Not to mention that other $275,000

So if you watch our illustrious town leaders, otherwise known as the Chair of the Select Board and the Town Manager you would think the only thing given Atkins Country Market (a perennial top-ten employer in town) for a little bit of land required to complete a huge, expensive infrastructure improvement project in their front yard was this modest property tax break: $79,000 over the next ten years.

Of course the Select Board just a few months back approved the last beer-and-wine license in town to Atkins (a somewhat low-cost license to mint money.) And the town is also currently in the process of giving them another $275,000: $258,000 worth of paving to their private parking lot courtesy of the DPW, plus $17,000 in cash.

Umm, must have just slipped their minds.

Art House Cinemas, Golf Courses, Wine and Cheese

So pretty much the entire 6/21 Select Board meeting was taken up by a "public hearing" required by the state to issue yet another alcohol permit to a highly regarded--and some would would argue PC--business here in the People's Republic.

A few weeks back it was Atkins Farm Country Market (much to the regret of a local package store located nearby) and now the Amherst Cinema "art house" in downtown Amherst.

Many years ago the town created the "seasonal license" (April-to-January) strictly for the town owned Cherry Hill Golf Course as a means of increasing anemic revenues, and although it carried a value/price tag of $700 (a tad below the year round beer/wine license of $1,000) the Golf Course never actually paid it since it was a municipal tax exempt operation and losing taxpayer money hand over fist. But of course town officials don't want you to know that.

The Amherst Cinema is also tax exempt but not municipally owned (but that crazy idea was actually floated about ten years ago). Interestingly Select Board member Alisa "seems logical" Brewer dares to question the cost of the license and the Town Manager tells her it will be the same $700 "charged" Cherry Hill.

But Cherry Hill has never paid that charge, so you gotta wonder if the Town Manager will ever actually bill the Amherst Cinema? Although safe to say their gross annual revenues far exceed our lackluster golf business.

Left out in the cold

The Republican reports

The town spins it

"...failure to communicate."

Click photo to read lettering on the Bus

So I guess if you don't trust the professional DPW (who are, after all, at the bottom of the town pay scale) to get the job done on time-even with last minute notification, you call in the convicts.

But don't get me wrong: I believe that hard labor--chain gangs or cycling up Mt. Washington--is a good thing. And in Northampton, the Honor Court (recovering alcoholics) keeping the city clean is a great thing.

But you still have to wonder if these noble efforts by convicts could be put to better use other than sprucing up the most exclusive endeavor in recreation--golf ? (Well, #2 if you count those indoor Japanese downhill ski facilities.)

But hey, at least the Town Manager did not put them to use fixing up his humble abode on Amity Street now up for sale.

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Trial Court Community Service Program

"Our goals are to promote public safety by making participants stakeholders in the community and enrich communities by performing meaningful service."

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(key word being "meaningful")

Even the Town Mangler can't afford the Override...

Click to enlarge/read


Maybe he's moving to South Hadley.

Public safety held hostage

So first we had Jones Library Trustee Chair Patricia Holland boasting that closing Friday afternoons would inflict the most damage to the public for the least amount saved ($8,575): "This will be an argument for the Override," she naively declared.

Now we have the Town Mangler telling the Select Board to place the snuffing of street lights back on the death row Override list (saving $40,000 if 400 are doused due to Override failure) because it will scare the Hell out of old people who vote, and anal cyclists like former Select Board member Rob Kusner, who may still have a friend or family members who vote.

I have been teaching self-defense for over 35 years and the best advice I can give people is not to be there when trouble arrives. And trouble thrives under cover of darkness.

Street lights help to prevent rape, assault, and other crimes too numerous to mention. Threatening basic public safety to score political points is fearmongering at its worst. Only in Amherst--and Iran.

The Blunders Continue

The Internet Petition to support the Override is still floundering, only garnering 631 signatures in six weeks (many from "name not displayed," or kids too young to vote, or folks from outside the state.) Recently Select Board member Aaron Hayden signed on:

12:11 pm PST, Feb 19, Aaron Hayden, Massachusetts
This year the override is a sound investment in the value of our homes, the quality of life in Amherst, in our children and for our safety and well being. This investment is equal to the cost of a cup of coffee each week - it is hard to be wise because it is easy to taste that cup of coffee right now while we don't need the Fire Department's help today and won't need to return our library books for a few weeks yet.

Hmmm...

So, 52 cups of coffee divided into the cost of the Override for the average homeowner at $264 works out to over $5 per cup.

Amherst College must pay Mr. Hayden really, really well.

It's Baaaaaack

So for the third strait year the Town Manager, who has the ultimate authority over the park, assigned the DPW the task of constructing a skating rink.

Let's hope this year it works out better than the last two.

Slip sliding away

So it's January in the People's Republic of Amherst and it is of course freakin cold. So where's our skating rink at Kendrick Park???

Anyone remember those ill-fated attempts over the past few years that generated almost no results after plenty of DPW worker time expended? The Town Mangler is quoted in today's bricks and mortar media extolling the virtues of "mutual aid" in the God awful fires in Northampton, where AFD ended up as the first responder to the killer fire on Fair Street.

Amen!

A few thousand expended for mutual aid assisting our real "Sister City" to the west on a public safety matter is one thing (especially when they reciprocate in a heartbeat). But the same amount expended for a half assed skating rink that nobody uses?

Last year around this time

Let the scare tactics begin

So just as he did three years ago to lay the groundwork for an ill-fated $2.5 million Proposition 2.5 Override, the Town Manager is already threatening to take a meat cleaver to public safety items. This time it's that most basic of safety measures a civilized government provides to The People: streetlights.

The Town Mangler plans to snuff out half of them to save $50,000. Of course one accident, rape or murder occurring in that new zone of darkness will result in a lawsuit costing 100 times that amount.

When the State breaks trust

When Town Manager Larry Shaffer signed a 5-year Strategic Agreement with Umass for roughly $100,000 more than they had been paying Amherst for fire/ambulance protection the year before, he allowed them to take credit for the $100,000 Payment in lieu of Taxes Amherst receives from a separate account out of Boston.

Now, however, the Governor is talking about cutting that amount by $65,000. If so can we bill Umass directly--or take it out of the Town Manager’s pay?

There he goes again...

So once again the People's Republic of Amherst has a Field of Dreams--errrrr, I mean wheat, growing smack dab in the middle of Kendrick Park.

The Kendrick Park Committee is issuing their report about what to do with the donated landscape and cheered the Town Mangler's sorry attempt at a skating rink. Last year we spent thousands in DPW labor and got only one or two days of skating out of the deal; way cheaper to have rented ice time from the Mullins Center.

Maybe this winter Mr. Shaffer should hire a expert consultant to create an outdoor skating rink.

Ironic isn't it? Larry Shaffer loves the Rockwellian idea of an open small-town public skating rink for families to enjoy, but he bullies the July 4'th Parade Committee by withholding police and fire vehicles because he wants anti-war protesters to get the free publicity paid for on the Parade Committee's dime.

Last year's fiasco

Don't fool with Mother Nature (golf or skating)

Kendrick Park Ice Skating Rink Tuesday, 1:00 PM
Kendrick Park today 1:00 PM

And I'm not even going to ask--or theorize--what the Hell that yellowish hue is in the middle to upper part of the photos (click them to ENLARGE, if you dare). Yikes!

Not ready for prime time

So according to the Town Mangler’s only upload thus far this year on his ‘Amherst Town Manager’s blog’ (1/16/09): “The skating rink has been created at Kendrick Park and is ready for use. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than to see people skating in Kendrick Park.”

I had a variety of business uptown today--including parking in town center with my laptop to use the free wireless and catch President Obama’s speech (as I have no TV at home) and every time I passed by the “skating rink” it was empty. The “ice” does not look overly inviting.