Pot vs Alcohol

Fratelli's will open in September at 30 Boltwood Walk

Acting as Liquor Commissioners the Amherst Select Board will hold a public hearing Monday night to decide the fate of two liquor licenses that are still valid until November 1st but currently not in use.

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 55 University Drive former home of The Hangar, future medical marijuana shop

Since the Hanger moved across the street after absorbing the much larger Amherst Brewing Company, who also had a full liquor license, it kind of makes sense they would not need their previous license under the name Afterburner Inc.

 Hangar Pub & Grill bought out Amherst Brewing Company across the street

Although they could be pulling an Eric Suher style of business where you hold on to a license so that nobody else can buy it and compete with you. 

Fratelli's has indicated they will appear at the meeting so obviously they are not in favor of the Select Board revoking it for lack of use.  A worker on site this morning said they plan to open by September 1st in their strategically well placed location.

The former location of the Hanger at 55 University Drive was the second of four marijuana dispensaries to get Select Board approval to open and the first (and so far only) to get a ZBA Special Permit.

 85 University Drive

Local developer Rich Slobody (who formerly owned Charlie's Tavern in town center) is building a 2,000 square foot building at 85 University Drive for MassMedicum the first non profit to get Select Board approval for a pot dispensary.

 Rafters on the corner of University Drive and Amity Street

And one of the most highly revered bars in Amherst for the past 25 years, Rafters Restaurant & Sports Bar, is now threatened by a 4th pot dispensary who has a $2 million purchase and sale agreement for the property strategically located on the corner of University Drive and Amity Streets, at the gateway to UMass.

Although the Zoning Board of Appeals could decide at some point that the community needs have been met with less than four dispensaries.  Which may be Rafters only hope.  

A Beacon Of Hope

Mill District:  Beacon project sited between Atkins and Cowles Building Supply

Beacon Communities, a top tier public housing developer, will go before our illustrious Select Board on Monday night to present preliminary plans for their badly needed mixed-use development that would continue the revitalization of North Amherst.

The Mill District has already made the historic but often neglected area a destination spot with the opening of Atkins North and the Trolley Barn.

This proposed development would add a key ingredient to the mix:  tenants who live within walking distance of all the amenities the area has to offer.

And with 20% of the units set aside as "affordable housing" the project would help bridge a Grand Canyon sized gap in our residential demographics.

Beacon purchased Rolling Green for $30.25 million ($1.25 million of town CPA $) thus keeping it on our Subsidized Housing Inventory

Sometimes A Mound Is Just A Mound

Unless of course you are an evil developer

It must be a monumental coincidence but it seems every time someone wants to do a development bigger than a breadbox on undeveloped land, neighbors are suddenly concerned with sacred box turtles, grasshopper sparrows or Indian burial grounds.

And of course those of us who grew up on The Amityville Horror know full well you don't mess with long dead Native American warriors.  Especially if you live in a town named after Lord Jeffery Amherst.

The controversial solar array project proposed for the idyllic hilltown of Shutesbury was on hold until the their Planning Board hears back from an expert archaeologist hired to study the mysterious mounds found on the forested property.

Turns out they were just root balls from trees toppled by the ghosts of New England weather.

   Shutesbury Mounds Not Sacred

Hadley, our farm community next door, had no problems with this solar array on E. Hadley Road

The Homeless Problem

Chief Livingstone (center) Phillip O'Connell (right)

Last night's Public Forum On Homelessness attracted a standing room only crowd to the Town Room including two Town Managers and an Assistant Town Manager, two Public Safety Chiefs, department heads, Town Meeting members, social service workers, the clergy, and of course some of the homeless who call our streets home.

 Incoming Town Manager Paul Bockelman (blue shirt)

The final speaker -- homeless downtown poster boy Phillip O'Connell -- became borderline disruptive, criticizing the outreach efforts as all show and no substance.  He went so far as to compare the treatment of the homeless as being, "worse than a Jim Crow negro in the Jim Crow south."

Umm, exaggerate much?

But it did cause a stir among the crowd.  And reinforced the image of the homeless in Amherst as being disruptive.

Some Public Works Perspective

Shumway Street Project:  Water/Sewer = $553,487 and Repaving = $199, 827

When you consider that an average Little League ballplayer could hit a baseball the length of Shumway Street and the cost to renovate that little stretch of concrete is over three quarters of a million dollars, it kind of demonstrates that $17 million in road repair backlog is not all that earth shaking.

And Amherst does have 133 miles of roadways.

Vince O'Connor, everybody's favorite activist, is collecting signatures for the Fall Town Meeting to sabotage the new DPW Facility in favor of road repair. 

But the money for a new DPW building or Fire Station or new Mega School,  each of which is tens of millions of dollars, does not come out of operating budgets.

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Already insiders are betting the Select Board will place a $35 million Debt Exclusion Override on the November 8th ballot for the new mega school.  If that Override should fail it's not like extra money will then be put into the school budget for new books, teachers or playground repairs.

The Finance Committee is taking up the serious issue of the four major capital building projects with an eye towards affordability, timing and educational outreach to the general public.

Scuttling the DPW building project now would only delay the inevitable.  And make it more expensive to restart in the not too distant future.

Hot day for this kind of work

Hold Your Fire

Dog lovers should take heart in a three Judge Appeals Court ruling today that upheld District Court Judge Jacklyn Connly's guilty finding for "cruelty to an animal" after a Hatfield resident shot a neighbor's sheepdog that had wandered onto his property.

The man essentially said the violent act was necessary to protect his wife, who has multiple sclerosis, from stepping on dog feces. 

And that the shot to the dogs hindquarters from a 22 caliber air powered pellet gun was only meant to "sting" her and scare her away.

   Dog Cruelty

Of course if I had been the prosecutor I would have asked the perp to borrow the gun in question and let me shoot him in the ass from 50 feet to ascertain whether it was cruel or not.

Another School Committee Fiasco?

Joint School Committees in open session

Joint School Committees in closed session

After a contentious ten minutes in open session where member Trevor Baptiste lamented "I've had my full of threats, and would prefer any threats happen in open session," the joint meeting of the Regional, Amherst and Pelham School Committees retreated into Executive Session for what we were told would be about "an hour."

Almost THREE HOURS later they came out of Executive Session and the open session continued for only another twenty minutes before adjournment.

 Attorney Tom Columb (who replaced retired Ginny Tate) attended both open and closed sessions

Regional School Committee Chair Laura Kent (the head honcho chair of the three committee chairs present) specifically said they were NOT discussing School Superintendent Maria Geryk's evaluation and that would be done in open session as required by state Open Meeting Law.

So what the Hell did they discuss for almost three hours with their attorney Tom Columb present?

Maria Geryk's current contract has another two full years left on it (with an automatic extension of one addition year), so obviously they were not simply talking about a routine contract renewal.

   Maria Geryk ARPS Superintendent contract by Larry Kelley on Scribd

And, it would have been a gross violation of Open Meeting Law if they did discuss the recent controversy of the "stay away" order Ms. Geryk arbitrarily issued against parent Aisha Hiza back in March, which has caused an avalanche of bad press.

Either way the combined School Committees meet again on Monday for a "retreat" but will discuss in open session the twice delayed evaluation of Superintendent Maria Geryk.  Providing of course she shows up for that meeting.

Former School Committee member Amilcar Shabazz waited 3 hours to comment

Since Ms. Geryk has to be present for such a discussion and she was notably absent last night, the School Committees could not have discussed her evaluation anyway even if they had come out of Executive Session much earlier.

But hey, at least I discovered art while wandering the halls of the High School: 

Almost There

Groff Park Wading Pool is filled with water

One of only two remaining wading pools in Amherst remains closed this hot afternoon but this morning it was being filled with cool clean water and life guard accessories were at the ready.

Unfortunately the best I could get out of town officials when I asked if it would be open for families this coming weekend was a not so concrete, "Maybe."

One h-u-g-e advantage of the spray park that will replace this 50+ year old wading pool is it does not require a lifeguard so it will save substantially on overhead costs.  

New Top Economic Cop In Town

Tim O'Brien, new Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director

The Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce, after a 3.5 month search, has appointed a new Executive Director, but since they are pretty good at writing press releases I'll let them tell the story:

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A Lorax With Bite

Big Y is requesting removal of these Arborvitaes for better visibility

The Amherst Shade Tree Committee is working on a new by-law they hope the Select Board will place on the November Town Meeting Warrant to update rules and regulations concerning public trees or those growing in the public way, which often extends 20' or more from public roads.

The bylaw would allow the Tree Warden to fine unauthorized removal or purposely vandalizing a tree in the public way $500, on top of the somewhat steep per inch replacement cost.

The bylaw would also loosen restrictions somewhat by increasing the size of trees from the current 1.5" to 5" in diameter that trips a tree review by the Tree Warden.

And they are attempting to come up with a "hardship" scenario where the Tree Warden could exempt a homeowner from paying the tree replacement costs for removal of a healthy tree, such as the little old lady who needs to remove a tree from fouling up a sewer line.

Removal of a tree in dangerous decline would still be allowed at no replacement costs and if located on town property, carried out by the DPW.

The Amherst Shade Tree Committee would still be an "advisory" group to the Tree Warden and the Select Board would still hear appeals of the Tree Warden's decision as they maintain ultimate authority over the public ways.

New bright yellow flyers are attached to trees involved in a public removal hearing

These four on Kendrick Park will go to make room for a new roundablut

This entire island will be removed for new roundabout

Well Deserved Promotion

Principal Mark Jackson (rt) conferring with AFD Assistant Chief Don McKay and  APD detective bureau chief Ron Young (center) at scene of bomb threat Amherst Regional High School (November, 2014)

One of the nicer things the Amherst Select Board gets to oversee is the welcoming of new recruits to our beleaguered Public Safety Departments -- which of course doesn't happen often enough -- and the ceremonial swearing in of officers promoted to higher rank, which happens even less often.

But on Monday night the Amherst Select Board, surrounded by a bevy of officers dressed in blue, will witness the promotion of Ron Young to captain.   Bravo!

Town Press Release

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Open For Business

7:30 AM the first car (and driver was proud of it)

The centrally located Amity Street Parking lot, after two months closure, reopened this morning with everything except pay machines.  So for the time being parking is free.

The lot increases slightly in capacity from 33 to 35 spaces with three of them handicapped accessible, where previously there were only two.

 4:00 PM

The improvement plans also call for a raised crosswalk connecting to the Jones Library instead of the current temporary painted crosswalk as well as sidewalk improvements. 

Later this month the Planning Board and Tree Warden will decide the fate of the large (22") Linden tree which stands in the way of the construction.

Tree is currently leaning towards Amity Street

Sad Case Concludes

Hannah Frilot, age 20, was hit by a car on North East Street July 31, 2014

The Commonwealth came to terms with Cynthia May in Hampshire Superior Court this morning in the accidental death of UMass student Hannah Frilot almost two years ago, or perhaps I should say Cynthia  May came to terms with the Commonwealth.

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Obviously there's a h-u-g-e difference between someone who acts with intentional malice and the person who simply makes a mistake.

And we're all entitled to a second chance.  Something victims like Hannah never get.

MassLive reports

All We Are Saying ...

The weekly Sunday peace crowd was a little larger today in town center

After passing them by thousands of times over the past forty years, today -- for almost the full hour -- I joined them.

No,  it was not to protest the war in Afghanistan, drones taking out targets where ever it is our military drones operate, or the high financial costs of funding our military.

The sign I held aloft said "Stop The Killing", and I hope and pray it's a message everyone can embrace.

 'Twas simply a statement of solidarity with minority citizens who feel unsafe, frustrated and angry over the two highly publicized deaths earlier this week at the hands of police but in equal measures a sign of respect for the five Dallas police officers who had absolutely nothing to do with those two deaths.

Good men with family and friends who love and need them, taken from this world simply because they wear the blue uniform.  Just doing their thankless job, to serve and protect.

 Vira Douangmany Cage recorded my peace protest debut

When Bobby Kennedy broke the news to a large predominantly black crowd in Indiana on April 4, 1968 of the tragic murder of non-violent peace activist Martin Luther King, his aides feared for his safety.

As he delivered his impromptu five minute speech after the initial gasp and wail from the crowd there was nothing but silence and respect for this white man who knew the pain of losing a loved one to senseless violence.

His call for peace and understanding, a heartfelt appeal to their better angels, was embraced.  And Indianapolis was one of the few American cities that did not go up in flames that awful night. 

"Let us dedicate ourselves to that; and say a prayer for our country, and our people."

Public Safety Reinforcements

Fire started on far west side of building, entered the attic, and spread to eastern side

Alpine Commons fire June 4th

When Engine 1 first arrived from Central Station on the scene of an apartment building billowing smoke and fire last month precious minutes were wasted because the only firefighter on board was the driver, who had to wait until Engine 2 arrived with an additional three person crew.

That will likely not happen again if Chief Nelson's (3/25/2016) request for eight additional firefighters is funded by a federal SAFER grant (Staffing for Adequate Fire & Emergency Response), which funded five additional firefighters back in 2005.

Minimum on duty staffing would go from the current 7 or 8 per shift up to ten and -- most important -- to maintain a four person engine company.

 Engine 2 (the Quint) has 75' aerial ladder with 1,000 gallon per minute water nozzle

With that better staffed engine team available AFD can then meet the initial response national standard "four firefighting personnel be on scene of a fire within four minutes 80-90% of the time " rather than the current capability of meeting that target goal only 30% of the time.

And like all AFD full time professional firefighters the eight new recruits will be cross trained as paramedics or Advanced EMTs.  Medical calls account for over 75% of total AFD responses.

Currently at 1.15 firefighters per 1,000 population AFD has the lowest staffing ratio in the state for communities up to 40,000 population range and their 148.8 average calls per year per firefighter is the highest in the state.

The current system relies on "call backs" of off-duty career firefighters and then the Call Force (paid part-timers) but with the high cost of housing in Amherst many of these personnel no longer live in town, so it takes them more time to get back here for station coverage or assisting with a structure fire.

 AFD Engine 3, a 1999 pumper, seats 6 (but never sees that capacity met)

The volunteer Student Force operates out of North Station, but only when UMass is in session and they cannot staff an ambulance.

AFD protects Amherst from the ravages of fire but has for over 65 years now also contracted ambulance EMS to Leverett, Pelham, Shutesbury and Hadley.  And UMass/Amherst is pretty much a city unto itself requiring both ambulance and fire protection.

Interestingly UMass has a police force but no fire department, relying instead on Amherst Fire Department, with a total budget of $4.5 million and a staff of 45 full-time firefighters.

Whereas the combined staffing of Amherst Police Department and UMPD is 107 full-time police officers and a combined budget of $10.5 million (half paid by state and other half town funded).

 UMass has over 100 buildings, include five 22 story high rise dormitories

Better AFD staffing would also cut down on mutual aid ambulances needed every year, which averaged 78 per year for the past three years.

Mutual aid ambulances take longer to get here (the closest professional mutual aid partner is 10 miles away with an average response of 12 minutes), and the town losses the $1,000 average billing per call, or $78,000 per year.

Call backs for "station coverage" which now cost between $15 - $20,000 per year would be dramatically reduced as would annual overtime costs of $248,000 or Call Force costs of $75,000.



The SAFER grant would pay all expenses for the eight new personnel for two full years at a cost of a little over $500,000 per year.  Then it would be the town's responsibility to cover employee costs, but there is no requirement to keep all (or any) of the eight firefighters.

That way we have two years to figure out if the additional increase in people power pays for itself.

Although it's hard to put a price on saving a life.

 Rolling Green Apartments fire 1/21/2013 had one fatality (photo: Steven O'Toole)

Who's In Charge?

Charter Commission opened with a moment of silence for Stan Ziomek

If aliens were to lay seige to our little college town, Thursday night would not have been a great time to attack as we had three Town Managers on site -- former 23 year occupant of Town Hall's top floor Barry Del Castilho, current Temporary Town Manager Pete Hechenbleikner and about-to-be Town Manger Paul Bockelman.

Pete Hechenbleikner, Barry Del Castilho, Andy Steinberg

Of course that could also bring up the old concern about, "too many cooks spoiling the broth."

At the Charter Commission meeting Thursday night the nine Commissioners interviewed Del Castilho, Hochenbleikner, and Select Board Vice Chair Andy Steinberg about the executive function of our current antiquated town government.

The usual questions interviewees will hear over and over is what works and doesn't work now, and how can we make it better?

Naturally Representative Town Meeting -- our oversized,  unrepresentative, legislative branch -- is a key concern, as is the power of a Town Manager vs that of a Mayor.

Interestingly Del Castilho, with 23 years experience as our Town Manager, thought a mayor gets more respect in Boston -- even a weak mayor.

Mr. Hechenbleikner on the other hand thought legislators in Boston treated town managers with the same respect as mayors.  But he thought our current Town Meeting could definitely be improved as the Amherst "legislative process is unusually difficult"

He went on to say, "Town Meeting artificially focuses activity into two periods of the year.  Most government functions grind to a halt during Town Meeting.  Other forms of government spread it out over a year."

Both Hechnbleikner and Steinberg championed the notion of "stability" of a town manager vs a mayor who faces reelection every two years.  Of course the Charter Commission can enact a minimum four year term for the mayor, which is the average nationwide.

And while Del Castilho served admirably for 23 years some officials seem to have forgotten Larry Shaffer (or blocked it out) who served not so admirably for only four years.

One of the key areas of concern for any chief executive in a "college town" is how to get that tax exempt college or university to pay their fair share for public services provided by the town.  Something Mayor Dave Narkewicz has seen success with recently in our sister city to the west, Northampton.

 Our new Town Manager Paul Bockelmen (starts August 22) was in the audience

Mr. Bockelman peeved Select Board Chair Alisa Brewer during the interview process when he spoke about the inadvertent impact of UMass on the town as being like Godzilla's tail on Tokyo.

Specifically he cited expenses relating to children from UMass tax-exempt housing coming into our public schools, something Superintendent Maria Geryk estimated cost taxpayers over $1 million per year.

All three of the executive branch panelists agreed about how critical it is for strong "collaboration" between the Town Manager and Select Board.

Brown Baby Brown

Community/Ziomek Field, War Memorial pool, ARHS track & field

Let's hope Mother Nature provides some serious irrigation for our tired fields and lawns as well as a break from the hot weather. Our neighbor to the west, Northampton, enacted a water ban weeks ago, but naturally in our little college town it's a bit more complicated.

 State officials are considering measures should the drought continue

The Select Board has to approve it first and they don't meet again until July 18th. And the Town Manager implements that policy decision and our temporary Town Manager works Mon - Wednesday.

Now if only we had a Mayor who lived in town ...

 Owens Pond:  Town officials do not recommend swimming

Gull Pond:  Yuk

Black & Blue Lives Matter

The crowd gathered on the historic North Common near Town Hall

They formed a large circle and interlocked hands and arms

The demonstration on the Amherst Town Common to protest two recent killings of black men by police was planned before the horrific events of last night, where five Dallas police officers were murdered in cold blood.

 Amilcar Shabazz being interviewed by local TV station

The peaceful event this evening drew a large crowd of nearly 200 participants of every age, gender, and ethnicity.

Prominent local black activists addressed the somber gathering from inside the circle and Trevor Baptiste asked them to pray for ALL the victims of senseless violence this week both black and white.

 Kathleen Anderson, Amilcar Shabazz, Trevor Baptiste

Amherst police presence was practically non existent, although a Massachusetts State Police helicopter ambled around the common a few times low and slow before leaving the scene.

MSP Air 1

Meanwhile the main town flag on the common is flying at half staff for the next five days at Governor Baker's order,  "in honor of the five fallen officers in Dallas, TX."