Build Baby Build

5.79 acre property currently used as farmland and pays almost nothing in annual taxes

Concept plan for 29 townhouses, 58 parking spaces on 5.79 acres (2.3 acres of it non buildable wetlands)

The Planning Board was in an agreeable mood last night for construction as they unanimously supported three projects all involving residential housing.

Although the major one involving, gasp, student housing still has to meander through the minefield of Town Meeting which previously voted down the idea.

Rezoning the 5.79 acre property on University Drive from Office Park to Business Limited would allow the construction of 29 townhouse apartments and increase tax revenues to the town from the current under $100 to upwards of $150,000 -- or more than enough to hire a few more Public Safety personnel.

 Unhappy crowd -- mostly neighbors -- spoke against the rezoning

The business neighbors to the south (an office park and The Arbors assisted living community) were adamantly opposed to the project, as was the owner of 55 University Drive directly across the street, which was recently approved for a medical marijuana facility.

The Planning Board also discussed amending the current medical marijuana bylaw to say no such facility can be within 300 feet of existing residential.

That way it would allow a residential project to be constructed after a medical marijuana facility has opened.  Or in this particular case, if 55 University Drive does become a medical marijuana dispensary the 29 townhouses could still be built across the street.

Current wetlands have been delineated to the satisfaction of Conservation Commission

Critics all cited the problems with water runoff, which the applicants said they would address by installing a larger pipe for drainage.

And the Planning Board pointed out no matter what goes on that property -- even with current Office Park zoning -- there would be conditions set to ensure the drainage problem is mitigated.

 Attorney Tom Reidy presents to a receptive Planning Board last night

The (required) public hearing lasted only 45 minutes and the Planning Board simultaneously closed the hearing and voted on whether to recommend this article to Town Meeting.  That vote was unanimously affirmative.

Building Commissioner Rob Morra feels because of all the requirements University Drive is only place in town for a medical marijuana dispensary

Meanwhile (this morning):

Security fencing is being erected all around the Carriage Shops in preparation for demolition.  One East Pleasant Street is finally going to commence.

Asbestos abatement will happen first

Selective Demographics

Well if this is the best Town Meeting Loyalists can do, us common sense folks in favor of common sense change in our antiquated form of government have a lot less to worry about this coming March 29 town election.

Click to enlarge/read (but try not to laugh)

 3,500 voters signed the Charter Petition, the vast majority NOT  "landlords and developers"

Amherst has the lowest average age for any municipality in the state -- because of our dearly loved college students of course -- yet Town Meeting is grayer than a retired battleship.

While over half the residents of Amherst rent yet the vast majority of Town Meeting members own their own home.

And let's not even talk about skin color.

But yeah, Town Meeting is gender balanced.

Amherst Town Meeting in 2011.  The night they voted overwhelmingly to allow Town Manager to sign contract for solar array on ye old landfill. A very contentious issue at the time (and still today)

Hold Your Drugs Hampshire

Hampshire College founded 1965

Last weekend was pretty good for alcohol runs, with UMass being way down from the usual.  Any time they are under 50% for emergency medical calls relating to ETOH (overly intoxicated) that's a good thing.

But notice Hampshire College had one incident with two students under the influence of Ectasy and another two incidents of wasting AFD resources due to "malicious pull station" false fire alarms.

   AFD End of Feb weekend Runs

And again I would point out UMass pays the town an extra $80,000 per year (on top of the regular $375,000) to increase AFD staff on weekends, while Amherst College paid us $130,000 for AFD services and Hampshire College paid nothing.

 Zero. Zip. Nada.

##### 

UPDATE:

 E2 aka "The Quint" enroute to Hampshire College

Five minutes after hitting the publish button as I was enroute to town center AFD Engine 2 passed me enroute to Hampshire College for a "fire alarm sounding", which turned out to be the usual "cooking smoke."

Meanwhile AFD Assistant Chief Lindsay Stromgren had to respond by himself to a Carbon Monoxide alarm call in a town center apartment building.  

Click to enlarge/read

Advisory Town Meeting article calling for support of Stephen Kulik state bill  to allow municipalities to get money out of tax exempt institutions like Hampshire College

Party House of the Weekend

24 Summer Street

This party house bust at 24 Summer Street in North Amherst is kind of a throw back to the bad old days in our little college town prior to the Rental Registration and Permit Bylaw.  A few years ago there would have been three or four more events just like this on the same weekend.

Progress is a good thing.

In Eastern Hampshire District Court on Monday all four of the arrested had their cases continued until later this month as the Commonwealth has to confer with the police officers assaulted during the event.

   Amherst Party House

Jensen Gauthier and Bailey Smith (female) stand before Judge Hadley

 Dennis Trujillo

 Mychal Carter

Opportunity Lost?

 Amherst PD and ACPD arrest Justin Lewis and Abdoulaye Sanogo Sunday around 1:00 PM

 Justin Lewis, 21 (left); Abdoulaye Sanogo, 19 (right), both from New York

Amherst police, with an assist from Amherst College PD, arrested two young men -- one of them a 2nd year Amherst College student -- for passing counterfeit $100 bills two days in a row at the CVS on University Drive.

In a bail hearing before Judge William Hadley this afternoon a public defender countered the Commonwealth's request for $1,500 bail by pointing out Abdoulaye Sanogo was on a full scholarship to Amherst College, and he was cooperative with police at his arrest.

He also said his client was acting on orders from the other guy (Justin Lewis).  Both perps are from New York, which is why the Commonwealth is worried about them being a flight risk.

   Amherst Counterfeit Caper

Clerk Nagle had refused to set bail on the day they were arrested saying to a few police officers he would not trust whatever cash they might come up with.

Judge Hadley mulled over the facts for a few minutes and decided on $800 cash for Abdoulaye Sanogo and $1,000 for Justin Lewis.  Their cases were continued for pre trial to March 28.

And you can bet the Clerk's Office will closely scrutinize any
$100 bills.

9 of 19

If the average Amherst voter bothers to read the survey responses from the 19 Charter Commission candidates it is pretty clear which of them are open to an actual change in our current creaky form of government.

So write down these names and bring them into the voting booth with you on March 29: Andy Churchill, Thomas Fricke, Nick Grabbe, Mandi Jo Hanneke, Phil Jackson, Bernie Kubiak, Maureen Raab, Irv Rhodes, and Julie Rueshemeyer.

Bring on change!

Amherst For All

What Are They Afraid Of?

 Select Board (2/22) to Larry Kelley:  Go away

Last week the Select Board wasted a golden opportunity to ascertain the will of the voters by turning down my request to ask voters if Town Meeting should be maintained.  The non-binding question is pretty straight forward and a voter is as free to choose no as they are yes.

#amherstma Blogger Larry Kelley appeals to Select Board for nonbinding charter question on 3-29 ballot. pic.twitter.com/Wbt3la4287

— scott merzbach (@scottmerzbach) February 23, 2016

Using the Charter change process to simply tweak Town Meeting is like using a backhoe to plant a daffodil.

Obviously voters who support forming a Charter Commission at the upcoming March 29 election have strong concerns about our current form of government.  So why not ask them more specifically what those concerns are?

   Amherst Charter Wannabes

And why is it only the Town Meeting loyalists wanted it blocked from the ballot?

You know, the same three who refused to sign the Charter petition in the first place (that 3,500 other voters did sign) but now want your vote to be elected to that Charter Commission.

At least the Select Board did not tell me to drop dead

Construction Update

UMass Design Building (Yes, they were working on a Saturday)

Amherst College 4 Greenway Dorms (on left)

Olympia Place private dorms from low/moderate height

Olympia Place from maximum height

A peaceful 4 Town Meeting

Maria Geryk, ARPS Superintendent

Representatives of all fours towns in the Amherst Regional Public School District met this beautiful Saturday morning for not much more than an hour to hear from the administration about the FY17 budget, up 2.6% over last year, and to hear updates about expanding Regionalization all the way down to preK-6th, and consolidating Regional Middle School students into the Regional High School.

 Amherst Assistant and Temp Town Manager Dave Ziomek, Peter Hechenbleikner attended

There was not much to update on those last two items since the Regional School Committee voted on Thursday to delay for a year the expanded Regionalization and last month voted to delay school consolidations.

Mainly because Amherst has so much on their plate at the moment, with the new $65+ million 2-in-1 mega school currently on the fast track.

 Always colorful Trevor Baptiste, Chair of the Regional School Committee (standing)

But Kathy Mazur did give a brief presentation pointing out the previous high water mark for enrollment at the Middle and High schools was 2,000 total, and September's projected total occupancy is only 1300.  The High School has a capacity of 1,700 or way more room for all the current students in the Region.

Spectators included State Rep & School Committee candidates and that rarest of breeds, a print reporter

Mazur estimated the savings to the Region after consolidation comes to $800,000.

Administrators wish to form working groups from all four towns to discuss the assessment method, merging the Middle School into High School, and what to do with the Middle School after it becomes surplus to the Region's academic needs, plus the enormous capital costs coming up in the not so distant future.

Ms. Mazur pointed out there's great interest in repurposing the Middle School building for the arts as well as space for Amherst Media, Greenfield Community College and the Amherst Boys & Girls Club.

Amherst's recreation department (LSSE) is already moving in to a 3,500 square foot space next month in the rear of the Middle School.

Regional Middle School (bottom center) Amherst Wildwood Elementary (top)

Of course Amherst taxpayers may wonder why they are financing essentially two new elementary schools to replace both Wildwood and Fort River when this building is a Frisbee throw away from Wildwood.

After an hour of mostly cordial discussion Superintendent Maria Geryk came to the key sales closing asking each town, "Will you pay your assessment?"

They all said yes.  Of course now all four Town Meetings also have to approve.

And Another One Gone ...

Artefakt Gallery closing

Our beloved downtown continues its slow but steady decline with yet another shop that is not a bar or restaurant calling it quits.

And yes the stores on either side -- All Things Local and The Mercantile -- are also dead or closing by March 1st.

 104 - 110 North Pleasant Street

That end of downtown is turning into a crypt.

 Carriage Shops have been closed and abandoned for over a year now

Meanwhile, Kimballs Auction Barn -- a fixture in North Amherst -- is moving to 299 Russell Street (Rt9) next to Rocky's Hardware. Cinda Jones, "the Donald Trump of North Amherst", confirms she is selling the building and 47 acres of land to farmer Joe Czajikowski.

 Rt 9 certainly has more traffic than Meadow Street

Previous business was an Art Gallery

Furthermore, Should you be running out of gas on the east side of Amherst you're out of luck, as the Cumberland Farms store -- perhaps the busiest convenience store in Amherst -- is closed for at least another week due to renovations.

And the shuttered Sunoco -- Barney's -- directly across the street, still has yet to find a new tenant.

 Barney's (left) Cumbys (right)

Don't Drink The Water?

Ye old unlined landfill off Old Farm Road.  Amherst Woods top center

Assistant Town Manager Dave Ziomek (far right) attended Water Supply Protection Committee meeting yesterday

The Amherst Water Supply Protection Committee voted 3-1 yesterday to recommend the town do one extra sampling analysis at Well 4-08, located in a sensitive area for our drinking supply (Zone 2) where a high level of Dioxane was detected in one lone sampling back in July, 2012.

As per DEP regulations the town tests annually at 15 sites for contamination from two closed landfills off Belchertown Road (lined landfill) and Old Farm Road (unlined).

After the alarming test results taken in July, 2012 the town quickly did a resampling in August using a better testing method which turned up nothing.  Zero.  Zip.

And for the past three years annual testing has turned up nothing.  Zero.  Zip.

Dissenting member John Tobiason, who is also a Board of Health member, was sure the unusually high readings on that one test date were simply due to error, or a false positive.  Especially since that lone sample date is so far outside the norm for all the other sampling ever done.

About a half dozen neighbors showed up for the meeting and were adamant the town test four times per year to account for "seasonal variations."

But the Committee pointed out the retest using a better testing method was done in August of 2012 only a month after the alarming sample was taken, and August is in the same "season" as July.

Of course these are the same Amherst Woods neighbors who filed a lawsuit against the town to prevent a solar array from going on ye old landfill.

After the appeased neighbors filed out of the meeting, just before adjournment, the Water Supply Protection Committee confirmed, "We're not concerned."

The southern end of Gull Pond has tested positive for contamination, but it's not like anybody would drink that water (or swim in it)

Regional School Expansion Delayed Again

Regional School Committee, 9 members from 4 towns (5 of them Amherst)

The four year slog to expanding the four town regional public school education system from grades 7-12 all the way down to pre-K-6 will just have to wait another year, as the Regional School Committee voted this evening to suspend discussion of the matter until January, 2017.

Katherine Appy, Amherst School Committee Chair and major cheerleader for expanded Regionalization, said Amherst simply has too much going on with a proposed new mega school and consolidation of the Middle School students into the High School.

The vote was 7-2 in favor of the delay with Vira Douangmany Cage and Stephen Sullivan voting no.

Mr. Sullivan, a Shutesbury representative, said this delay was unfair to three other towns who are members of Union 28 -- Wendell, Erving and New Salem -- aligned with Leverett and Shutesbury at grades K-6.  This delay leaves them in limbo for another year.

Furthermore, Sullivan announced Shutesbury public officials (Select Board, Finance and School Committees) will recommend their Town Meeting vote "No" on both questions concerning Regionalization.

The first question asks if voters will approve the Regional Agreement be amended to allow for the expansion of the Region, and the second question asks if you wish your town to join.  All four towns must vote "Yes" to the first question or the entire endeavor fails.

So tonight's School Committee vote to delay is really only a stay of execution.

Sad Commentary On Our Times

 New ambulance costs $260K and must negotiate all kinds of terrain

Presenting to the Joint Capital Planning Committee his $442,250 total capital budget request this morning Amherst Fire Department Chief Tim Nelson assumed a somber tone we he got to the next-to-the-last item on the list: "Never in my life would I ever expect to ask for this ... but we live in a different world now."

 Assistant Chiefs McKay and Stromgren (left & right) Chief Nelson (center)

The $17,500 item(s) he was requesting?

Ten bullet proof vests and helmets, one each for two ambulance personnel in all five AFD ambulances.  And yes this request was in the pipeline long before the recent weapon incident that sent UMass into lockdown.

But that incident certainly reinforced the sobering notion expressed by Chief Nelson that "It's going to happen here."

Assistant Chief McKay told the Committee that AFD has been training active shooter scenarios with UMass PD since 2002 (after Columbine) and since 2006 with APD.

These days protocols have changed somewhat in that rather than keeping FD in a "cold zone" where they are safe and protected until police have secured the area, the current idea is for PD to make a "dynamic entry" and clear part of a building so FD can then move in and stage in that "warm zone".

Because obviously the quicker medical experts can get to a victim the more likely they can do something to save a life.  But yes, at risk to their own lives.

The bullet proof vests would stay in the ambulance so they will get way less use than the ones worn by police officers daily, thus this request for 10 vests should be good for twenty years or more.

   AFD Capital Equipment Requests

Our other equally vital public safety department, APD, had only two requests, both somewhat big ticket items totaling $315,000.  The usual request for four new vehicles -- Ford utility Interceptors at $35,000 each -- and new portable radios for the entire department.

 Chief Livingstone (left) Captain Pronovost (right)

The front line patrol vehicles are run 24/7 with plenty of stop and go under all sorts of negative circumstances.  Next year (FY18) they will replace three cruisers but the price is going up about $5,000 per vehicle.   While the radios are all over 20 years old so parts are hard to come by. 

The last thing you want is for an officer responding to a life-and-death emergency being slowed by a vehicle break down.  And officer safety is compromised if their hand held radio should fail when they are in the field.

Our public safety departments -- Police, Fire and Dispatch -- cost $10 million in total operation budgets this year so these two department requests of $757,250 works out to under 8% of total budget.

Currently the Joint Capital Planning Committee uses 8% of the town's total budget for capital equipment/building/facilities spending, or $3.15 million.  Requests from all departments total $3.34 million, so cuts will have to be made.

Hopefully not from Police or Fire.

Masslive catches up to this story (Can the Gazette be far behind?)

Regional School Expansion Showdown

Amherst, Pelham, Leverett and Shutesbury make up the Region

After almost four years of behind the scenes discussion that included two sub-committees made up representative from the four towns the Amherst Regional School Committee will vote tonight on expanding the current 7-12 Region (middle and high school) all the way down to pre-K through 6th grade.

And even though Amherst provides over 80% of the students -- and funding -- the five member Amherst School Committee only has 55.5% say in the nine member Regional School Committee.

The agenda only shows 20 minutes for the discussion vote (7:40 PM - 8:00 PM) so it's probably already a done deal.

Extravaganja Lives

Extravaganja 2015 Amherst Town Common

So Northampton, our sister city to the west, will welcome the 25th annual pot rally at the 3 County Fairgrounds April 30th.

Amherst bounced the mellow revelers from the town common due to the size of the crowd they attract, estimated in the range of 6,000.

Interestingly enough the 3 County Fair committee voted in favor of the rental agreement on Monday night around the same time the Amherst Select Board voted to support a 2nd medical marijuana dispensary on University Drive.

Average Amherst citizenry will certainly not miss the traffic congestion the event always created, but I'm sure starving downtown businesses will miss the thousands of hungry customers.

There's Something Happening Here

White Hut calling it quits

Yes, the restaurant business is the most unmerciful of all when it comes to failure rate before a 5th anniversary.

But the number of Amherst downtown food businesses that have failed or been sold/renamed in the past year or so makes me wonder what the hell is happening here.  But what it is ain't exactly clear.

 Baby Berk is a popular on campus late night food truck

With UMass Auxiliary Enterprises (aka dining services) doing everything possible to keep students on campus and with the built in advantage that comes with being a tax exempt entity, it's beginning to look like a hard working, tax generating, mom & pop simply can't compete.

 Location next to Bueno Y Sano didn't help of course