Blarney Blowout 2013

And so it begins: Friday afternoon delivery to Stacker's.  My Anon photo contributor tells me there were at least three dozen kegs that came off this one truck.

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APD checking up on Stackers 10:55 AM Saturday morning

Hide the women and children, the 2013 Blarney Blowout has begun! And, unfortunately, the weather is fine.

Yeah, sounds like I'm writing a song.

I don't wake up this early for class but ill sure wake up this early to drink #blarneyblowout
— Tim Collins (@m0hawk_f0_sH0) March 9, 2013

Crowd waiting at The Pub much larger than Stackers or McMurphy's 10:30 AM

 Amherst Town Center 1:30 PM Post Office Bus Stop

 

 North Pleasant Street just outside Town Center

#####

4:00 PM

Townhouse Apartments Meadow Street North Amherst

Townhouse Quad area starting to look like Woodstock (including the mud) 

APD and AFD on scene for 18-year-old female passed out drunk

Couple thousand students cram into the Quad area Townhouse Apartments

#####

5:00 PM 

And we just knew this was gonna happen.  Amherst and State Police, including a K-9 unit break up the party.  Rather quickly.

Somebody is going to have a major clean up tomorrow 

How many cop cars do you count? This was shot just after Amherst and State PD broke up the party.

#####

The Morning After

45 Phillips Street 

20 Allen Street

However ... According to the venerable Daily Hampshire Gazette:

BUSY DAYS FOR AFD

Disposable Art

Hastings & Amherst Human Rights Commission celebrate Black History Month

 Worker cleans Hastings window this morning

Leader Of The Pack

Amherst Crocker Farm Elementary School is in the final stage of acquiring a new principal to replace Mike Morris, who was kicked upstairs into Central Office to head up teacher evaluations, a new state mandated protocol. 

Originally 20 candidates -- 9 men and 11 women -- applied for the position.  A volunteer screening committee interviewed 9 semi- finalists and whittled the field down to five finalists, all women.

Earlier in the week the finalists met with parents and other stakeholders.

Two of the final candidates are from out of state so ARPS paid their travel expenses, roughly $3,000 total.

Currently Crocker Farm is being run by co-principals Derek Shea and Anne Marie Foley.  Ms Foley is a finalist for the permanent position of principal.

With two young children of his own and a coaching commitment to Amherst College in the Fall, Mr Shea opted not to put his hat in the ring, but said he "looks forward to coming back next year as Assistant Principal."

Kathy Mazur, Human Resources Director, is currently checking references on the finalists.  Superintendent Maria Geryk will review the feedback forms and then make her decision.  Any offer will of course be contingent on passing a criminal background check.

The new principal will start July 1.

Expensive Tools

 US Navy has Battleships, AFD has Ladder Trucks, and the DPW has Dump Trucks.  Big ones

Today's snowstorm would have provided a better backdrop for Amherst DPW Director Guilford Mooring's appearance before the Joint Capital Planning Committee, initial gatekeepers for all capital equipment purchases in the upcoming fiscal year.

Yesterday morning Mooring pitched the needs of his department (besides $2 million in operations) with the most expensive item, "the backbone of his fleet," a $150,000 dump truck.

Those really B-I-G dump trucks.  And his #1 priority.  Plus $20,000 for sander & plow attachments.

The town currently has six of these trucks on the road.

The new truck is to replace an 17-year-old dead one that lost its firewall due to corrosion. The steering wheel fell into the drivers lap -- while he was driving!

 Rotted out firewall

Also high on the list and expensive @ $130,000, is a bucket truck used to change light bulbs and perform other work that requires a safe stable platform high in the air.

Amherst recently received a $302,000 Green Community award energy grant, and will be relamping the entire town with energy efficient LED lights.  So the current, tired, ten-year-old bucket truck may not survive.

 Bucket truck at rest

Coming in 3rd on the list and a lot less expensive is a $40,000 special trash/recycling bed for a one ton pickup truck to make downtown clean up more efficient.  A natural compliment to the renewed effort via the Business Improvement District to attract consumers to the heart of downtown Amherst.

With 28 square miles of terrain to maintain, Amherst upkeep is a 24/7 endeavor.  You may not notice the routine work the DPW performs day-in and day-out, but you notice it instantly when it does not get done.

And doing a job right requires the right tools.

Another Sad Story

Amherst College flag on Chapel Hill today

Yesterday in a statement to the Amherst College community President Biddy Martin broke the sad news of the sudden passing of popular employee Pema Tsering, and today their majestic flag atop Johnson Chapel is in mourning.

And since Amherst College is a private entity they are entitled to do whatever they want with their American flag, unlike state of federal institutions.

Either way, flag police are forgiving when the cause is just.

More Unintended Consequences

One of the (many) downsides of having an internationally lousy reputation with American flag related protocol is that people are quick to believe the worst.  So yes, last week the Amherst Select Board refused the people of Amherst the right to vote on whether commemorative flags could fly in the downtown on 9/11.

And as far as I'm concerned the only thing more unAmerican than not flying the commemorative flags on 9/11 is not allowing The People to exercise their most basic American right to VOTE on it.

However:  NO, No, no -- a thousand times NO!  The town of Amherst did not lower its flag to half staff to honor Hugo Chavez, even if Howie Carr (sort of) said so:

“…It was a sad day for the moonbat community. The People’s Republics of Cambridge and Amherst rushed to lower their flags to half staff first. A spontaneous candlelight vigil erupted in Muddy River. Funeral dirges played endlessly on the NPR stations, like Radio Moscow when Uncle Joe passed. Someone dimmed the lights at the Globe, causing an immediate panic in the newsroom, where the fops assumed the newspaper was finally being shut down….”

 UMPD

Yes UMass flags are currently at half staff, but that is to honor and remember the passing of former Chancellor Randolph Bromery.  Although someone should tell the Chancellor Subbaswamy that only the governor can order state flags to half staff.

##### 

UPDATE:  As I have said all too many times, sarcasm requires its own special font (even for Howie)

Although, one major corporation is lowering the American flag for Chavez.  

If You Do Not Build It ...

 UMass Southwest Towers: 6 were proposed, 5 built

The overwhelming influence of our local Juggernaut, the University of Massachusetts, comes shining through in the "Town of Amherst , Massachusetts Housing Production Plan" unveiled last night at the Housing & Sheltering Committee public forum.

Simply put, the oldest law in capitalism at work:  supply and demand.  UMass provides an overwhelming supply of college aged youth (now comprising 59.4% of Amherst's population), which drives up demand for too few housing units, which sends average prices through the roof. 

Population increased 2.75 times vs housing only 2.3 times

And anytime someone tries to build anything bigger than a dog house, the neighbors sharpen their pitchforks and fire up the torches.

Most impacted are what's left of the classic nuclear family:  According to the report, adults age 25 to 44 saw a staggering drop of 45% since 1990.

The housing picture could soon change, however, as the consultant's report illuminates how precariously close Amherst now is to the dreaded 10% threshhold for affordable housing (10.8%).

And with 204 units at Rolling Green Apartments threatening to come off the affordability list, that would bring overall percentage down to well under 10% (8.5%).

And then, via a Ch 40b comprehensive permit, BIG time developers get pretty much a blank building permit, as long as 25% of the units are affordable.  

Even just the eviction of low-income Section 8 tenants from 24 units at Echo Village Apartments by housing kingpin Jamie Cherewatti, AKA Eagle Crest Management, will reduce our affordable housing index by one-quarter of one percent.

The clock is ticking. 

DUI Dishonor Roll

DUI where the D could also stand for Deadly

On Saturday night around 10:30 PM Amherst Dispatch recieved a call from Granby PD to be on the lookout for a vehicle piloted by an "erratic operator" heading north into Amherst on RT 116.

In short order the vehicle was "located, stopped and the operator arrested for OUI Liquor." Again.

James Arnelle Hicks, 12 Longmeadow Dr #22, Amherst, MA, age 32 was arrested for OUI Liquor Second Offense, Marked Lanes Violation, Driving with Suspended License.

Later School Start

One of the more notorious quirks of the Amherst Elementary Schools -- half day on Wednesdays -- is about to go the way of dogs swimming at Puffer's Pond:  Abolished. 

In order to come into compliance with state law for "time on learning" but not disrupt the busy schedule of the average family, starting in September the elementary schools will start ten minutes later (8:50 AM) every day of the school week.   Dismissal will be  at the normal 3:10 PM, so the only major difference is no longer having the 1:20 PM release on Wednesdays.  

Or a net gain of one hour of school time.  Yeah.

This realignment/normalization of hours will probably also make Leverett, Pelham and Shutesbury look a tad more favorably on the elementary school regionalization effort currently on a fast track. 

Blarney Blowout: Unintended Consequences

McMurphy's Uptown Tavern 9:45 AM

The Select Board last night, sort of, addressed the Public Relations nightmare caused by the "Barney Blowout," one of the more juvenile celebrations hosted in downtown Amherst.

In fact, it used to be called "Kegs 'n Eggs" but came under such criticism two years ago for boorish bad behavior that they simply changed the name rather than the behavior.

Call me a prude or a cranky old reformed drunk, but I have serious problems with a downtown public promotion that encourages heavy drinking before noon.

Especially when that production abuses Irish heritage.

Email back story

Back in Quarters

 AFD Engine 2

The Quint is back!  Out for repairs since just after the Rolling Green fatal fire five weeks ago, the quint returned to service late last week.    AFD is now back to full strength with aerial platform trucks, all two of them.

Both Ladder 1 and Engine 2 (the quint) are housed at North Station, the more modern of our two fire stations, circa 1975.  Central Station in town center was built in 1928 when firefighting equipment was a l-o-t smaller (and far less effective).

 AFD Ladder 1

Alcohol O.D. Continues

This past weekend the batting average for Amherst Fire Department was only .500 or 5-out-of-10 Emergency Medical Services calls to our #1 employer to the North for alcohol overdose, far better than the previous weekend's 9-of-11 calls.

Please note, however, one ETOH call was far more serious, as the alcohol contributed to a college aged male falling and hitting his head.  Something that sometimes is fatal. 

Of course all the exuberant youth thinks it only happens to someone else.  Until it happens to them. 

   AFD 1st Weekend March emergency runs by  

Party House of the Weekend

 62 Summer Street, North Amherst

This time we have a repeat offender, although the first offense was 18 months ago so the new regulations being promulgated by the Safe & Healthy Neighborhood Working Group would not kick in. 

The SHFNG will put forth a rental registration permit system so that a property attracting multiple noise or nuisance tickets over the course of a year could not only bring a $300 fine to the owner, but also the loss of their rental permit.

The current Noise/Nuisance by-law already has a provision for fining a landlord on the 3rd offense in a calender year and Chief Livingstone recently told the Amherst Zoning Board that it was sure to happen this Spring, as some of the usual suspects have two violation each.

But when the new rental registration/permit system goes into effect, the town will have f-a-r bigger and f-a-r sharper teeth to enforce the peace. 

#####

Amherst police responded to a call for "four to five gunshots in the area" of North Amherst just after midnight early Sunday morning.  Upon arriving at 62 Summer Street "Loud music and yelling heard."  The gunshots turned out to be fireworks. 

Although, tenants were -- for the most part -- cooperative, police did make one arrest:

Colin Murphy, 24 Eden Street, Charlestown, MA, age 19 for Disorderly Conduct,  and using a False Liquor ID card.

Radiant In White

Amherst History Museum displays Emily Dickinson's only surviving article of clothing: white dress (photo by Jim Wald)

On March 14 the Amherst Community Preservation Act Committee will decide the cosmetic fate of Emily Dickinson's simple, unlike her, white dress ... which has not been cleaned since the early-1980s. And even then, a task probably not all that properly performed.

What is the cost of professionally dry cleaning Superman's cape?  $1,000.  Yes, pocket change.

Although the Amherst Historical Society is also requesting an additional $20,000 for improvements to the Strong House, home of the Amherst History Museum.  The museum is located next door to Amherst's other downtown gem, the Jones Library.

Town Meeting will have to approve the CPA committee's recommendations, but they usually do.

Via the CPA Amherst has been good to our resident icon over the past few years, appropriating money to renovate/preserve the black ornate iron fence around her final resting place in West Cemetery, improving lighting and signage around the cemetery itself, and helped with a small amount of seed money for the transformation of the landscape around Miss Emily's home.

While our reclusive poetic genius was indeed, wrapped in white for her funeral then lovingly ensconced in a white coffin for her final journey to West Cemetery, it's more of an urban legend that she dressed only in white.

Still, this simple -- but priceless -- white dress is all we have.  Also priceless?  Respect!

Legal Sunshine Needed

Shawn Williams, Director
Public Records Division
One Ashburton Place, 17th Floor
Boston, MA 02108

Dear Mr. Williams,

I wish to once again appeal the decision of the Amherst Regional Public Schools to stonewall my public documents request for legal settlements that have cost Amherst taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.

As you may remember your office sided with me last year on a previous complaint regarding ARPS settlement agreements with terminated employees totaling over $200,000.  The schools continue to refuse releasing those documents.

Now I wish to appeal the 2/26/13 decision of Rob Detweiler, Director of Finance and Operations, to withhold settlement agreements totalling $229,300 from recent "Special Education" legal cases.

Obviously I understand certain information -- names of students for instance -- should be redacted to protect privacy, but certainly with that much settlement money involved the taxpayers have a right to know how many cases it represents and the details of those cases.

Even if the money was paid by an insurance carrier a Hampshire Superior Court judge found the settlement agreement between the Phoebe Prince family and South Hadley Schools were still a pubic document even though the $225,000 payout came from liability insurance. 

Your office has also repeatedly stuck down the concept of "non disclosure agreements" citing Washington Post ., 690 F. 2d at 263 ( a government agency cannot circumvent the Federal Freedom of Information Act with a private agreement).

Please remind the Amherst Regional Public Schools that the general public has a right to know.

Sincerly,

Larry J. Kelley

   Amherst Schools legal Bills FY13 by  

Lifesaving Necessities

Firefighter/paramedic Steve Gaughan (President local union 1764) demos Lucas 

In a beauty contest for expensive new tools the Amherst Fire Department is at a bit of a disadvantage.  Turn out gear that resembles those heavy duty raincoats and clunky boots Mom made you wear to school on overcast days, or simple robotic machines that mimic a high-speed oil derrick with almost as loud a noise, aren't very sexy.

But, they are lifesavers.

And yes, maybe the department is looking out for its own by ranking $40,000 worth of  "protective gear" as their #1 priority.  But when that's the only thing potentially separating you from fire's kiss of death, protective gear is worth way more than its weight in platinum.

Protective gear: $2, 500 per person

Pants and boots ready for a quick response

Department requests for the upcoming Fiscal Year total $211,000 with the largest amount, $70,000, going toward five Lucas CPR compression devices, one for each ambulance.  The machines are far more efficient than even a trained person and they never tire during a long transport.  

They also free up one person on a heart attack incident run who can stay back at the station for other emergency calls.  The devices are already in use in surrounding communities and with Amherst's graying population, will certainly see plenty of use. 

The Lucas Machine in action

Also heart related, the department needs to finish paying for defibrillators ($50,000) that went into service two years ago.  


Obviously our highly-trained department require routine certifications such as "Advanced Class Life Support," which costs $8,250 every two years.  But if the department had their own 'Laerdal Mega Code Kelly Patient Simulator' they could do training in house, during on-duty down time (which is getting harder and harder to find).  The two requested lifelike mannequins cost a total of  $22,000. 

Mannequin down!

Chief Nelson is known as a hands on leader who routinely shows up at the scene of an emergency response at all hours of the day or night. $27,000 for a new "Fire Chief's Command vehicle" with a more fuel efficient six-cylinder engine will replace a 12 year old eight-cylinder car with almost 150,000 miles on it. The current six cylinder vehicle driven by the Chief will be handed down to an Assistant Chief.

Yes, saving lives isn't always cost effective -- but the alternative is more than we can bear.

Finally!

 Assistant Chiefs McKay and Stromgren, Chief Nelson

Thursday morning the Joint Capital Planning Committee heard a presentation from AFD top brass for capital items needed in the upcoming year to help protect public safety (more on that later).

But first Chief Nelson updated the committee on the l-o-n-g sought new South Fire Station and the breaking news was -- for a change -- good news.

Or for you folks living in South Amherst, very good news.

The Chief reports the "search and acquisition phase" for land is quickly coming to a close, one that will "finally bring this whole thing to fruition."  Chief Nelson quickly added, "It almost scares me because it makes too much sense."

While no specific seller was mentioned (or possible donor) since the project is called "South Station" it's for sure going to be located in South Amherst, and the Chief confirmed it woulld be along RT 116/South Pleasant Street within a mile or 1.5 miles of town center.

While AFD Central Station is not quite as old as this 1888 bell, pretty close: 1928 

A $10 to $12 million capital request for a new South Station has appeared over the past couple years on five-year-plan spreadsheets brought before the JCPC. 

When I ran for Select Board in 1988 my simple platform was to sell the recently acquired municipal Cherry Hill Golf Course and put the proceeds into a new fire station in South Amherst.

The Chief also mentioned to JCPC he found reference to a 1955 consultant's report that called for a new additional station.

Safe & Healthy Controversy

Crowd of 35 at Feb 24 Safe & Healthy Neighborhoods Working Group meeting

You can tell by the growing spectator attendence that the SHNWG is getting close to their final draft which will be passed along to Town Manager John Musante, the Amherst Select Board in time for a bylaw proposal to come before Town Meeting, which will only require a majority vote.

And no, that should not take long at all.

But you have to consider this has been in the making since the 1970s when UMass went on a growth spurt and our rental housing stock has never caught up.

 Safe & Healthy Neighborhoods Working Group ... at work

Unlike the packed meeting earlier in the day over at Echo Village concerning the eviction of low income tenants, a negative offshoot of Amherst's tight rental housing market, this more formal meeting also brought together concerned players: town officials, neighbors, activists, landlords, developers ... but no tenants, student or otherwise. 

DUI Dishonor Roll

 Mill Lane near South Pleasant Street

So this drunk driving incident Sunday evening, could have been tragic in, oh, so many ways.

If not for a large old fallen tree the auto would have ended up in the freezing Fort River.  In fact a chain saw had to be called in to get the car up and out of the embankment.

And when you're impaired enough not to negotiate a very minor curve in the road, chances are you would also have trouble escaping a vehicle quickly filling up with frigid, fast moving water.

If first responders arrived in time they would put themselves at great risk fishing the driver out of the river.

Since Mill Lane is one of the last unpaved roads in Amherst it is a well used path for joggers and dog walkers, like my wife for instance.  And 9:46 p.m. is not all that late.

Click to enlarge/read

Costly Conflict

  

In case you thought the Amherst Pelham Region School Committee is a rubber-stamping flock of sheep, ponder this snippet from their 2/12 meeting where Rob Detweiler gave a budget update for the half-way point of the Fiscal Year.

So he tells the committee that with the year only half over ARPS has already paid out $200,000 in legal claims putting that part of the Special Education Budget over by $330,000.  Yikes!

And what is their response?  Nothing, nada, zip.  No questions, no observations, no nothing.

Anyone else concerned over why the taxpayers are out over $200,000 in legal settlements?

Tenants United

About 25 people packed into the Family Outreach office located in a commercial building owned by Eagle Crest Management, AKA Jamie Cherewatti, to strategize a response to sudden eviction notices for all the tenants living in Echo Village Apartments located next door, 24 units of -- by Amherst standards anyway -- affordable housing.

A little less than half the crowd was made up of a (Section 8) tenants and the rest was a fusion of government and non-profit personnel from the Amherst Schools, Amherst Housing Authority, Planning Department, Legal Services and even the NAACP.

Also hard to miss was former Echo Village tenant, who said he was "paid to leave", Motown Benny.  Although at one point in the meeting he was asked to stop talking and "get down off his political soapbox."

Motown Benny (Johnson)

The good news was tenants did not have to abide by the 3/31 deadline demand to vacate the premises. But that is the trigger date for Mr. Cherewatti to start legal eviction proceedings  in Housing Court, and then of course it's up to the judge to decide.

Eagle Crest claims all tenants can "reapply" for tenancy on April 1st (no foolin) as long as they have moved out by March 31.  Although one official reported Eagle Crest must give 60 days advance notice before implementing a rent increase to Section 8 tenants, which he has not done.  The management firm has, however, giving notice of "termination."

The really bad news is that Cherewatti can indeed raise the rent and that will price all Section 8 tenants out of the market anyway.  Said one frustrated official, "Our hands are tied on so many levels."

Six weeks ago Cherewatti purchased the property, assessed at $2.1 million, for $3 million, and is now raising rents the same 30% or so he overpaid.  Just business.

Although, you can't put a price on a positive public image. 

An Unattended Death

 Station Road Bike Path parking lot

Last Tuesday in the early morning hours first responders descended on the Station Road Bike Path parking lot to deal with a tragic sad scene:  a suicide.

But one that endangered them as well, because Jim Tan, age 22,  had set off a chemical cocktail in his car, which posed a potentially deadly threat to anyone else who should come into contact with it.


Fortunately he took the time to post warning signs on the car window. This is the second time someone has chosen to end their life in this manner in our little town. 

EMTs stood by for hours, Amherst Police closed off Station Road and the State Fire Marshall and the regional state HazMat team arrived to perform a careful investigation/clean up, which took six hours.

Why are you just hearing this disturbing detail now?

Well, UMass doesn't want to acknowledge/advertise one of its students committed suicide, state officials don't want Copy Cats getting any ideas, and traditional media -- even if they did have the story -- would have privacy concerns much like those dealt with in the case of rape victims, although in this case the concern is for the family.

But the death occurred on public property, potentially endangered public employees, and highlights what could be a growing problem.

The People have a right to know.  

Seek help!

Amherst Bulletin catches up

Much Needed Development Planned

Cowls woodland since 1888 

Up to 170 cottage style student housing units sheltering a total of 680 tenants could soon be developed in the Cushman Village Center near Amherst's number one employer and target demographic, the University of Massachusetts. 

Landmark Properties bills "The Retreat" as a "cluster conservation subdivision" that will "provide students with an award winning, high quality, highly amenitized lifestyle in their own community of single family and attached homes."

Map of proposed development (click to enlarge)

 
The 154 acre parcel is currently owned and manged by the W.D. Cowls company, the state's largest private landowner. The property is in Chapter 61 Forest Conservation.  As a result the wooded acreage is current valued at $67/acre or a little over $10,000. 

The Amherst Select Board will have to sign off on releasing the land from Chapter 61, and they have 120 days to implement a"right of first refusal".

Considering the $6.5 million purchase price, it's highly unlikely the town will buy it.  Amherst could, however, transfer the right of first refusal to another non-profit agency, such as the Kestrel Land Trust.  But again, at that price, hard to match.

If developed by a private entity the project would also pay Amherst hundreds of thousands in property taxes annually.  

Amherst currently has an exceedingly tight 3.5% vacancy rate and conversions of single family homes to student rooming houses have caused problems all over town.

A classic Catch 22:  any proposal to add student housing is met with NIMBY resistance for fear of it becoming a riotous Frat Row.  Because no dense developments have been constructed to match increasing enrollment at UMass, the penny ante developers have converted traditional single family homes to student housing with no professional management, a recipe for disaster.

Safe to say locals are already sharpening their pitchforks and soaking torches in gasoline.

Letter to abutters from developer

What Are They Afraid Of?

The infallible Amherst Select Board

The Amherst Select Board this evening by a 3-2 "consensus" declined to place an advisory question before town voters to get their opinion on the merits of flying the commemorative flags in the downtown annually on 9/11, rather than the once-every-five-years plan currently in place.

Chair Stephanie O'Keeffe was, as usual, the deciding vote -- although she did not have the courage to actually let the board take a formal vote.

And now they have denied the people of Amherst the right to vote on this (Only In Amherst) volatile issue.

ETOH!

So in addition to all the dangerously drunk (ETOH) college aged youth AFD and ambulances from four surrounding towns transporting to the Cooley Dickinson Hospital from the Tiesto concert at the Mullins Center Thursday night, the weekend did not go much better when it comes to all things alcohol.

   AFD Weekend late Feb by  

Two * calls had to be handled by mutual aid ambulances

Amherst Fire Department transported 9 patients (out of a total of 11 EMS calls) from UMass to the local hospital because of alcohol abuse. Of course UMass will cite all their survey statistics to show binge drinking is going down or "72% of UMass students support the campus alcohol policies."

Put that on the gravestone of the next kid to die from alcohol related abuse.

A Stirring Symbol

What so proudly we hailed ...

Two paramount things the American flag represents -- which I hope we ALL agree on -- is the right of the People to vote on matters both great and small, and the right to petition our government for a redress of grievances.

Tonight both those qualities come in to play, as I go before the Amherst Select Board to request they place the question of flying 29 commemorative flags in the downtown every 9/11 on the upcoming April 9 town election ballot.  That way citizens can finally decide this ongoing issue, which annually brings notoriety to the town.

On the night of September 10, 2001 while a pernicious plot against our country was just starting to unfold, the Amherst Select Board voted to allow 29 commemorative flags to fly on only six occasions, some sad, some celebratory.  

Six weeks after 9/11 I asked that Select Board to add 9/11 to the permanent days the commemorative flags could fly.  They refused, but allowed them up on the first anniversary and again in 2003.

But a change in leadership ushered in a Dark Ages and the flags did not fly again until 2009 under a "compromise" that said they could fly once every three years.

That ridiculous compromise was based on a shameful May16, 2007 two-thirds Town Meeting vote  (96-41) against flying the flags on 9/11 -- ever!  In 2010 SB Chair Stephanie O'keeffe hatched yet another compromise to allow them to fly every 5th year on "milestone anniversaries". 

Tonight the Select Board will take up discussion of a proposal/promise I made to them on September 10, 2012.  I'm not a betting man, but I firmly believe they will do the right thing.

Amherst Firefighters support the flying of the flags

The infamous Fox News Report

Welcome Back!

Ladder 1, "back in service". North Station.

Tighter Housing Market

Amherst College (named after the town, not the General)

So the already squeaky tight rental housing market in Amherst, everybody's  favorite college town, will get a little tighter this upcoming school year as the construction projects at Amherst College, our #1 landowner and property taxpayer, displaces 60 students from on-campus housing.

Sure, losing 15 apartment units out of total rental stock of 5,000 doesn't sound like much, and since the apartments normally rent for $2,540 + utilities, not overly affordable for families.

But in a town with a vacancy rate of only 3.5%, described by the Housing and Sheltering Committee as "well below state and national levels and representative of extremely tight market conditions," every unit matters.

At least the neighborhood will not have to worry about rowdyism. 

Setting A (bad) Example

Katherine Appy, Amherst School Committee Chair

So it will be interesting to see if the venerable Daily Hampshire Gazette follows up on the recent expose published by my friends at the Republican, although they did not connect an important dot concerning Ms. Appy's role as a member of the Amherst School Committee.

You know, the elected folks who should be setting a good, positive example for the kids in a town where education is King (or Queen, as the case may be).

And of course the other consideration is how quickly would the Gazette have jumped on this if it had involved the school committee member Katherine Appy replaced?

Or what would have been the response on the Internet from Cowardly Anon Nitwits?  Ms. Sanderson would have been tarred-and-feathered, and then crucified with dull, extra long, rusty nails.

Just a tad out of date