Regionalization Snoozer

Only a half dozen parents participated in last night's public forum

Last night's public forum in Amherst -- the first of four in our public school Region -- does not bode well for those who champion public involvement in major bureaucratic/governmental decisions.

In this case the expansion of the current grades 7-12 public education empire that combined the little towns of Pelham, Leverett, Shutesbury with the not so little town of Amherst over sixty years ago.

Thirty people came to the Regional High School library for the not overly well advertised event, but the vast majority were town or school officials.  Only six spectators who came to the microphone with questions -- four from Amherst -- identified themselves as parents.

 Town Moderator Jim Pistrang, Sandy Pooler, Katherine Appy, Alisa Brewer

Town Finance Director Sandy Pooler was forthright about the dollar aspect of the decision saying, "There's no significant financial impact one way or the other. Finances shouldn't drive this decision."

 About half the $600K "savings" comes from Amherst medicaid money

And like any good public speaker he closed on the same theme:  "This is not a financial decision for the town of Amherst, it's an educational decision."

The usual theme of unifying education was the pitch promoted by school officials, although some in the audience worried about too much conformity.

And the time saved by only having to file one report with the state for the Region rather than the current three (at about 1,000 pages per year per report).

Select Board Chair Alisa Brewer tried to handle the governance issue but like that Facebook relationship status, "It's complicated."  Amherst would have 7 elected members on the newly expanded 13 member Regional School Committee, with the other three towns each having two representatives.

But all voters in all four towns would get to vote on all 13 members.   One Shutesbury official wondered how it would make a Shutesbury representative feel when he/she were elected with over 90% input from voters outside of Shutesbury.

And town official Marylou Theilman pointed out a town could decide not to join the expanded Region (but as long as they vote yes to reopening the Regional Agreement the expansion can still happen) and therefor their representative would still have a say over elementary schools even though they do not have a financial stake in the matter.

Town Meeting member, parent and Regionalization watch dog Janet McGowan sent an email earlier in the day to the School Committee requesting officials hold another public meeting in November with better advance information distribution. 

Simply put, when education is your product the smarter approach is indeed transparency.

Vince O'Connor:  "It's depressing to go to meetings like this and see how ineffective public officials are at getting parents of color to attend."

DUI Dishonor Roll

Ryan West, age 20, stands before Judge John Payne. Case continued to October 19 

Considering he took both the PBT (Portable Breath Test), which is not admissible in Court, AND the chemical Breath Test back at APD headquarters, which is admissible in Court, Mr. West should save himself steep legal fees and simply take the standard state plea deal offer of a 1st time offender 24D disposition.

Click to enlarge/read

Remember

Big Y BIG flag in a position of mourning

In case you were wondering why the American flag is in that unmistakable position:

Please be advised that in accordance with the Presidential proclamation and as ordered by Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, the United States flag and the Commonwealth flag shall be flown at half-staff at all state buildings beginning immediately until sunset on Tuesday, October 6, 2015 in honor of the victims of the tragedy in Roseburg, Oregon on October 1, 2015. Additionally, the United States flag and the Commonwealth flag shall be flown at half-staff at all state buildings from sunrise until sunset on Tuesday, October 6, 2015 in honor of Sergeant Christopher Y. Vars, United States Army, of Reading, MA who was listed as Missing in Action while fighting the enemy in North Korea on November 29, 1950. Sgt. Vars was the recipient of many awards including the Purple Heart, the POW & Mia Medals, the Combat Infantryman Badge, the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal and several others. The Sergeants remains returned to the United States on Wednesday, September 9, 2015 and he will be buried with full military honors on October 6, 2015.

Amherst Regionalization Forum

10/1 Regional School Committee meeting started with moment of silence for John Musante

Only you overly dialed in folks probably know about the Amherst Regional Public School sponsored forum tomorrow night (6:30 PM)  at the High School Library.

With all that is going on in the schools -- merging the Middle School into the High School, renovating or replacing Wildwood Elementary -- it's hard to keep track of major issues.

This forum is regarding regionalizing the entire four town District from the current 7-12 all the way down to kindergarten through 6th grade.

The move requires ALL FOUR TOWNS to vote yes to reopening the Regional Agreement, but then a town could still vote no to actually joining the expanded Region.

One of the biggest mistakes school officials have made over the past FOUR YEARS on this particular subject is not embracing transparency and outreach on this important topic.

The Regional School Committee heard a report at their October 1 meeting from a hastily appointed sub-committee on the Public Relations efforts used to promote the forums, which will be held in all four towns:  Amherst goes first tomorrow, Leverett on October 21, Shutesbury on November 18.  Pelham has yet to schedule theirs.

The presentation will, naturally, rely on a Powerpoint presentation.  Superintendent Maria Geryk said the goal is "to make the presentations as short as possible and spend as much time as possible answering questions." 

Regional School Committee members will also be on hand to answer questions as well, although a quorum is not necessary.

Interestingly presenters will include Sandy Pooler the town's Finance Director, not Sean Mangano the School District's top finance guy; and Select Board Chair Alisa Brewer (the town's highest elected official), who was formerly a School Committee member.  And Town Meeting moderator Jim Pistrang will moderate.

Lets hope all the town/school officials don't outnumber the audience. 

A Place To Call Home

Amherst Media lease extended through January 1, 2017

Eversource has agreed to extend the lease for Amherst Media at their 246 College Street 1st floor location yet again so our local cable access media provider can continue to operate thru January 1, 2017.

The Electric Company had wanted to take back their building a few years ago but allowed them to stay through December 31 this year.

Although at the moment it looks like their rent will almost double from the current $1,740/month up to $2,913/month.  Plus the cost of oil heating this winter. 

Amherst Media purchased land (2 lots) around the corner on Main Street from Barbara Guidera for $340,000 and Amherst Town Meeting took the arduous step of rezoning the property to allow for commercial operations so a new building could be constructed.

Original plans were for her son Jerry Guidary to build a new structure for Amherst Media with their long term lease/committement in hand, but that project had trouble getting financing.  

 Historic Hills House top center.  Amherst Media property in red

The $3.5 million capital fundraising campaign for the new 10,000 square foot building never materialized, so now Amherst Media has the land but have pretty much given up on the idea of constructing a new building.  

Which all comes at a fairly bad time as over the next year the town is in negotiations with Comcast for the ten year license renewal of cable TV, a deal that generated almost $7 million for the cable giant last year.

Amherst Media is funded by a 5% cut of cable TV revenues (but not phone or Internet users) from about 7,000 Comcast subscribers which last year came to $317,000 and this year is expected to be around $305,000.  

In addition Amherst Media is starting to do more fundraising (about $5,000 this year) and they have a just under 150 members who pay $15 per year.  

But, obviously, the Comcast funding is the motherlode. 

Pay The Piper

UMass is by far the town's largest employer

These days -- or most any over the past 35 years -- it's not often I find myself in agreement with forever activist Vince O'Connor, but on this particular issue he's dead on correct.  There, I said it.  Step one in any good multi-step program.

UMass currently pays the town under $500K as a Payment In Lieu Of Taxes courtesy of a "5 year strategic agreement" signed w-a-y back in 2007.  Thus it expired over three years ago but has been extended annually ever since.

I'm told by a reliable source that a new multi year agreement had been on Town Manager John Musante's desk for many, many months now.

His unfortunate passing two weeks ago today could obviously delay even longer the ratification of that new agreement -- if indeed it is worth ratifying.

Because if the amount is under $1 million per year -- which it probably is since Mr. Musante seemed not overly interested in jumping on it even though he had come under pressure of late by the Select Board to get an agreement resigned -- I would tell UMass to go fly a drone, err, kite.

With a Public Safety budget of $10 million and our police and fire/EMTs dealing with UMass students on and off campus amounting to 25% of our emergency services utilization, that alone comes to $2.5 million the town should be reimbursed.

 Amherst FY16 (ends June 30, 2016) budget

And with UMass grad students sending their children to our public schools (56 total, times our high $20K per year average cost to educate) that comes to another $1 million plus per year.

If UMass were smart -- and they are after all a "higher education" enterprise -- they would seek to cut a new five year deal as soon as possible.

Because if Representative Kulik's bill passes to force tax-exempts to pay 25% of their assessed value, and Amherst and Hampshire College end up paying for more than UMass there will be hell to pay.

This year Amherst College paid the town $130,000 -- up from the previous year's $90,000 -- for AFD fire/EMS services while Hampshire College paid us a BIG fat zero.

Location, Location, Location

Ladder 1 and Engine 2 with aerials extended about 75 feet up

About the only thing I'm going to miss with Central Station when the town FINALLY gets around to building a new fire station in South Amherst is the great access the general public has to the department in their heart of the downtown location.

Like today's successful annual Open House, which always coincides with "Fire Prevention Week."  And that's just one of the great things about our local department:  They would much rather not have your business when it comes to fire.



And a little training can go a long way should the unimaginable ever happen in your home, office or school.  AFD also gets out of their office and takes fire safety training to our schools with the highly successful SAFE (Student Awareness of Fire Education program).

 Demonstrating extraction techniques

Of course the other huge problem the town needs to address is the inadequate staffing levels that all too often requires mutual aid supplementation from a surrounding department and frequent requests for off duty firefighters to report in for "station coverage."

Smokey Bear and Jada

Or, maybe we could just draft Smokey Bear.

Click to enlarge photo

 Why we need an adequate full-time profession FD. Those who fail to learn from history ...

A Matter Of Student Safety

Attorney Tom Reidy and Cliff Laraway appear before ZBA last night, Chair Mark Parent (ctr)

Sometimes the difference between life and death is measured in mere seconds -- especially when dealing with The Beast otherwise known as  fire.

A cluttered escape route, narrow stairway, or -- God forbid -- a door locked from the outside that doesn't allow opening from within, could quickly spell death of a most unimaginable kind.

Would you trust your life to this fire escape?

At last night's Special Permit hearing for 382 North Pleasant Street, which most people probably think of as a fraternity (which apparently it still is),  Zoning Board of Appeals Chair Mark Parent clearly stated, "My concern is about safety, that's what is driving this.  Some kids do crazy stuff and we need to protect them from themselves."

A September 29 Site Visit turned up "living rooms" with doors on them, and at least ten rooms with external locks on them (which as a joke someone could lock the person in), as well as a bevy of extra mattresses in storage.

A Tad Too Many Tenants

Mr. Parent told the petitioner and his attorney, "It is very clear to me this site is occupied by at least 10 people consistently. No question it's more than the 8 allowed.  We need to come up with conditions that rectify that."

The town of Amherst has a zoning bylaw that restricts occupancy to no more than four unrelated housemates per one family unit.

Owner Cliff Laraway is requesting a Special Permit to allow the structure to be a two family, non owner occupied structure (for up to 8 unrelated tenants).  But the layout of the former fraternity, with so many rooms, makes it hard to enforce only eight of them be bedrooms.

Building Commissioner Rob Morra stated, "There have to be significant structural changes, like taking out a wall vs simply removing a door".

The Amherst Fire Department, having done car counts over the month of September, considers it a "rooming house" with 10 or more tenants, thus requiring an expensive ($39,000) sprinkler system.

 Click to enlarge/read

The Special Permit hearing was continued to November 5th so the ZBA could request an AFD representative attend.

The petitioner was sternly instructed to come back with floor plans that show eight and only eight bedrooms as well as physical changes in place to keep the other numerous available rooms from conveniently be used as additional bedrooms.

Building Commissioner Rob Morra did not waste any time taking enforcement steps to ensure the current population of the building goes down to only eight:

   Amherst 382 N Pleasant violations

Almost There

Amherst Office Park's new 30,000 square foot mixed-use building, an exciting new addition to the South Amherst Village Center will open November 1st, joining Kendrick Place and Presidential Apartments as providers of additional, badly needed housing in town.

In this case 17 total units -- the vast majority of them one-bedroom (15) and the remaining two, two-bedroom.  The residential portion of the building occupies the upper two floors and are now fully rented, while the ground floor commercial space is 75% leased.

Balconies offer scenic views to the east and west

Mixed-use buildings like this are a blessing to nearby local small businesses by providing a bevy of potential customers, all within walking distance.

Cable Ascertainment Hearing: Repeat

Cable Advisory Committee members stand at beginning of meeting

The 2nd and final joint public meeting of the Amherst Select Board and Cable Advisory Committee to hear costumers concerns with Comcast service over the past ten years this morning was pretty much a rerun of the Ascertainment Hearing last week:  Amherst Media is amazing, but Comcast kind of stinks.

 Jones Library Director Sharon Sharry:  Would like to see all three libraries wired for broadcast

This time 19 people (vs a dozen last week) came to the microphone to present testimony, and not a one had anything good to say about Comcast.

Peggy Roberts, Town Meeting Coordinating Committee Chair:  "Amherst Media needs equipment replacement and extra staff support."

Amherst Cable Advisory member Demetria Shabazz led off the assault by pointing out Comcast is an $8 Billion company and rather than tie revenues only to the 7,000 cable TV customers it should include ALL profits including Internet and telephone.

Currently Comcast pays the town (who turns it over to Amherst Media) a little over $300,000 which represents 5% of the $6.5 million in revenues generated by 7,000 cable TV subscribers, but nothing from Internet or digital phone services.

Matthew Duranti, filmmaker:  "Amherst Media helped me get my voice out there as a young film producer"

Most of the speakers pointed out Amherst Media is critical to our democracy because of the governmental meetings they cover (Select Board, Town Meeting, Finance Committee, etc), but they are currently stuck using outdated copper wire analog technology.

Chris Riddle, member of the Town Meeting Coordinating Committee, said the lighting in the middle School auditorium is old analog theater lighting that leaves a lot to be desired for Town Meeting members trying to watch presentations and for the signal beamed to viewers at home.  He suggested Comcast upgrade the facility with new LED lighting and a digital sound system.

Louie Greenbaum:  "Town Meeting sound system at Middle School is a terrible, terrible system unworthy of Amherst"

Ten years ago at the start of the contract Comcast contributed a one-time "technology upgrade" grant of $450,000.  This time around, with the chorus of requests for fiber optic upgrade to the entire Amherst Media system, it sounds like the request will be a l-o-t higher.

Jim Lescault, Amherst Media Executive Director:  Last year we provided 504 hours of original content over our three channels 

At least one woman advocated for a switch in providers saying, "If I went to a doctor and they didn't have the equipment to make me better, why would I go back"?

But not a lot of other companies are going to wish to come to Amherst when they will have to wire the entire town to set up a new cable system.

So Comcast it is.  Only questions are will their customer service improve, and how much more money will they be willing to invest in Amherst Media?

Josh Stearns: Digital Journalism guru

Busy Beavers!

Gull Pond (off Old Farm Road) 9/29/15

The Amherst Conservation Commission gave "emergency certification" for a Gull Pond beaver breach last week to keep the pond from overflowing its boundaries. 

According to Town Manager (& Conservation Director) Dave Ziomek:

"My wetlands administrator worked closely with conservation and DPW staff to breach the dam. Late summer rains raised concerns about the road and water backup into basements etc. We’ve done this many times in my tenure with the Town to prevent impacts to residents, roads and property. All part of living with beavers. In these cases we seek what is called an emergency certification to breach a dam to lower water levels temporarily. Rain this week will bring level back up I’m sure."

 A "beaver deceiver" will be reinstalled to protect the drainage pipe

Considering the monsoons that are now upon us, that's a pretty safe bet.

Gull Pond 9/29/15 (from a tad higher up)

DUI Dishonor Roll

Gates Larson, age 52, arraigned before Judge John Payne

Only one APD arrest for impaired driving over the weekend but it was of a kind that illustrates the danger drunk drivers pose not only to the general public but also to police officers who job it is to be out and about during those prime drunk driving hours.

UMass police, who also serve and protect property located in the little college town of Amherst, also had one arrest:

 Keyarra Wood, age 22, arraigned before Judge John Payne

 

And Hadley, close enough to catch our overflow, had one as well.  All three defendants had their cases continued until next month and were released on their own recognizance.  Although Ms. Ritchie-Dunham turned over her license to an Assistant District Attorney before leaving Court.

Jacqueline Richie-Dunham, age 20, stands before the Judge

 

Party House of the Weekend

 419 Old Farm Road

Shane Walsh, Evan Stack, Ben Gallacher off to Clerk's office to pay $300 town bylaw noise fine (each)

For only the second weekend of the semester we have a party house winner where APD intervention of the arresting kind was required.  Although this one is of the more typical variety:  all college aged men.  UMass students to be precise.  All hockey players no less.

Henry Dill (left) also arrested next door to 419 Old Farm Road at same time for assaulting a police cruiser

A few years ago at this time of the season APD was making arrests at numerous party houses.  I asked APD Chief Scott Livingstone if things were, as I suspected, getting better:

I would agree, that thus far, the communication and interactions, cooperation,  with officers and young adults has greatly improved.

Although still very early, I know that both Officer Laramee, Eric Beal and all of the other sector officers having been doing a lot of outreach, whether it be door to door meetings, Fraternity and Sorority meetings and others.

I have been contacted by coaches of many of the sports teams, and we are in the process of scheduling meetings with them as well.

A very good sign!

The usual Saturday day drink parties at Townhouse Apartments in North Amherst also seem to end a little better than they did a few years ago. 

These past two weekends have also seen large gatherings at the western quad where police managed to herd the kids off the green (more like brown at the moment) without incident.

 Townhouse Apartments 9/19/15 5:00 PM

Townhouse Apartments 9/26/15 6:00 PM (Click photo to enlarge)

A Barn By Any Other Name ...

134 Montague Road, North Amherst aka The Mill District

Over the course of its 100+ year history almost everything made of wood -- which is to say the entire post & beam barn -- has been repaired and/or replaced on the big structure that's impossible to miss in North Amherst.

So is it still an original historic structure worth spending many times over new construction costs to preserve, protect and maintain the iconic view it provides to travelers passing by?

Over a year ago the Amherst Historical Commission thought so and ordered a one-year demolition delay, which expired back in mid-July.

But that is the extent of their power to preserve the barn at other people's expense -- in this case -- W.D. Cowls, Inc, the largest private landowner in the state.

Interestingly at the Historical Commission meeting last week discussing the last remaining carriage house contributing to the South Amherst Common Historic District, much was made out of the fact that over the years most if not all of the original structure had been replaced piecemeal.

The Commission decided not to even bother holding a Demolition Delay Hearing, thus the structure can be vaporized at any moment.

As could the historic old red barn at 134 Montague Road.  But that's not going to happen.  At least not before trying to come up with an economic reuse that justifies the high cost of maintaining the iconic image that so dominates the landscape.

Click photo to enlarge

 Barn (right)  is close but not attached to new Atkins North (note roof damage)

According to Cowls Vice President for Real Estate and Community Development Mollye Wolahan:

The demo delay has been over since mid July. We have no plans to remove the barn at this point. On the day of expiration we removed a dangerous window and a couple pieces of siding that we were prohibited from removing during the year-long demo delay. Barn is still being used as a commercial structure as it is warehousing company equipment and materials (though not on the leaky south third so much as before) as it has for many decades now. The barn is leaking profusely on the south third and an interior beam has fallen, a couple others are about to. The south third is structurally shakey. With the opening of Atkins, we have put a fence around the perimeter of the barn to keep the public at a safe distance from the structure.

Ms. Wolahan concludes optimistically:  "My hope is to start the public process this month — sharing information with the neighbors and starting the zoning process that can allow the barn to be reconstructed, retaining the same iconic image that is there today with an exciting new use to further support our neighborhood and the Mill District."

Barn currently hosts art project

Killer Competition

PVCIC recently completed $10.6 expansion project behind original building

Not only does the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School have nicer digs than Amherst Regional Public Schools -- courtesy of a $10.6 million building project just completed -- but their student 10th grade academic performance is also superior (if you have faith in MCAS results that is).

 Boston Globe 9/24/15

In the current school year PVCIC has approximately 83 Amherst Regional students (up from 68 two years before) who have jumped ship, costing the Amherst Regional Public School District around $1.5 million in state money. 

And based on these test results, next year could be even worse. 

Click to enlarge/read

Amherst Regional Middle School.  Officials are considering abandoning building as student classrooms and moving grades 7 & 8 into the High School