A Proud Beacon

Old Chapel sits next to the tallest library in the country

Work begins this summer on the historic preservation of a central located iconic symbol that has become virtually synonymous with UMass/Amherst. 

The Old Chapel, built 1885, has been abandoned since the 1996 when the UMass marching band moved on.  But it has remained a hard-to-miss, pretty-as-a-picture, scene-stealer ever since. And will become even more so after the renovations are complete.

The $21 million project is expected to be completed in fall, 2016

Last summer the Old Chapel was nominated for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places by the private advocacy group Preserve UMass. 

Amherst currently has seven individual  locations listed on National Register of Historic Places including of course the Dickinson Homestead, West Cemetery and the Strong House in town center.

Historic buildings don't always fare so well on the UMass campus

Mega Merger In The Making?

Jones Library, Amherst town center

At last night's Community Preservation Act Committee meeting, while advocating for $20,000 to do an archaeological site survey of the Strong House historic property in town center, Jim Wald mentioned the Amherst Historical Society is considering a future alliance with the Jones Library, their immediate neighbor.

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Thus the archaeological survey (which will use ground-penetrating radar) will come in handy when the Jones Library doubles in size, possibly using Strong House property.  Since the Strong House is such a historical treasure the state would require an archaeological survey prior to any construction taking place anywhere on their property.

 Simeon Strong House, home to Amherst History Museum

Jim Wald also pointed out the 1750-era Strong House was originally a home designed for Simeon Strong, an upper crust Amherst resident (the original 1%).   Now as a public museum it houses over 1,500 artifacts related to the history of our town.

The Jones Library expansion could provide plenty of climate controlled, handicapped accessible space to help store precious artifacts under museum control possibly including the only known surviving dress of Amherst's most famous resident, Emily Dickinson.

Strong House left, Jones Library right

Last spring Town Meeting approved $25,000 in design money (matched by a $50,000 state grant) to get the ball rolling on an expansion that would double the size of the current Library.

The last time the Jones was expanded/renovated was in 1993.  The state would pay half the cost of the renovation/expansion, with a total price tag in the $10 million range. 

Of course the Jones Library will have to get in line with competing major construction projects looming on the horizon, including the forever talked about South Fire Station, a new Department of Public Works building and the renovation or demolition of Wildwood Elementary School.

Show Me The $

Jones Library Trustees meeting this afternoon

The Jones Library is looking for a new investment manager for their endowment, currently valued at $7,666,247.48 and probably the $611,219.78 in the Woodbury Fund as well.

Chris Milne, President of New England Capital sent in a resignation letter the day after Christmas, but he will continue on as an "active manager" of the funds on a month-to-month basis until the Trustees hire a new firm, probably by April 1st.

NEC had actively manged the Jones Library endowment since 2009.  Annual returns since then averaged 5.34%, but the Jones Library had set a benchmark goal of 8.77%, a hefty $250,000 per year difference.

Since "active manager" investment advisers underperformed 75% of the time compared to simply, safe, lower cost,  "Index Fund" investments, the Trustees are considering making index based investing a cornerstone of any new management strategy. 

The overall goal of the Jones Library Trustees is to ensure the endowment's annual return at least matches the amount withdrawn every year to support Library operations. 

A PC Dilemma

Middle tree (pin oak) standing in the way of solar

When two admirable goals collide -- especially when they concern anything "green" -- how do you decide which worthy option prevails?

In this case reducing carbon footprint by going solar vs killing a tree that provides shade in the summer, absorbs evil carbon dioxide and helps to prevent storm water run off. 

For the Amherst Public Shade Tree Committee, having to decide whether a homeowner should be allowed to remove a stately old pin oak tree to allow the sun better access to solar panels going up on his house and garage, the decision was an easy one.  Let the tree live.

Although the Committee did vote during a site visit last month to allow the one next to it to go, which tree warden Alan Snow confirmed was in bad shape.  APSTC has no control over trees on private property. 

The homeowner is going to remove additional trees on his property but plans to replant smaller ones in their place to "offset the carbon footprint."

 Adjacent pin oak (resembling a y) will be removed

At the public hearing yesterday the homeowner did not help his case all that much.  He cited a contractors estimate of only a 15% loss of solar efficiency caused by the tree and suggested if the Shade Tree Committee prevented him from neutralizing this tree on town property he would be forced to take out a much larger pin oak further back on his property.

To which member Nonny Burack responded, "That sounds like a threat to me."  The homeowner snapped back, "No, it's a plan."

The Shade Tree Committee unanimously reaffirmed their vote from the previous site visit to stay the execution of the 19" diameter tree.

Tree Warden Alan Snow, who has final authority, said although the oak was "beat up" by the 2011 October Halloween storm it was still "healthy" and he thought it would be "nice to give it a shot."

The Tree Warden quickly ruled  to "deny removal of the tree."  But he did say he would meet with the contractors to decide how best to prune the tree to allow better sun exposure on the solar panels.

Amherst Public Shade Tree Committee (currently looking for one new member)

Still Work To Be Done

AFD on scene UMass Mullins Center for ETOH concert goer

The war on rowdy student behavior seems to have taken a major positive turn with UMass student off campus code of conduct violations down 63% from last year, and Amherst Police Department noise/nuisance tickets down 66%. 

Great news for sure, but the war on stupid behavior still has a ways to go.

The other equally important part of the equation is the drain on Emergency Medical Services brought on by "substance abuse" calls that needlessly tie up ambulances, and on occasion fire trucks that have to act as medical first responders.

A little over 9% of AFD's 4,478 emergency medical runs (410)  in 2014 were because of substance abuse, down ever so slightly from 2013 when almost 10% of 4,328 EMT runs (422) were due to drugs and/or alcohol abuse.

Naturally our institutes of higher education are outliers.   In 2013 UMass substance abuse runs came in at 27% of total (219 out of 848), Amherst College at 26% (39 out of 152) and Hampshire College at 24% (17 out of 71).

In 2014 UMass was down ever so slightly with substance abuse runs at 25% (202 of 808), Amherst College up a little at 27% (50 out of 184) and Hampshire College also up ever so slightly at 25% (19 out of 77).

In other words no improvement whatsoever. 

The problem with these preventable substance abuse cases is they all seem to come around the same time (late night/early morning on weekends) severely straining staffing levels at AFD.

Yes, even with additional money from UMass to put two extra ambulances in service (making 5 total) on weekends there were a few times in September when that was not enough.

The day will soon come when someone's life slips away while awaiting an out-of-town mutual aid ambulance to arrive.  That cost is incalculable.

Our Flag Was Still There?

Town Hall Turret Saturday morning

You sagacious local types may have noticed the official town flag disappeared sometime on Friday afternoon, and as of this morning was not yet back in its perch.  As usual the wind was to blame.

Of course this past weekend was peak time for all the returning clients to our lifeblood, our salvation, our reasons for being: UMass/Amherst, Amherst College and yes, even Hampshire College.

 Amherst Town Flag

Although Amherst is 256 years old the official town flag only became a reality two years ago, but don't ask why wheat plays a major design role since it was never an Amherst thing even back in the good old pre higher education agrarian days.

The Chamber of Commerce picked up the tab for six of the flags ($88.48 each), with one going to hang in the Boston Statehouse Hall of Flags.

One of the many reasons I fight so hard for the 29 commemorative American flags to fly every 9/11 rather than every five years (on "milestone anniversaries"), is precisely because of our returning students.

To those of us who were old enough to drive on that stunning day no symbolic reminders are necessary.

But if you were age six and under -- as many thousands of incoming college freshman were -- nothing adequately captures the misery of those moments forever frozen in time, when those majestic towers of glass and steel vaporizing before your eyes.

While some in Amherst -- okay, maybe only one -- view the American flag as a symbol of "terrorism and death and fear and destruction and oppression," to the vast majority of us it represents hope.

An ideal worth trumpeting -- especially on the saddest anniversary in our recent history. 

Higher Ed Mooch?

As I mentioned a few days ago, unlike UMass/Amherst or Amherst College, Hampshire (our little "alternative" college in South Amherst) pays nothing for emergency services provided by Amherst Fire Department even though it is the third largest property owner in town.

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Hampshire College also has the larges number of  "still alarms" which are automated fire alarms typically answered by at least one, and sometimes two, fire engines.   These responses are not paid for by insurance as the ambulance runs are.

 AFD raw number breakdown of 5,914 total responses (2nd highest in history)

In 2014 AFD had 188 total responses to Hampshire College with 106 -- 56% of them -- for false fire alarms, usually "cooking smoke."

In 2014 AFD had 1127 total responses to UMass/Amherst with 208 -- 18.5% of them -- for false fire alarms.

In 2014 AFD had 251 total responses to Amherst College with 55 -- 22% of them -- for false fire alarms.

In 2014 AFD had 5914 total responses within the five communities they serve (Amherst, Leverett, Pelham, Shutesbury, Hadley) with 1,436 of them for fire related emergencies, or 24%.   So the response profile of both UMass (18.5%) and Amherst College (22%) for medical vs fire comes in around average.

Unlike Hampshire College.

 Hampshire College from on high

If Hampshire simply paid the town the same amount annually as Amherst College ($90,000) we could afford to add two firefighters to bolster our dangerously low staffing levels.

Last year AFD had to rely on out-of-town "mutual aid" ambulances 44 times.  That too is insurance money that could have gone to increase staff, thus providing better, faster service to all.

Hey Hampshire: time to pony up!  (And you may want to start teaching students how to cook.)