No Contest

Amherst Town Hall in a storm

You would think in a town where activism is a badge of honor more people would show interest in the highest elected political office.  Well ... one-fifth of the highest office, as it takes five Select Board members to fill the executive branch better represented by one Mayor.

Maybe Doug Slaughter's surname scared off the competition.   But he's the only candidate running for the lone available seat currently occupied by Aaron Hayden, who took out nomination papers but then changed his mind and pulled a Lyndon B. Johnson.

The only other potential candidate who took out papers, which require the signatures of 50 registered voters, was Richard Strahan who gave a UMass dorm room address.

Vira Douangmany at Town Clerk's office, after handing in her nomination papers

The School Committee will see a contest as last year's candidate Vira Douangmany will square off against incumbent Lawrence O'Brien and ambitious newcomer Phoebe Hazzard, who took out her nomination papers at 3:30 PM and returned them at 4:45 PM, only 15 minutes before deadline.  There are two open seats. 

 TracyLee Boutilier happy about returning her papers

The Housing Authority will also see a contest as two candidates have filed for the one open seat, which is a five year term.  TracyLee Boutilier, who lost last year to well-known Peter Jessop, and newcomer Emilie Hamilton.

Jones Library Trustees race will be as quiet as a library with only two candidates running for two seats, both incubments who currently occupy those seats: Austin Sarat and Tamson Ely.

Town Meeting, the cumbersome 240 member legislative branch, will have contests in just half of the precincts for the eight 3-year terms available in each of the ten precincts.  

Walk The Plank

I didn't even notice it yesterday morning when I took a quick "drive by" shot of the DPW getting it done in town center at the height of the storm and posted it to my Facebook page.

But if you look closely at where the UN flag normally is, you can see pranksters had replaced it with a pirate flag.  Flying upside down no less.  The pretty blue UN flag, which was new three months ago to replace a tattered one, is currently M.I.A.

Somebody finally noticed the switch this morning and down came the skull and crossbones.

Let's hope that sagacious town employee also takes a closer look at the main flags in town center:  The P.O.W. flag is looking a tad ratty. 

POW flag looking as haggard as, well, one of our POW's

Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?

Amherst Town center 10:11 AM (depending on who you believe)

So hopefully the town clock will be running soon (probably not today) as it could simply be that somebody forgot to wind it, which is a chore required twice a week.

An electronic motor that would pretty much guarantee round-the-clock accuracy would cost $21,000.

Because the Community Preservation Act committee is more than flush with money now that the town voters decided to allow a doubling of the CPA tax you would think somebody would put in for it under "historic preservation."

Director of Facilities Ron Bohonowicz tells me that the historic old bells actually work but have been silent these past 15 or so years due to neighbors complaints (12 noon or 12 midnight could be a tad noisy).

There's also a special fire bell up in ye old historic tower operated by a big barrel of rocks that would send out a different faster type of ringing to alert fire fighters.

Even Miss Emily took note of the "ticking of the bells" calling firefighters to the Great Fire that devastated the downtown the night of July 4th, 1879. Although Town Hall was not yet constructed, so the bells probably came from the original fire station in town center.

A decade later, on March 11, 1888 smack in the middle of a major blizzard another conflagration took out the Palmer Block in town center, where Amherst Town Meeting convened.  The town acquired the land and constructed Town Hall the following year.

Since town officials refuse to allow the 29 commemorative flags to fly in town center this coming 9/11, maybe they will allow the bells of Town Hall to ring once more ... in memory of the unforgettable. 

Call In The Cavalry

APD Chief Scott Livingston (right) presents his budget to the Amherst Finance Committee

In his budget presentation to the Finance Committee  last week Amherst Police Department Chief Scott Livingstone brought the fiscal watchdogs up to date on his response to the $160,000 Davis Report -- especially timely since the anniversary of the unforgettable Blarney Blowout fast approaches.

While the Town Manager has added two new police officers to his FY16 budget (starts July 1st) the net result is really only one increase for APD, since a 3-year Department of Justice grant that formerly financed one officer will no longer pay for that officer.

Thus the Chief is still looking at ways to add patrol officers to his overburdened department.

His second in command, Captain Jennifer Gundersen outlined a grant proposal for more officers that has been submitted, but the problem is Amherst is a safe and somewhat wealthy community, which lowers the odds for grant approval.

Captain Gundersen also told the Finance Committee the cost to implement joint training with UMass PD -- another Davis recommendation -- is $1,200 per hour, with 24-36 hours required. Not the kind of money that's easy to find in a tight budget.  

The good news from the Chief, however, is Amherst recently signed the "Western Mass Mutual Aid Pact." This will  allow the surrounding towns police departments to respond when a call is put out for help.

 Blarney Blowout 3/8/14

Interestingly regional law enforcement departments started working on this pact in response to the freakish Springfield tornado in the summer of 2011.  Fire Departments have been successfully using mutual aid for many years now.

The Chief stated the activation notice has already been issued for March 7th.  So unlike last year, a bevy of local police officers will be available to back up Amherst, UMass, and State police. 

And presumably UMass will continue to use the successful tactics recently employed for the Super Bowl, most notably banning guests on campus the weekend of the event.  Last year 7,000 visitors registered the night before Blarney Blowout.

The winning formula is really quite simple:  less students, more cops.

Play Ball! (Or Frisbee)

North Amherst playing field (left)

Back when I was growing up in our sleepy little college town, w-a-y back, before the Southwest high rise towers or W.E.B. Du Bois Library first poked the sky, a playing field in Amherst pretty much meant baseball and football.

Soccer or Ultimate Frisbee were as foreign as a place called Vietnam.

These days God's green earth must be multipurposed, to keep all the outdoor sports enthusiasts happy.

And while Amherst has more Conservation open space than you can shake a hiking stick at, the number of playing fields for organized sports have failed to keep up with demand.

The old "cow field" in North Amherst, formerly the playground attached to the now retired North Amherst School, will get a $50,000 makeover with Community Preservation Act money assuming the CPA Committee forwards the request to Town Meeting for the final approval.

A fence along the border with Sunderland Road will certainly make it safer, and parking for 15 cars at the north end of the field will keep users from having to cross Sunderland Road.

The renovations would take place during the fall of 2015 and spring of 2016, and be ready for use later that summer.

In this age where youngsters are all too occupied by smart phones, computers and tablets, it's nice to see the return of an old fashioned playing field for team sports.

Or just a soft quiet place to lay down late on a hot summer night, to gaze up at the wonder of the universe.

The Taste & Price Of Safety

 Taste of Amherst (always late  June) 2014

The Taste of Amherst, that downtown summer institution that brings bliss to Valley foodies and our local restaurant industry, will get a tad safer if Amherst Town Meeting approves DPW Chief Guilford Mooring's $20,000 capital request for Park Replacement Equipment.  As will that other major event, Extravaganja.

Technically the historic Amherst town common is a park.

And the current electrical system becomes a spider web of potentially dangerous cords anytime there's a major function. Because some of those major events attract thousands of visitors, a shocking incident is always a possibility.

The $12,000 worth of Spider Boxes will not only organize all the temporary wiring to help reduce tripping over them, but also brings important ground fault circuit interrupter protection, which comes in handy on rainy days.

The Merry Maple "holiday" tree on the town common was knocked out a couple times last December due to a combination of faulty wiring and rainy weather.

Merry Maple will be insulated against  power outages

The FY16 budget does not commence until July 1st -- a tad too late for this year's Taste of Amherst.

Guilford Mooring pitching to the Joint Capital Planning Committee 2/5/15

But Mr. Mooring is hoping to get the Business Improvement District and Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce to front the money to buy the spider boxes as soon as possible, and then reimburse them out of his FY16 budget, assuming Town Meeting approves the $20,000 capital item.

Who Drives The Ambulance?

All AFD professional firefighters do both EMS and fire duty

Many years ago, worried that bureaucrats would fail to reinvest in expensive capital items required to make the operation work, the town set up the "Ambulance Fund" to stash boatloads of money taken in by the vital service.

So it's not really an "Enterprise Fund" -- a separate fund set up as pretty much a stand-alone business, which is supposed to show all its expenses and set user fees accordingly so it at least breaks even.

Currently the town has four Enterprise Funds: Water, Sewer, Solid Waste, and Transportation (parking meters and Boltwood Garage).

The Cherry Hill Golf Course was an Enterprise Fund for 20 years but could never break even, so town officials gave up.  Town Meeting dissolved it as an Enterprise Fund a few years ago, thus wiping away a residual debt of close to $1 million owed the General Fund.

The town has five ambulances, each costing about $250,000, but usually does not have the staff on duty to operate them all, except for weekends when UMass is in session.

Called "impact shifts" (thirsty-Thursday night until early Sunday morning) UMass pays $40,000 per semester to bring in 4 extra firefighters so that all five ambulances can be operational.  Even then there are times AFD has to rely on mutual aid for an out-of-town ambulance to provide transport to a hospital.

The Ambulance Fund takes in over $2 million annually, which is about half AFD's total operating budget.  But, like an Enterprise Fund, any expenditures from the Ambulance Fund must be approved by Town Meeting.

While I'm normally not a fan of using money set aside for capital items to fund labor intensive operating budgets, that bean-counter rationality is trumped by my fear of innocent civilians burning to death.   

The Ambulance Fund routinely shows an annual surplus of $200,000 -- more than enough to hire two additional Firefighters.

#####

Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2015 12:38 PM



Subject: Ambulance Revenues

Hi Larry,

In response to your request for the Ambulance fund balance to date, I wanted to explain in detail on how these funds are utilized. The ambulance fund is a Receipt Reserved for Appropriation account, this means we can only spend the funds with a Town Meeting vote, it is not a revolving fund.

Each year Town Meeting votes money to support the Public Safety (EMT) operating budget and EMS capital such as ambulances, stretchers etc.  In the past 5 years we have generated approximately $2.3 to $2.6 million a year and have appropriated close to that amount to support those budgets.  

Each year we must collect enough in the Ambulance Fund to cover the appropriation for the following year’s budget.

As you can see below our current unappropriated balance is $1,889,003 and the current FY16 budget is projected to use $2.5 million for operations, meaning that we still need to collect $626,288 to cover the FY16 budget, plus there will be some capital (to be determined).   

By June 30th we will need to have collected enough revenue to support the subsequent year’s budget and capital.   The Ambulance Fund ended FY14 with a balance of $220,627.

Hopefully this is clear, but if you have any questions let me know.

·         The chart below is straight forward, the ending Fund Balance (FB) for 2014 (3,060,060)
·         The amount voted to support the 2015 budget with the breakdown to the side (2,839,433) this includes capital for FY15
·         The beginning unappropriated FB for 2015(220,627), and the revenues collected to date (1,668,376) Total (1,889,003) is the BALANCE
·         The amount projected to be used for the 2016 budget is (2,515,292),this is the regular operation budget portion there is no capital amount projected yet as the JCPC is in process now to determine this
 

Sonia Aldrich, Comptroller

From: Larry Kelley [mailto:amherstac@aol.com] 


Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2015 1:55 PM


To: Aldrich, Sonia
Subject: Re: Ambulance Revenues

Hey Sonia,



So the Ambulance Fund averages about $200,000 per month (assuming total annual revenues of say $2.4 million) then if that holds up for Feb, March, April, May and June it will take in $1 million to be used to cover the $626,288 required for FY16 thus leaving a residual balance of around $373,000 and change?



To: Larry Kelley Sent: Thu, Feb 5, 2015 2:04 pm Subject: RE: Ambulance Revenues

Yes, however there will be capital outlay so more likely $100-200K and change and the cycle repeats. Sonia Aldrich, Comptroller

Free Money

One of the quirks of government accounting (okay, maybe I should say one of the many) is capital items are not considered part of the "operating budget."

If a homeowner buys a semi-commercial sit down lawnmower or needs to repave the driveway, that money simply comes out of their household budget.  And when those capital costs reach a certain point maybe the family does not take a vacation that year

But in municipal accounting capital items are appropriated out of a separate pot, although still taxpayer money of course.  Thus public sector managers can then talk about their operating budget breaking even when in fact the overall business costs taxpayers an arm and a leg via expensive machines purchased as capital items.

Take the Cherry Hill Golf Course for instance.  Please.

This coming Fiscal Year (FY16 starts July 1st) Cherry Hill will require yet another expensive lawnmower ($33,000) paid for over three years at $11,000 per year.

And FY16 will also be the last year of a three year payment for a greens mower that cost $37,500 paid for over three years at $12,500 per year.

In other words that total capital of $23,500 is sort of free money not tallied against their $245,937 Operating Budget.  As are Employee Benefits costs of $40,488.

Thus the average homeowner would put the cost of golf at $309,925 next year, but town officials will only talk about the much lower number, even going so far as to suggest the golf course is a break even endeavor.

And next year that expensive capital item (Parking Lot Resurfacing @ $90,000) they have kept putting off for years now will be a major budget buster. 

Click to enlarge/read

5 year plan from two years ago Parking Lot repave originally shows up for FY14

Parking lot repave pushed off again until next year (+ extra $5,000)

Off Campus Bouncer

UMass/Amherst:  peaceful from above

The best bar bouncer never actually gets physical with a rowdy patron disturbing the peace and tranquility of your friendly neighborhood liquor establishment.  After all, he/she is probably a good customer.  You simply get the problem maker off the scene with as little trouble as possible.

And so it is with the UMass Off Campus Resident Assistant, a combination of bar bouncer, dance chaperon, and Superman (or Superwoman as the case may be).

Patterned on the successful program at Boston College, the off campus RA will patrol the problem areas  adjacent to UMass -- Phillips & Fearing Streets, Sunset Avenue, North Pleasant & Meadow Streets, Hobart Lane -- at problem times looking to mitigate rowdy behavior before it becomes an issue for police.

Unlike "peer group" initiatives Walk This Way and Team Positive, the off campus RA will be an older, more authoritarian figure who can officially address bad behavior.  But the goal will be to use the power of persuasion to get students to stand down.

According to Nancy Buffone, UMass Director of External Relations, "We are moving the search along in a timely fashion so that we can hire someone as soon as possible."

Which is of course bureau speak for "No, they will not be operational this coming spring and certainly not for the March 7 Blarney Blowout."

UMass employment ad for "Neighborhood Liaison"

Town prepares for Blarney Blowout

I made Fade.  I'm somebody now! (Just don't tell the family)

Weapons, Drugs & Resistance

Terrence Ware stands before Judge Charles Groce

What started out as a domestic disturbance called in by a 3rd party ended up badly for Terrence Ware Jr, although domestic abuse was not among the charges he was arraigned on yesterday in Eastern Hampshire District Court.

But because he resisted arrest (while in possession of pot and a pipe) he ended up arrested anyway. And considering he was in possession of a doubled edged knife, illegal in Massachusetts since 1972, he could also have been charged with illegal possession of a dangerous weapon.

His case was continued until March 3rd.

   Terremce Ware

#####

For those of you who are not convinced heroin is a problem, even in the innocent little college town of Amherst, take note:

This document could just as easily be a medical examiner's Death Certificate rather than a police Statement of Facts.

When you find someone passed out with two needles near his outstretched arm ... well, does Philip Seymour Hoffman ring a bell?

click to enlarge/read

Patrick Blanke, age 29, failed to show up for his original arrignment back in late June thereby triggering a warrant for his arrest, which caught up to him on Monday.

In District Court yesterday he pled guilty to the original charges and he was sentenced by Judge Groce to six months in jail.

A Dash Of Derring-Do

Dash and officer TJ Clark giving commands in Dutch

Criminals better take note:  now you can't escape by running or hiding because Dash, the newest member of Amherst Police Department can -- with his four legs -- outrun you, or with his ultra sensitive nose will sniff you out from whatever hole you choose to hide.

The 17-month-old pure bred German Shepard came to the department via a grant from the Stanton Foundation.  Officer Clark was chosen out of six APD applicants and he traveled to Pennsylvania where he chose Dash out of six available dogs.

And because he was imported from the Netherlands Dash only speaks, err, I mean, understands Dutch, which officer Clark had to learn in part.  That way in the field, Dash will not respond to someone speaking English, Spanish or Chinese. 

 Chief Livingstone (right) has been wanting a K9 program for many years  and is already talking about a second dog

They have been training together in various locations outside of Amherst since September and Chief Livingstone expects him to hit the streets in the next couple of weeks.

In time for -- dare I say it -- the March 7 Blarney Blowout.

Officer Clark rewards Dash with his toy, not food

Improving On Success

APD Chief  Scott Livingstone addresses Rental Bylaw Implementation Group

The Rental Permit Bylaw has become perhaps the most successful local government health safety initiative of the past generation, protecting tenants from (the few) shoddy landlords while motivating them to keep tenants behavior in check or risk losing their permit.

Now, only one year after start up, the certification program boasts 100% compliance of all 1,261 rental properties in Amherst, a college town with a high percentage of rentals and the lowest median age in the state.

Amherst Police Chief Scott Livingstone paid a visit this afternoon to the Rental Bylaw Implementation Group to discuss ways to improve on the already resounding success of the program, specifically by allowing easier access to police records of that neighborhood bane, noise/nuisance issues.

The Chief told the committee that noise/nuisance complaints are not the highest priority for police response, so on a busy weekend when the weather is nice the call response can be delayed by an hour or more.  By the time police arrive the party or noise is sometimes over.

Currently the system  tracks noise/nuisance complaints if a formal ticket or warning is issued to a property.  But committee member Maurianne Adams wishes to see the system capture complaints made against a residence whereby no formal action was taken by officers, perhaps due to a delayed response.

Chief Livingstone confirmed the rowdy behavior that has disrupted neighborhoods for too many years, has improved significantly:  In 2012 APD had 1,064 calls for service relating to bad behavior and only two years later, in 2014, those calls decreased over 40% to 617.

The Chief attributed this dramatic reduction to outreach work done by his officers -- following up noise complaints the next morning for instance -- extensive publicity shining a light on bad behavior, neighbors taking it on themselves to try to resolve issues, and "peer group" initiatives undertaken by UMass and the Student Government Association (Walk This Way and Team Positive for instance).

One problem with increasing transparency of police calls via the town website is APD's computer system does not get along well with the town system used by Building Commissioner Rob Morra.

But Chief Livingstone liked the idea of sharing this information and planned to take it up with his senior staff and Information Technology person later this month. 

Uncle Amherst Wants You!

Although our $70+ million operation budget is in the multi-national corporation range, the  town of Amherst relies heavily on volunteer labor to staff a myriad of boards and committees.

Rather than complain about the way things are, get involved. Make a difference.

   Amherst Town Committees.

The Cost Of Quiet

One of the downsides of the tide turning towards civility in the war on rowdyism -- albeit a minor one -- is the town treasury is taking a hit with those $300 noise/nuisance tickets not being issued.

Last year at this time (halfway through the budget) Amherst collected $111,793 in town bylaw fines while this year it's down 37% to $69,806.

Of course neighbors who value their sleep or the look of their yards on weekend mornings are not going to mind a bit -- especially since it's a pubic safety issue.

The Public Safety aspect (police, fire, dispatch, animal welfare) of town government is the largest segment of the town's operating budget (46%), but the lion's share is split almost evenly between Amherst Police Department at $4,767,221 proposed for FY16, and $4,466,729 for Amherst Fire Department.

So the $200,000 or so in annual fines collected is a drop in the bucket compared to APD's overall budget.  The Town Manager in his proposed FY16 budget is, finally, adding two police officers to bolster their enemic ranks.

Amherst Fire Department, on the other hand, will not see any additional staffing even though their calls have been rising annually at a rate greater than inflation.

Interestingly 75% of AFD runs are for Emergency Medical Services, as all personnel are crossed trained to either run into burning buildings or stabilize and transport sick/injured patients.

Unlike fire calls, the department does collect fees for ambulance services which is the vast majority of what they do.  The last few years that has amounted to over $2 million dollars annually, enough to fund half their overall budget (although Town Meeting, NOT AFD, controls how that money is spent).

The town has 5 ambulances but usually cannot staff them all

Two years ago in his FY14 budget the Town Manager predicted $2,195,723 in Ambulance Fund revenues, but due to a typically all-too-busy year the fund took in $2,533,728, or $338,000 in excess revenues.

None of which was spent to hire additional staff.

Why No Riot?

UMass Southwest towers:  Ground Zero for potential riots

At one point about a half-hour after the Super Bowl ended joyously, a nitwit dressed only in a t-shirt, despite subfreezing temperatures, fell head first about 4 feet out of tree, drawing both gasps and cheers from the crowd that numbered around 1,000.

 Crowd peaked at around 1,000

That's when I thought, "Here we go."

My memory quickly rewound to the 2013 Blarney Blowout when AFD needed to get to an intoxicated young woman passed out in the center of a large crowd of maybe 2,000 gathered on the quad of Townhouse apartments and they were met with snowballs, bottles and cans.

APD had to move in to assist and soon thereafter six students (all of them from UMass) were arrested.

 5 minutes after the game ended Police and Media outnumbered students

But this time around more than a half-dozen UMPD officers moved in quickly and got the injured party out of the center of the crowd and safely ensconced him in the lobby of Washington tower to await AFD arrival. 

Other than that incident, at no point did I fear the jubilant crowd was going to suddenly turn ornery and require police response by officers dressed in riot gear.

Reason #1 for the safe celebration this time around was the ban on friends in dorms policy instituted by UMass officials for this particular event.  Had the jubilant crowd been twice the size, with half of them non UMass students, the few idiots who want to act out could have had far more impact.

The trees on the Southwest concourse probably would not have survived the night.

And yes, not having police show up dressed in riot gear or sitting upon those majestic horses probably also helped keep the instigation level low.  TV journos also picked safer spots further away from the action to stage, thus being a little less conspicuous to the revelers.

Posted to "Fade" a couple hours before game time

A heavy police presence with state PD vehicles parked at many entry/exit roads leading into Southwest and the MSP helicopter buzzing Southwest earlier in the day certainly sent a message that authorities were not playing around.

The weather was also helpful.  Below freezing, but not so far below to cause instant discomfort.  Yet after a half-hour I was uncomfortably cold, and right about that time the crowd started to dissipate.  

Does this bode well for Blarney Blowout?  Hell yes!  As long as UMass sticks to the same game plan we should see the same result.  As Mr. Davis pointed out in his $160,000 study the presence of 7,000 extra "guests" on campus made a HUGE difference that day.

And maybe last night will also set a positive precedent with college aged youth that you don't have to be destructive to have a good time.

 Students in Boston also behaved

Did any of those 1,000 students awaken this morning feeling shortchanged because no dispersal order was barked over a loudspeaker, and tear gas did not waft into crowd center?

 Happy, happy, happy students

A good time was had by all (well, except for the idiot who fell from the tree).

Good job UMass PD, Mass State PD, APD, AFD, UMass admins and most off all, UMass students.   

Sláinte!

#####

Alcohol problem still needs a lot of work

No Riot

Trees on the UMass Southwest concourse took a bit of a beating

All the advance work done by UMass officials paid off this evening as a large happy crowd did indeed gather in the open courtyards at the base of the Southwest towers to celebrate the Patriots Super Bowl victory, but no riot ensued.

 UMPD and State PD mobilized about 10 minutes before the game ended

At peak the crowd numbered about 1,000 with dozens of police and media on the outskirts taking it all in.  In fact the police seemed to almost disappear as the crowd started to grow into the hundreds.

 A flock of hard to miss TV stations showed up

At no point did the police forcefully move into the crowd, although about a half-hour into the celebration one exuberant fan did fall head first about 4 feet from a tree he should not have been climbing.

About 15 minutes after the game ended

Police moved in to get him out of the crowd and into the Washington Dorm lobby to await AFD arrival.

Within an hour the crowd dissipated and many police were standing down.

 Even an almost full moon did not bring on crowd madness

 Best of all:  A flag guy!

Ode To The Irish

Super Bowl Sunrise looking east naturally (Groff Park)

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields
and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

In addition to being much anticipated Super Bowl Sunday -- practically a sacred national holiday -- today is also "Irish Day" in the little college town of Amherst.

Kelley reunion, 1903 @ Kelley Square, Amherst.  Tom Kelley seated center (glasses).   Maggie Mahar (Miss Emily's "North Wind") top row center (in white)

A nice acknowledgement to my ancestors who migrated to Amherst out of desperation, made it their home, and worked tirelessly to make it a better place.

One of the less talked about negatives associated with the St. Paddy's Day stand-in, Blarney Blowout, was the all-Irish-are-drunkards stereotype perpetuated by the pernicious promotion.

That alone should have been reason enough for town officials to step in four years ago when the downtown bars abandoned the name "Kegs 'n Eggs" in favor of "Blarney Blowout."

 So let's hope today (or I should say late tonight) goes a lot better than that faux Irish "celebration" did last March. 

Kelley Square from 400 ft.  RR tracks on left, Dickinson Street on right

Emily Dickinson homestead (top left) from 400 feet over Kelley Square