Another accident waiting?

South East Street Overpass

The $73 million in stimulus spending for high speed rail can't jump start construction soon enough. Rerouting passenger service to tracks on the west side of the Connecticut River revitalized by that stimulus spending, thereby circumventing Amherst, will ensure safe travel for Amtrak customers riding aboard the Vermonter.

But New England Central Railroad plans to maintain business as usual for lengthy freight trains snaking along ancient lines through Amherst. After two freight derailments in less than 30 days--one of them (as far as we know) carrying hazardous materials and both occurring within pollution range of the town's major groundwater supply area that furnishes drinking water--it's time to promote safety over profits.

S0 far this year over 3,500 railway "accidents/incidents" have occurred nationwide with 225 fatalities. The Federal Railway Administration only seems interested in investigating an incident if there's a loss of life or major property damage. In rare catastrophic cases the National Transportation Safety Board becomes the lead investigator.

For these relatively routine rollovers we have to rely on the company itself to perform a thorough investigation. As Select Board Chair Stephanie O'Keeffe pointed out to Town Manager John Musante after the second incident, "Why should we trust them that this isn't going to happen again?"

Indeed.


The long, lonely wail of a distant train, growing louder as it approaches, is something so familiar to me it blends into background noise--even in the dead of night. Growing up on Amherst's Crow Hill you can't help but be familiar with the sights and sounds of the big metal beasts moving cargo or passengers all the livelong day.

Like the University of Massachusetts, the railroad is something that has been here for generations. My great great grandfather Tom Kelley settled in Amherst to work for the railroad--as did a great many Irish in the mid-19th century. Before becoming a "domestic" for the Dickinson family, he labored as a RR "track walker."

So I know what Tom Kelley would have thought had he taken a 150 yard stroll with me due east from the South East Street overpass. And I have no doubt what he would have done: Reported it!














######################################

Just south of Station Road (where the first accident occurred):

Mysterious white powder drawing a line from Station Road into Belchertown

My previous walk 150 yards west from the South East Street Overpass

Come fly with me

The twins: Marchy and Bergy (after Bruins hockey players)

In addition to the green shirted DPW workers the Amherst Transfer Station also attracts red tailed hawks. The proud mother and father have nested there for over a decade and every year as the weather grows ever hotter, give birth to cute little offspring. This year the kids chose the leaf pile as a playpen.

The twins were born two weeks ago. Mom and Dad will be pushing them out of the tall pine tree fairly soon to make their own way in the world, so if you want to see them up close head out to the transfer station soon.

(Maybe they will take up residence on the old unlined landfill across the street and feed on Grasshopper Sparrows.)

Dad: "Juicy Fruit"

Mom: "Big Red"

Photos by Steve Telega (on his own time)


Please excuse the ad (I could not afford to buy the software)

I'll be the roundabout...

The roundabout nearest Atkins Market will allow easy access to West Bay Road (and the Market)

Atkins Corner roundabouts are starting to take shape. Although Baltazar Contractors, the low bidder at $6 million, was nowhere to be seen this fine morning as no state jobs are worked the week of July 4th . I guess that is why the project requires two years for completion, although rumor has it they are a few months ahead of schedule.

A water truck is being used for dust mitigation--but not this week

Second Roundabout at Bay Road just below Atkins Market and above Hampshire College

"Call it morning driving thru the sound and in and out the valley."

A hot July 4th Parade in Amherst

The Parade started exactly at 3:00 PM

The biggest crowd in our nine-year history disproved P.T. Barnum's theory that all publicity is good PR as long as they spell your name correctly. This year we managed to sidestep what seemed to be the inevitable controversy that comes with anything public in Amherst, avoiding the clash of egos and grandstanding for media attention that resulted in far less media coverage leading up to the B-I-G event; but still the crowds (especially children) came: to enjoy the show, and thank those who make our little piece of the world safer.

With military color guard in the lead

Berkshire Highlanders serenade the eager crowds

Town center was packed with parents and children

Our youngest performer

The Bucket Man plays to a big crowd
Kendrick Park provided plenty of shade

A long line of emergency vehicles

Thomas the Train

My home sweet home

July 4th Parade: 10th time is the charm

The Amherst July 4th Parade Committee is looking forward to the longest, largest line of march since reviving the grand tradition almost exactly nine years ago. More police, fire, and military hardware will roll through town center than at any time in Amherst's 252 year history.

Bring the kids, flags and good cheer. It's gonna be glorious!

3:00 PM starting on South Pleasant Street near Amherst College Orr Rink and ambles directly through town center all the way to Triangle Street

ARA stays the Gateway course

Tonight the Amherst Redevelopment Authority voted unanimously to:

1. Adopt "the vision" put forth by our consultant for the Gateway Corridor
   
2. Continue to be the lead agency charged with realizing that vision
   
3. Request the Town Manager prioritize this project and provide town staff support

The emphasis will be narrowed to focus on the 2 acre former Frat Row currently owned by UMass--what Gianni Longo described as a "catalyst". And with the added good news that Robert Holub will continue as UMass Amherst Chancellor for another year, this ambitious signature project can now move forward with all due speed.

ACP consultant Gianni Longo

Chancellor Robert Holub

I hear a train a comin'

Station Road South Amherst crossing 1:30 PM

Okay folks, hold your breath. The tracks are about to open for business as usual.

Fate of the Gateway

Nothing really new came out of last night's joint meeting between the Amherst Redevelopment Authority and the Amherst Planning Board: A vision of what the Gateway Corridor could be was presented, residents raised concerns and committee members took it all in.

Tonight at 5:00 PM, in the first back-to-back meeting in over twenty years, the ARA meets again to decide the critical issue of where to go from here. Do we bow out gracefully now that a "vision" has been articulated and let the town figure out how to proceed? Who will take up the negotiations with UMass for the former Frat Row--a signature piece of property that our consultant called a "catalyst" for positive change?

Tomorrow is July 1st--start of the new fiscal year. At this exceedingly late juncture we don't even know who will be running UMass/Amherst in the near future.

The retirement of Building Commissioner Bonnie Weeks will also delay the hiring of a new building code enforcement officer, so slum lords get a reprieve while owner occupied houses in residential neighborhoods will once again have to endure party houses when UMass students return, and the cycle resumes yet again.

"Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow..."

The price of deferred maintenance

Rotted railroad ties don't provide much structural support

As a long time health club owner I know how easy it is to put off routine machine maintenance to save money--especially when revenues are in steep decline. A treadmill belt start to slip occasionally and a new belt costs $300 so you try to let it go just a little longer. The liability exposure is enormous should someone get injured.

And a runaway train can do a world of hurt.

A spike works its way to freedom

This one succeeded

The question is why is this clamp not doing its job?

Somehow I just can't imagine taking a couple hundred yard amble down a runway at Barnes or Westover Air Force base and spotting loose nuts and bolts littering the airstrip.

Looks like some ties were replaced...a l-o-n-g time ago

Strike two!

UPDATE: 8:40 PM Select Board Chair Stephanie O'Keeffe, obviously concerned, asked the Town Manager tonight if Amherst had the authority to prevent the trains coming through town if they don't get their upkeep act together. Unfortunately the answer was "no".
######################################
Thank goodness the maintenance program for C-5A aircraft that routinely lumber over Amherst is so top shelf because if one of those babies ever falls from the sky...And if it happened a month ago, like the first train wreck in Amherst, the entire fleet would be grounded until they figured out what caused the mishap and then corrected it.

Two trains derailing within a stones throw of each other in less than a month's time is unacceptable--especially when both occurred within a half mile of Lawrence Swamp where wells are located that supply half the town's drinking water and an overpass where automobiles and bicycles routinely travel directly underneath.

Moving on up

My friends at the venerable Amherst Bulletin--affectionately referred to by insiders as "the Bully" (although probably less so now that the term's negative aspect is in vogue)--have a new home closer to town center, so as my British friends would say: "bully for them."

Old location. University Drive

Not so sure it is going to increase interaction with the general public, as these days folks do not like to walk up a flight of stairs to get anywhere, but the rent is probably a tad cheaper than their previous location on University Drive and reduced overhead adds to the bottom line--especially helpful when advertising revenues tank due to increased competition via the Internet.

New location. East Pleasant St. 2nd floor

I do like the fresh new look of the website, which mirrors the Daily Hampshire Gazette--so much so that I actually thought it was the Gazette. And it would be nice if the Gazette or Bulletin resurrected the online forum for reader interaction that ten years ago was far more active than Masslive's moribund Amherst Forum.

Twenty years ago upper management kept the Gazette and Bulletin completely separate, so that reporters for one paper considered those working at the sister publication competition and would work hard to scoop one another even though they all worked for the same owner. Nothing like a little competition to fire up motivation.

The actual competition, 100+ year old weekly Amherst Record, ceased publication in 1984 leaving the Amherst Bulletin as the sole paper devoted to Amherst.

The Bully and Gazette pretty much merged into one seamless entity, where the Gazette would break a story in the beginning of the week and the weekly Bulletin would flesh out all the fine details by distribution on Friday.

Of course the problem now for the newspaper industry as a whole is that readers want their news almost before it happens, rather than waiting until the end of the week. And even daily publications have trouble printing a story before readers have already heard about it on Facebook, Twitter, or those pesky blogs.

In a one mortician town, who buries the undertaker? Let's hope the Bulletin never has to cover its own funeral.

Guppies unite

Groff Park wading pool opened this weekend, just in time to keep the little ones off the streets. Kudos to the DPW.

Where were they then?

Today's Daily Hampshire Gazette has an above-the-fold, long-form "investigative" story about the residency of our elected register of deeds Marianne Donohue, who lives a fair amount of time away from her current husband in Florida with her ex-husband in a house located on Bridge Road in Northampton to qualify as a "resident" of the district she has served for 22 years, with a current salary of $90,000.

But where was the Gazette three years ago when Amherst Select Board member Anne Awad and her town meeting member husband Robie Hubley purchased an expensive home in South Hadley, left their condo on North East Street abandoned and up for sale and had even declared that South Hadley home as a primary residence in a legal homestead declaration filed at the registry of deeds, but still wanted to maintain their elected town positions in Amherst?

In fact the Amherst Bulletin even printed a Letter to the Editor from the wayward couple claiming they had not realized a homestead declaration was equivalent to admission of "principal residence" so they had refiled a new homestead declaration back on the Amherst condo.

A simple check of the exceedingly accurate land records website proved that statement a lie.

When I took a photo of Ms. Awad from a public road tending to her garden in that South Hadley home I was accused of stalking and the Amherst Select Board even considered passing a public motion sternly reprimanding me.

Strangely enough the only support I received besides the Masslive article came from the left of center Valley Advocate who awarded me a "halo" that year for my investigative reports.

Today's front page Gazette article also includes a photo of the house Ms Donohue occupies while living in the district. Although she did not react quite the same way as Ms. Awad, she did note that "who needs a reporter calling me and asking where I live?"

And the answer is: the people who pay your salary have a right to know.

Gateway Project Dress Rehearsal

So tonight's Amherst Redevelopment Authority meeting was simply an extra study session with our homework--the final draft from our $30,000 consultant on the Gateway Vision and Action Steps--before the B-I-G public unveiling next Wednesday evening in a joint public hearing with the Planning Board.

The key question tonight came from someone in the audience: Is the University of Massachusetts still interested in donating the signature property of almost 2 acres (former Frat Row) now that the preliminary design vision wants to keep half of it green space?

Deputy Chancellor Todd Diacon dodged the question for now, but confirmed he would be talking to the new President, Robert Caret in July. And of course the fate of current UMass/Amherst Chancellor Robert Holub could also have a major impact.
################################
June 29, 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM @ Town Room, Town Hall

MEETING TIME: 7:00 pm. LOCATION: Town Room, Town Hall. LIST OF TOPICS - Joint Mtg. w/Amherst Redevelopment Authority - A. Presentation: Gateway Corridor Vision & Next Steps, Gianni Longo, ACP; B. Board questions and comments; C. Public questions and comments.

There they go again

Town Meeting 5/16/11: Solar Farm wins resoundingly

This from the minutes of the June 6 Town Meeting Coordinating Committee meeting (which I missed, but had planned to go just for the photo op):

Photography at Town Meeting: Several non-TM people were conspicuously photographing during some sessions this year, including a Daily Hampshire Gazette photographer, a local blogger, and someone shooting in support of an academic paper. There was concern that these may have been distracting or intimidating to speakers. The committee discusses whether flash photography should be restricted, and whether photographers should be restricted to certain areas of the auditorium to prevent them from interfering with proceedings. The committee agrees to discuss this with the Moderator.

Of course you know who the "local blogger" was; and yes, I'm "non-TM" but did indeed toil almost twenty years in that aging institution. At one point, from my photographer perch, I almost had to revert back to my bar bouncer days to separate an obviously teed off Vince O'Connor from another member a few years older than Vince, who used a speech stopping 'Point of Order' to distract Mr. O'Connor (more so than my camera).

Vince O'Connor angry

But hey, at least I'm in good company with Carol Lollis otherwise known as "the Gazette photographer".

Now the Middle School Auditorium is, you know, rather l-a-r-g-e and town meeting members are many, and they do sprawl all over the place.

Can you imagine chaining a photographer to a single desk way off in a corner like they do the two reporters at a Select Board meeting? Obviously town meeting is a (occasionally major) public event and its members are, for that brief period, public officials.

Ironically Rockwell's revered illustration (especially by town meeting aficionados) for 'Freedom of Speech' used a local town meeting for inspiration as he captures a member speaking his mind in bucolic Arlington, Vermont during the war years.
But the First Amendment also holds equally sacred freedom of the press. Even more ironic that TMCC discusses these new restrictions on June 6th, a day many aging Americans pause to remember the ultimate sacrifice made by thousands of men who charged head long into harms way to defend these freedoms.

This photogenic dude spoke against the Solar Farm

Mary Streeter, TMCC member and owner of a town meeting listserve of 153 members--more than a quorum (a violation of Open Meeting Law if not for town meeting being exempt), uses an in-session photo on her website.