The Taste & Price Of Safety

 Taste of Amherst (always late  June) 2014

The Taste of Amherst, that downtown summer institution that brings bliss to Valley foodies and our local restaurant industry, will get a tad safer if Amherst Town Meeting approves DPW Chief Guilford Mooring's $20,000 capital request for Park Replacement Equipment.  As will that other major event, Extravaganja.

Technically the historic Amherst town common is a park.

And the current electrical system becomes a spider web of potentially dangerous cords anytime there's a major function. Because some of those major events attract thousands of visitors, a shocking incident is always a possibility.

The $12,000 worth of Spider Boxes will not only organize all the temporary wiring to help reduce tripping over them, but also brings important ground fault circuit interrupter protection, which comes in handy on rainy days.

The Merry Maple "holiday" tree on the town common was knocked out a couple times last December due to a combination of faulty wiring and rainy weather.

Merry Maple will be insulated against  power outages

The FY16 budget does not commence until July 1st -- a tad too late for this year's Taste of Amherst.

Guilford Mooring pitching to the Joint Capital Planning Committee 2/5/15

But Mr. Mooring is hoping to get the Business Improvement District and Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce to front the money to buy the spider boxes as soon as possible, and then reimburse them out of his FY16 budget, assuming Town Meeting approves the $20,000 capital item.

Festival of Light

Amherst Town Common 12/18/14

As per tradition the public menorah has joined the Merry Maple on the Amherst town common, as this year Hanukkah, the eight-day Jewish celebration, started on Tuesday, December 16 and concludes on Christmas eve, December 24.

For those concerned about separation of church and state or playing favoritism with a religion, the town does not ban religious symbols in the public square, so if someone wished to put up a Christmas tree or erect a manger (but probably not with live animals) Town Hall would not deny such a permit.

After all, anti-war protesters demonstrate in town center every Sunday for the past five decades , so why not a symbol commemorating a battle for religious freedom?

Dedication monument a few feet from the menorah

First Day Celebration

Community spirit was alive and well on the Amherst town common as a couple hundred folks turned out for the First Day Celebration, a community party commemorating the first day of school tomorrow.  Parents seemed happier than their school aged children.

Thursday  UPDATE:

Bad start for #Amherst Crocker Farm Elementary School.  Unleashed, unidentified dog bites 2 kids on playground.  http://t.co/CSTw33A2Dh
— Larry Kelley (@amherstac) August 28, 2014

My friends at MassLive pick up the story

School Superintendent Maria Geryk introduced all the principals in the Amherst Regional Public School System and Town Manager John Musante welcomed the crowd as part of the new town/schools Amherst Together initiative.

 Carol Ross, John Musante, Maria Geryk .  All we needed was WHMP radio

Sam The Minuteman greets Ultimate Frisbee members

UMPD mounted patrol brought Miranda

AFD Ladder 1 towers over the Middle School chorus

Can You Hear Me Now?

Jones Library this morning

After an outage of four hours and forty three minutes due to server issues the extensive downtown public wifi system is back up and running. 

This total outage was only the second time in six years the system went down, with the first time being the notorious 2011 Halloween snowstorm that knocked out power to the entire town.

Fortunately Amherst Town Hall now has a generator.   So if another major power outage should occur, the Internet around Town Hall, Police headquarters and Central Fire Station will stay up. 

Here Comes The Taste (du du du du)

Taste of Amherst setting up Thursday morning

Probably the only event on the Amherst town common that generates more traffic than the Extravaganja pot festival, the Taste of Amherst is a fun, family oriented festival that brings many thousands of visitors to our fair town over the next four days.

Organized by the Amherst Chamber of Commerce and Business Improvement District with iconic century old Atkins Farms Country Market as main sponsor, the taste becomes a showcase for the 21 participating restaurants who hope a taste here and there leads to a longtime customer over the rest of the year.

The food extravaganza opens tonight at 5:00 PM until 9:00 PM, Friday 5:00 PM until 10:00 PM, Saturday noon until 10:00 PM and Sunday noon until 4:00 PM.

 6:00 PM

 

Business Improvement District free trolley doing its thing

April Showers

While police and fire personnel were probably doing a rain dance this morning other town officials were certainly hoping for sunshine as the soggy, still recovering,  town common hosted the 5th annual Sustainability Festival.

But the rains won out, reducing the crowds attending the town sponsored event -- especially compared to the Extravaganja festival a couple weeks ago, which of course was not a town sponsored event. 

The good thing about the rainy weather (besides bringing the flowers that bloom in May) is it inhibits outdoor partying, thus making a Blarney Blowout or Hobart Hoedown highly unlikely. 

Although the usual party house disturbances will probably still happen later tonight during the bewitching hours (10:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m.).

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.

Measuring The Damage

Alan Snow, Division Director Tree and Grounds for the town of Amherst, measures off the damage from last weekend's "Extravaganja" that attracted 6,000 pairs of feet to the town common.  

Mr. Snow confirms that our "loved to death" common will be reseeded after the town's "4th Annual Sustainability Festival" this Saturday.

Green, Green Grass of Home

 Swaths of brown mar our beautiful town common

One of the hidden costs of allowing free use of the town common for major public events is the resulting turf damage, an ugly open sore like a hot spot on your dog.

Since the Taste of Amherst, town Fair and Extravaganja Pot Rally all enjoyed usually nice weather this past spring, the damage now showing is probably from the previous year when Mother Nature was not nearly as nice.

Our overstretched DPW is busy with construction all over town. Hopefully town officials will appreciate the "curb appeal" of a quaint--fully green--New England town common before Labor Day, when tsunami gates open to allow the students return.

Shalom

The traditional menorah adjacent to Merry Maple on Amherst Town Common