lots of positive things to tweet in the near future.

Update 2:40 PM.  Coach Whipple now has over 1,150 followers

That Too Is Banned @ ARPS

ARHS

According to the Amherst Regional Public Schools handbook, under Code of Conduct:  

Lockers are the property of the Amherst Regional High School. In a search and seizure situation, the student who has been assigned the locker may be given the opportunity to be present. This will occur only when a student’s personal possessions are being checked and the student’s presence does not present a threat to that student’s safety or to the safety of others. Contraband found in the course of a search of a student’s locker, bag or person will be confiscated and, if appropriate, turned over to the Amherst Police Department. Disposition of contraband turned over to the APD is the responsibility of the police.

Around noon Friday via scanner traffic I heard the familiar voice of an APD detective tell Dispatch he was en route to Amherst Regional High School, 21 Matoon Street, to retrieve drug paraphernalia so it could be destroyed.

General weekly logs posted to town website

When I requested under Public Documents law the (more extensive) "media log"  for that particular incident it was, err, somewhat redacted:


The reason I'm told for such NSA type secrecy is that the incident involves a juvenile; and it's an "open incident." So be it.

Now it's even more open.

Email backstory

Schools & Fires

Hampshire College and Hadley business block fires occurred Sunday 10/27

As a favor to a friend I recently covered the cute charity promotion "Amherst Mega Dessert Crawl."  Weekends are fairly slow, as I usually see about a 33% drop in readership, so I don't mind doing what newspapers refer to as "puff pieces". 

But then something kind of interesting happened.  My concerned-school-parents clientele hijacked the comments section, although the first comment did at least acknowledge what the post was originally about.  

By the time the dust settled a week later the article had generated 65 comments.  Not exactly a new record (235) but still w-a-y over average (11).  And triple the normal readership.  

One Comment mentioned the recent Regional School Committee Meeting where Chair Kip Fonsh bullied other members for not being mindless cheerleaders for the Amherst Regional Public Schools, branding it cannibalism.

Alerted by that Anon,  I grabbed the snippet off the Amherst Media website and posted a brief two paragraph story with the video.   Once again comments are through the roof (82) and number of visitors triple to quadruple a normal mid-week post.

Which just goes to illustrate pent up frustration with our public schools -- especially relating to open transparent communication with parents who are, after all, customers.  And Amherst is in the top 10% statewide for average per child education cost.

The last weekend in October three stories all came together in a perfect storm to rocket readership by 500%:

Hampshire College cancelling an Afro funk band for Halloween because they were "too white" first cracked open the floodgates; the fire a little later at Hampshire College Greenwich Dorm cranked them open even wider; and then only hours later the ravenous fire in Hadley destroyed the dam entirely.

 Hadley, when The Beast came calling

But major structure fires, fortunately, are far and few between.  Unlike the omnipresent --not to be confused with omnipotent -- Amherst Regional Public Schools.

 ARPS Middle School:  No algebra for you!

Can You Hear Me Now?

Washington Post Photo

No wonder Woodward & Bernstein always used payphones with Deepthroat

The number one role journalists play in a free society such as ours (although now I'm starting to wonder) is guarding the rights of "The People" from The Powers That Be.

And it's a little hard to be an effective watchdog when those all-powerful entities are tapping your phone lines or perusing at will your email inbox.

But according to President Obama -- even after Guantanamo,  Benghazi, and the drone program controversies -- his administration is "The most transparent administration in history."

Well as of a couple weeks ago I was thinking maybe somebody should get him a bottle of Windex.

But now, after the insidious invasion of privacy controversy of the past few days, brought to us by The Guardian, a British publication, an American reporter might want to ask our transparent President a follow up question:

Define transparency?

Pretty bad when the author of the Patriot Act is pissed

By Any Other Name

Roadside memorial for Livingston "Liv" Pangburn, age 22

A heartfelt tribute has appeared on the site of the terrible truck vs bicycle accident that took the life of a promising 22 year old on Sunday late afternoon just off the entry to Amherst College on always busy Rt 9, probably made more so by Amherst College commencement functions that same day. 

I could tell by the original response of the first Amherst police officer on the scene that it was bad ... really bad.

So I continued to send out live updates as I heard them over the scanner and got to the scene less than an hour after the incident to (carefully) photograph the intensive investigation.

By 7:42 p. m. when I was first to publish (beyond simple updates on Twitter) the awful news, I could not get two reliable sources to confirm the accident was indeed fatal, so I held off on that ever so final piece of information.  Even though I was convinced of the awful truth.

Much later that night MassLive.com covered the story and early next morning the Memorial Day print edition of the Daily Hampshire Gazette had it on the front page.   But both of them had used the wrong name and gender for the victim based on information supplied by the District Attorney's office, normally what you consider a "reliable source."

Since the DAs office is considered ultra reliable and since the information they were providing was after hours "breaking news," safe to say neither of the established mainstream media outlets bothered to corroborate the name of the victim with a second source.  

Because friends  and family of Livingston "Liv" Pangburn would most certainly would have told them about how he would wish to be remembered.  

Kind of like the epic mistake made by too many mainstream media outlets covering the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, where early widely circulated reports misidentified the brother as the shooter.  

Being first has always been an important motivator for journalists -- especially now with the ability for instant online publication.

Being right, however, trumps it every time.
  

#####

In an email to the entire Hampshire College community yesterday Presdient Jonathan Lash avoided pronouns altogether:

"It is with deep sadness I must let the community know that Hampshire student Livingston Pangburn, 11F, died in a bicycling accident in the town of Amherst on Sunday.  Counseling Services will hold walk in hours tomorrow Tuesday May 28 from 3:00 - 5:00 p.m. for those needing support.  We will honor Liv's memory in the fall, when students return to campus."

I'm also told by a Hampshire College professor:

"Hampshire academic records now allow students not only to choose their names (e.g. if they prefer a nickname to their full name etc.) but also include a preferred pronoun: that way, the teacher or administrator does not have to guess, or student does not have to assume the burden of correcting them etc."

All The PR Fit To Print

Umass/Amherst, Flagship of Higher Education

According to a blurb in PRWeek "The University of Massachusetts at Amherst is seeking PR support for an outreach effort to grow enrollment at the school."  

More specifically, "the campaign is set to take place after the University completes a year-long project with qualitative and quantitative research to develop messages to improve perceptions of the institution. The university system hopes to increase enrollment by making it students' first choice as they pick schools ..."

Value of said contract?  $450,000.     Okay, nothing wrong with a little promotion I guess -- but $450,000!

I always thought that's why UMass/Amherst has an Office of News & Media Relations with a full time, year-round staff of seven with a combined salary expense this year of $451,628.

And that does not include John Kennedy, Vice Chancellor of University Relations at $222,784;  Nancy Buffone, Public Relations Manager at $89,553; and Lisa Queenin, News Office Director of Community Relations at $69,596 or a total of $833,561.   Including employee benefits and health insurance easily brings the grand total to well over a million per year.

And it's not like any of these folks are knocking themselves out over the summer. 

Proud flagship Umass/Amherst has already made a major leap to "improve perceptions of the institution" by joining the town to combat off campus bad behavior by a tiny minority of their students.  And that is something worth marketing.

But does it have to be so, um, expensive?

Making The Sausage

I did an interview yesterday with a nice young man from the UMass Journo program for his final paper -- specifically involving my favorite course, Journalism Ethics.

The easy question concerned whether I ever hesitate publishing names and addresses of perps arrested for bad behavior.  Well, no. 

But as usual it's the gray area questions that make you think.  Such as: do I give unfair out-of-proportion weight to one story or series of stories?  That I get accused of all the time.  Again talking Party Houses, DUI, and in general, rowdy student behavior. 

As of this morning, over 6 years, I've published 2,539 posts.  I did not even start my popular "Party House of The Weekend" series until November, 2010 and I have published under 200 of those, or less than 10%.

Or as a professional flack would say, "90% of Larry's stories do not concern rowdy student party houses."

My DUI Dishonor Role started 18 months ago, so there have been only around 30 of those posts, and only about half the "winners" are students.  So once again a very tiny percentage of overall articles.

And the widget on my main page that calculates my most "popular posts" of all time show 6 out of 10 are not related to rowdy student behavior. Thus I never feel pressured to come up with stories to fit that preordained narrative.

These days I have three levels of response to a story:  Level one is no more than a tweet.  Something I hear on the scanner or a quick photo of something that is borderline interesting, but not worthy of much more than 140 characters (but a photo is still worth 1,000 words).

Level 2 is it's worth more than a tweet, so it gets posted to my Facebook page (always a photo) as well.

And Level 3 is something that has risen to the level of posting here on the blog with a link (and intro headline) crossposted on Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin.  But yes, I occasionally have a slow news day where something whimsical still gets Level 3 treatment.

 

"Electric Flurry" photo tweeted last night around 10:00 PM

Last night, normally a Level 2 story, is a good example.  I expected the concert at the Mullins Center to be more of a problem than it turned out to be.  At 10:00 PM I tweeted a photo of the concert in progress with the report that AFD had already transported one to the hospital.

And then, the next morning (today) I posted on Facebook another photo from later in the concert when foam was being sprayed on concertgoers with the report that the event actually went quite well and the crowd was very well behaved.

Electric Flurry follow up photo posted to Facebook this AM

So sure, if it had been the disaster like some of the previous techno concerts I would have used a heavier Level 3 response.

And railed against the Mullins Center, UMass and clueless parents over youthful patrons tying up emergency responders due to their irresponsible activity, which I find unacceptable.

Now, however, the Mullins Center "Electric Flurry" concert has just risen to a Level 3 story anyway.   

And yes, today has been a slow news day ... so far.

Friday's No More

The painful but necessary decision by The Massachusetts Daily Collegian to cease putting out a Friday print edition after almost 125 years is l-o-n-g overdue.  In fact they should cease all print editions, period.  And go all digital, all the time.

According to a Pew report less than 10% of people under the age of 30 confirmed reading a newspaper the previous day while, conversely, about half of adults over the age of 65 did read one.

But as those older readers die off they are not replaced by a younger generation of digitally native adults.

The average age of a UMass undergrad is 21, with only 7% age 25 or older.   The math is pretty simple.  Quite frankly, marketing a print newspaper on the Amherst campus is kind of like installing pay phones around the Campus Center.  Or bringing back horses as a means of transportation.

The Internet allows instantaneous, unlimited, and wicked cheap news production.  Embrace it!

Let The Sunshine In

From: Larry Kelley
To: AG Division of Open Government 

Sent: Mon, Apr 8, 2013 2:22 pm 
Subject: Open Meeting complaint

I was prevented entry to a meeting on April 4 at the UMass Police Station between high ranking school officials, town officials and private landlords to discuss a matter of utmost public concern:  rowdy off campus student behavior by a minority of students who attend the University. 

I was told in an email from a UMass offical that the meeting was closed because it was a "working meeting."  

UMass did issue a press release before the end of the day but, for instance, did not provide the names of the ten landlords who attended the meeting.  A violation of the very first rule in journalism concerning the five W's (WHO, what, when, where and why). 

 Since this issue is an ongoing problem in the town of Amherst and since these meeting will probably happen again, I would like the Attorney General to issue a ruling as to whether they should be open or not.  

Sacrificing transparency for the expediency of public employees is not a healthy trade off. 

Thank you for your attention and time spent upholding the People's right to know. 

Larry Kelley 

#####

To: buffone Cc: jeankim ; jkennedy ; egelaye ; edblag 
Sent: Mon, Apr 8, 2013 7:35 am 
Subject: Public Documents Request 

Could I please get any and all written correspondence -- email, text, snail mail -- between any UMass employee and Amherst town officials (either appointed or elected) between January 1, 2013 up until this morning concerning off-campus student behavior especially but not limited to the recent "Spring Strategy Meeting" held April 4, as well as any correspondence concerning Amherst's Safe & Healthy Neighborhoods upcoming town meeting bylaw. 

Since this request is in the public's interest I would also request a fee waiver.  

Larry Kelley

#####

To: MusanteJ ; selectboard ; ZiomekD  
Sent: Mon, Apr 8, 2013 9:42 am 
Subject: Fwd: Public Documents Request 
Subject: Public Documents Request 

Could I please get any and all written correspondence -- email, text, snail mail -- between Amherst town officials (either appointed or elected) to any UMass employees between January 1, 2013 up until this morning concerning off-campus student behavior especially but not limited to the recent "Spring Strategy Meeting" held April 4, as well as any correspondence concerning Amherst's Safe & Healthy Neighborhoods upcoming town meeting bylaw. 

Since this request is in the public's interest I would also request a fee waiver.  

 Larry Kelley 

 #####

Sent: Mon, Apr 8, 2013 11:19 am 
Subject: Public Documents Request 
Sally Linowsky Campus and Community Coalition 

Could I please get a list of the  ten landlords who attended the April 4 "Spring Strategy Meeting" held at UMPD as well as a list of all the landlords who were invited.  

Thanks, 

Larry Kelley

Under Reported Story Of The Year

 UMass Amherst Alumni Association, Memorial Hall

UMass football ascension to F.B.S. becoming a financial black hole -- not to mention the embarrassing 1-11 competitive result -- has received plenty of coverage lately, with major long-form stories in the Boston Globe and most recently their BIG sister publication, the New York Times.

And with losses of $8 million (if you count capital improvements, which the town of Amherst never does with its municipal golf course), deservedly so.

But another annual multi-million dollar expenditure of tax money -- $949,789 in cash, plus another $1 million of "in kind" overhead support -- on the UMass/Amherst campus stays under the radar when it comes to media scrutiny.  Probably because the story is a complicated one.

Last April, after filing a public documents request, I first published the Bentz, Whaley, Flessner report analyzing the current state of the UMass Amherst Alumni Association, a report costing taxpayers $24,5000. According to that report, "The situation is viewed as complex and dysfunctional."

The volunteer board of directors "must cease the in-fighting and hostility that has been described as its mode of operation of over a decade."

The board of directors consists of 18 elected members, 12 appointed by the President, 2 student representatives, 3 ex officio directors and one alumni networks representative.  Although if you go to their webpage, only 16 elected members are listed.

Yes, as I said, complicated.  Or perhaps "confusing" is a better word.

The alumni membership, of which I am one, now consists of all 235,000 living Umass Amherst graduates, but only those who donate a minimum of $50 can vote (talk about "pay to play") in the Board of Directors election, usually held in the spring. Last year about 2,000 were eligible or only 1% of the total membership, down from 5,000 in 2010.

Their most recent minutes June 4th, approved at the October 27, 2012 meeting, had only one item on the agenda (not that there was a published agenda), which sounds like a change in direction:  phasing out "volunteers" and turning over more responsibility to the paid staff of 19 UMass employees.

One has to wonder if that paradigm shift goes all the way to the top to including staff oversight by the Board of Directors -- all of whom are "volunteers"? 

Not that they seem concerned, however, as the motion was passed unanimously by the 19 (out of 34) voting members "present". 

Interestingly, they unanimously support  "becoming more professionally driven and less reliant on the use of volunteers to address operational matters" but do so in a "Conference Call" meeting that clearly violates Mass Open Meeting Law.

The Attorney General has only recently allowed "remote participation," but one major caveat is that those who participate remotely do not count towards a quorum.  In other words, a majority of bodies must be physically present in the room in order to have a legitimate committee meeting or vote on any item.

The definition of a "public body" subject to Open Meeting Law includes any "multiple-member board, commission, committee or subcommittee within the executive or legislative branch or within any county, district, city, region or town, however created, elected, appointed or otherwise constituted, established to serve a public purpose." 

The  Bentz, Whaley, Flessner report cites the UMAAA "as both a University department as well as a 501-(c) (3) organization."


In journalism the expression "phoned in a story" means the resulting article is the byproduct of less than optimal efforts of the reporter and newspaper to "cover" an event.

The same sentiment certainly applies for phoned in, closed, bureaucratic committee meetings -- except in this case, "cover" has a completely different meaning.

Back story via emails

Newsmaker Of The Year

Umass Amherst founded 1863

What would Amherst be without the flagship University of Massachusetts?  A lot less newsworthy, that's for sure.

Yes, in all of the top Amherst news stories over the past 12 months -- from the alleged gang rape in a dorm, the "riot" after the Superbowl, the death of a young woman from a fall the University kept secret for ten days at family request, or the weekend in and weekend out Party House winners racking up a record breaking number of $300 nuisance house tickets -- the University of Massachusetts has played a central role. 

Of course alcohol has also played a contributing role in all those noteworthy stories as well.

On the plus side, however, Amherst has a 3.9% unemployment rate compared to the state average of 6.6% ... mainly due to our beloved economic Juggernaut, UMass. 

All in all, not a bad trade off (depending on your proximity to a Party House I suppose).

By Any Other Name

 Amherst Bulletin: above the fold, front page headline

Journalism and justice share a common goal:  both seek "to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth."  And oftentimes it's not pretty.  Or as jaded cops would say, "It is what it is."

Today's weekly Amherst Bulletin is an embarrassment to anyone who holds high that sacred tenet of journalism still taught in J-schools (I know because I was just in a classroom two days ago) to seek the truth and report it.

On Friday November 29, the Daily Hampshire Gazette belatedly reported the November 19th death of 19-year-old UMass student Sydne Jacoby from injuries sustained in a fall on Fearing Street the late night of November 16, after becoming sick from, according to a best friend's Facebook post, "a high level of intoxication." The next day that Gazette story is sent out over the Associated Press national wire.

Well they sort of reported it, leaving out her name -- the very first W in the oldest journalism formula in the sacred reporter's notebook:  Who, What, When, Where, Why and How. 

And now that I'm thinking about it, they also obscured the "How". 

On Thursday November 28 -- a day before the Gazette story -- the LI Herald published a prominent article about the sad untimely death of Ms Jacoby, publishing her full name, but leaving out the detail about alcohol. 

On December 2 my story is published, and the following day the Massachusetts Daily Collegian follows up with a banner front page headline containing her name, and briefly mentioning the alcohol connection -- but only using the attribution of AFD Chief Tim Nelson from the Gazette article (where he had been specifically assured the young woman's name would not appear).

But today's Amherst Bulletin story, buried on page 5, is unchanged from last week's original Gazette article.  And the reason for leaving out her name is still the same excuse that UMass spokesperson Ed Blaguszewski refused to release her name.  Even though her name had appeared in a variety of published sources.

The front page, impossible-to-miss lead Bulletin story is, however, a direct byproduct of the this exceedingly sad episode:  "More College Women Treated For Drunkenness."  Amazingly they fail to connect the dots to this most blatant deadly example from just two weeks ago.

Yes, the family did not want her name released -- but then, no family ever wants anything remotely negative to be associated with a deceased loved one.  If we start allowing a family to edit a story then we are no longer reporters, we are PR flacks. 

Ten years ago a horrific fire at the Station Nightclub in Rhode Island claimed 100 lives, the 4th worst fire catastrophe in our nation's history.  What if every relative told the media not to release the name of their loved one, or the fact they died in a bar?

What if we had 100 different media outlets simply reporting one local person died recently, but left out their name and the fact they died alongside 99 other people in a bar with substandard safety protocols?

As a direct result of that devastating fire (and the resulting avalanche of news publicity), Massachusetts passed safety legislation requiring sprinklers and "crowd managers" in bars with a capacity of 100 or more.

By shining a bright light on unsafe conditions -- especially ones that have led to a tragic outcome -- public officials are far more likely to actually do something about it. 

We need to get a handle on the abuse of alcohol in our quaint little college town.  Now!

A Sad Rewind

Fearing Street, near UMass/Amherst 

On Friday November 16 at 23:43 hours  (11:43 PM) an Amherst Fire Department ambulance responded to Fearing Street, a well-traveled route students use to get to or from a party.

A vibrant young woman, out with friends for a night of fun (that, naturally, involved alcohol) fell, hitting her head on unforgiving concrete.

When paramedics arrived, she was unconscious.  Standard AFD practice for a an unconscious patient due to head trauma is to bypass nearby Cooley Dickinson Hospital and go all the way to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield.

Two months ago on a particularly rowdy party weekend a young male student, out drinking with his friends in the late night hours, fell near the Newman Center hitting his head and was rushed unconscious to Baystate Critical Care Unit.  Fire Department personnel were amazed when he was released the following afternoon, having earlier stated somberly it "did not look good."

This time, however, it was not good.  This time the young student died.   Sydne Ilyse Jacoby was only 19. She leaves behind a mother, father, brother and 837 friends on Facebook.  500 mourners turned out for the funeral service.  Her local newspaper described her as "an angel."

That mid-November weekend AFD transported five students from the UMass campus to the Cooley Dickinson Hospital for being ETOH, a shorthand code for ethanol -- drinking alcohol -- or in these particular cases, way too much of it.

Amherst Police also busted three party houses that weekend, arresting nine "college aged youth" for noise and nuisance infractions.  One house with four arrests were all young woman.

At another of the houses a 17-year-old girl was arrested for being a minor in possession of alcohol, partying with over 500 young adults packed into one family house only zoned for four tenants.

Police also arrested a drunk driver who almost ran over an officer who had stopped another vehicle.

All in all, sad to say,  in the picturesque college town of Amherst, home to three institutes of higher education, a rather routine weekend.  Now suddenly, sadly, made far from typical.

Until it happens again.

Yet Another Smoking Gun

Email sent by AFD to select influential Amherst individuals:

From: "McKay, Donald" <McKayD@amherstma.gov>
Date: September 18, 2012 1:44:49 PM EDT

I thought that I would apprise you of a situation in which your assistance would be welcomed. Last Thursday the Fire Department responded to a basement fire at # 28 Hobart Lane. 28 Hobart Lane is one of the 14 units that Lincoln Realty owns and manages in the 3 apartment buildings collectively called Gillreath Manor Apartments. The basement contained 2 illegal bedrooms. One of these would be considered to be OK as a bedroom with some modifications as directed by the Building Commissioner. The second bedroom 1) physically cannot be used as bedroom and 2) exceeds the maximum occupancy of 4.

Currently, the Fire Department, Health Department, and Building Commissioners office are awaiting the opportunity to inspect all 14 units in the complex. On Monday the 17^th of September, we were invited to inspect 2 of the 14 units. We observed two rooms, constructed without permits, in each basement with no beds contained therein. We did observe two beds that had been stacked beneath the stairs in each occupancy.

The issue: We have one email and now one phone call from the displaced occupants that clearly indicate that they have been instructed by Lincoln reality to remove the evidence of the two illegal bedrooms until after the combined inspections. We are working with the University to acquire permanent residence hall accommodations for the 14 students who will be displaced from the 5^th bedroom in each unit. It appears that the 28 students displaced from the basement bedrooms are in need of temporary accommodations and I believe that Lincoln Realty needs to step up and procure these temporary living arrangements.

The charade needs to end and these kids need safe housing.. To date, we believe that we (the combined inspection departments) have not proceeded in an untoward manner, we have withheld action through an administrative search warrant instead seeking to act cooperatively with Lincoln Realty to inspect the apartments and we are very cautiously approaching a cease and desist order to compel Lincoln Realty to reduce the occupancy of the apartments to 4.

Any assistance you may be able to provide in motivating Lincoln Realty to provide the necessary temporary housing would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Don

Assistant Chief Donald R. McKay, EMT-P, MPH

Amherst Fire Department

Discussion on UMass Reddit 

Fire Postmortem

 Gilreath Manor, main building, six units

Two violations jump out in this AFD report, one not so serious, one deadly serious.  Amherst has a zoning bylaw limiting unrelated tenants to four per household -- that's the not so serious violation.

State building codes requires two means of egress from a basement bedroom -- that's the deadly serious infraction.

As I pointed out in my original post, what if the fire had happened in the wee hours of the morning rather than 12:00 noon?  A fire across the main floor would have trapped anybody asleep in those basements.

Two bedrooms per unit times six units:  "Nobody gets out of here alive."

Hobart Lane Fire Redacted

Smoking Gun?

 Town Hall in a storm

UPDATE (12:45 PM) The town and UMass have just announced an "open forum" to address concerns over student off-campus behavior.  Looks like we're getting their attention.  Of course none of the students who cause the problems will attend.

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Well it took a while longer than the ten days required by Public Documents Law, and some of my request was carefully ignored, and the moment of release timed for the start of a slow news cycle (beginning of a long holiday weekend) ... even so, the slightly panicky email to town officials concerning the fire at Gilreath Manor from "Heather" who lives there (still) tells an interesting story, one town officials obviously did not want you to see:

Smoking Email Town Officials

The backstory in emails

The Shadow Knows!

 "Who Knows What Evil Lurks In the Hearts of Men ..."

So if I really were a Fox News fanatical parrot, I would now be squawking about this morning's above the fold front page photo appearing in my favorite Massachusetts newspaper, 7th largest in the state, The Republican.

Besides being a lousy photo -- especially for the AP -- one could Tweet that they decapitated the guy standing in for Mitt Romney.  Not only that, but the shadow they so "artfully" wish to highlight looks like it's giving a Nazi salute (from a Nazi who lost his right arm in combat).  Yikes!

Anyone remember when Time magazine artfully photoshopped a cover pic of O.J. Simpson to make him look more sinister?  Or speaking of Fox News, the "bombshell" video they are currently playing that makes the president seem at tad too, err, black.

In politics this is called the "muddy season".  And for a good reason.  I just expect a little more from the AP (or Time Magazine, if they are still in business).

Online version (interesting fair-and-balanced pic of the President)