Streamlining A Sloth

Amherst Town Meeting 5/13/15

This past session of the 257th Annual Amherst Town Meeting ran eight sessions, but two of those sessions would have been unnecessary if the ancient body had been using time saving electronic voting devices.

With Tally Votes averaging close to 11 minutes to complete and even simple standing votes requiring 5 minutes, it's not hard to do the math.

In Brookline, which has a Town Meeting the same size as Amherst, using electronic voting reduced the time for those types of votes to less than a minute and a half per vote. 

Yesterday the Town Meeting Electronic Voting Study Committee heard a remote presentation from Options Tech International a company who supplies electronic devices to New England town meetings for the past five years.

 Base unit in center

The small hand held battery operated units register a yes/no/abstain vote instantly and gives the user confirmation that their vote has been received and confirms how they voted.  One small base station can handle up to 500 individual voting units and it runs on 2.4 gigahertz radio frequency.

 Votes are projected on screen for entire body to see

The idea is to keep Town Meeting operating as close as possible to current customs simply inserting the use of the electronic devices for the time consuming verification of votes and possibly attendance and quorum verification.

 Study Committee was appointed by Town Meeting Moderator Jim Pistrang

The committee hopes to have a warrant article ready for the Fall Town Meeting requesting the funds necessary to purchase the package, expected to be in the $20,000 range. 

Sad thing is obstructionism will only become more efficient.

The Jawbone Of An Ass

Click to enlarge/read

The ironic thing is Mr. Geryk proves my point about why school survey respondents who may dare to criticize his Superintendent wife would wish to remain anonymous.

This bullying, borderline threatening comment he left on a woman's Facebook page late last night -- a person he has never met -- really has to make you wonder.

And it's certainly not the first time he's gone this obnoxious route.  Maybe we should start annual evaluations of the Superintendent's spouse.

This year:  #FAIL. 

Historic Preservation Via Duplication

Amherst History Mural overlooks sacred West Cemetery

"If you can't save it, repaint it" should be the motto for the One East Pleasant Street 5-story mixed use building coming soon to the northern end of downtown Amherst, within the shadow of Kendrick Place (set to open in August).

The 16' by 140' Amherst Community History Mural painted on the back of the Carriage Shops overlooking West Cemetary by Cambridge artist David Fichter ten years ago will be repainted by the original artist on the back of the new building.

   New Amherst History Mural Agreement

Last night the Amherst Historical Commission voted unanimously to accept an amended easement agreement, thus guaranteeing a new and brighter mural will continue to overlook Miss Emily's final resting place.  Forever.

One East Pleasant Street as seen from historic West Cemetery

West Cemetery from Triangle Street side

Polishing The Emerald

Kendrick Park:  3 acres of greenery anchoring the north end of downtown

 

With all the construction going on in the north end of the downtown it's no great surprise town officials have retrieved from the dusty shelf a study completed five years ago outlining options for Kendrick Park, an island of green in an otherwise drab sea of concrete.

Tree Warden Alan Snow took the Public Shade Tree Committee on a guided tour yesterday morning pointing out trees that would be impacted.  For now it appears the southern end of the park closest to the heart of downtown will be "phase one" in the overall renovation which could take years.

The town received a $1.5 million state grant to bury utility wires in and around the Kendrick Place development and originally the electric company had planned to cross Kendrick Park, but that is no longer in the cards.

But that project will provide plenty of electrical capacity for the lighting and other upgrades expected to occur in the park.

Alan Snow pointing out five trees in the target zone

The walking tour did not get off to an optimistic start as the first thing Mr. Snow pointed out was five trees at the southern most tip that would be removed to accommodate a circular ornamental concrete paved area.

The committee instantly suggested the structure be made smaller or situated in such a way as not to require tree removal.

 Large Sugar Maple possibly endangered by expanded parking

Next up was a very large Sugar Maple on the western side of the park that could be endangered by expanded parking on that side of the park.  The plan is to change the configuration to diagonal nose in parking which would increase the capacity from current 7 spaces up to 11.

Shade Tree Chair Henry Lappen suggested perhaps sacrificing three spaces in order to save the tree.

The first hedgerow that cuts across the park east to west will also be removed to open up the greenspace and to accommodate a crushed stone walkway and pergola.  In fact pretty much all the hedgerows of trees running east/west will be cleared, but of course new trees will be planted around the perimeter of the park to replace them.

 Click to enlarge/read

Kendrick Park was once the site of 11 homes.  George Kendrick, an influential banker, did not like the looks of one particularly run down tenement house owned by an absentee slumlord so he and his wife set up a trust in 1930 to buy all the homes and have them removed.

When the last home left the site the park was officially turned over to the town. 

Old driveway in middle of park will be removed and reseeded

The northern tip of the park may also be impacted piecemeal by the installation of a roundabout at the East Pleasant/Triangle Street intersection next year where the controversial new Kendrick Place sits. 

New roundabout construction next year could impact small clump of trees

Trees on northern tip may require removal for roundabout

Some of the trees are unhealthy and will have to be removed regardless of the various construction projects:

 

Dead Norway Spruce

Sick Cherry Maples

Nonny Burack standing on long dead remains of Elm tree

Although a couple of mostly healthy trees will be taken down very soon as part of the electrical project that is now going on.  

Crab apple and Linden will be removed soon for electrical work

But overall, just a few years from now, Kendrick Park will be a more beautiful natural resource that will rival the Town Common for public usage. 

Soothe The Savage Beast

Maria Geryk keeping a moose in line

The long awaited -- at least by some -- annual review of School Superintendent Maria Geryk, the town's highest paid employee, is now underway.

And one tool being used is an internet survey that allows the general public to weigh in on how well she and our venerable public schools are doing from the comfortable confines of their keyboard.

Except, from my all too encompassing experience with internet commenters, me thinks the survey will get dramatically skewed results because it cannot be submitted anonymously.

Folks are far more likely to give negative feedback from under the comfortable cloak of anonymity.

Unless of course it's positive feedback you're fishing for.

Over the past seven years I've published 47,635 comments of which I would guess 45,000 of them were Anonymous.  And yes I can tell from I.P. addresses that it's not just a few people making many, many comments (other than the one who leaves his name).

Belchertown, on the other hand, is also doing a public school survey but notice they do NOT require a name.  Hmm ...

Rollover

So when I first heard "one car rollover" on cramped South Prospect Street crackle over the scanner somewhat late last night  I instantly suspected alcohol may have played a contributing role.

Townies know all too well how cramped South Prospect is and of course that's why it's a one way street with 30 MPH speed limit.

 South Prospect is a one way street with plenty of parked cars

The incident occurred around 9:40 p.m. and required an AFD engine, ambulance and numerous police vehicles as the street was shut down for around 45 minutes. 

The driver safely got out of the car under his own power and was transported to Cooley Dickinson Hospital by AFD.

The offending vehicle had ricocheted off a legally parked vehicle on the side of the street just before the roll over.  Both vehicles had to be towed from the scene.

Amherst Police Chief Scott Livingstone confirms that the incident is "still under investigation."  I could, however, "anticipate motor vehicle charges, but not criminal OUI (alcohol) related."

He knows how I think.

Bright Nights In Downtown Amherst

Amherst Community Fair (shot from town center looking south)

For all too brief a time Amherst downtown came alive with the sights, sounds and smells of family fun that dates back, well, forever.  Especially after dark, when the rotating colored lights produced something magical. 

 Amherst Community Fair shot from Amherst College looking north

The Amherst Community Fair beat the odds this time around by not bringing on the monsoons.  A standard joke around town is if you need it to rain (which we certainly do) then bring on the Community Fair.

 Like psychedelic flowers

Although Wednesday opening day did see a fair amount of rain and Thursday a brief encounter with a menacing giant black cloud that issued a bolt or two of lightening.

 Late Thursday afternoon:  ominous cloud came calling

But Friday and Saturday were picture perfect and drew better crowds.

Friday at sundown

 Friendly carny worker helps Jada after ride finishes

My fondest -- by far most vivid -- memory of the Community Fair dates back over 50 years to 1964, when I was the same age as my daughter Jada is now.

My mother suddenly on a Saturday night packed us all in a beat up station wagon and drove the mile up Main Street not telling us where we were going until we came within view of the those magical lights brightening the downtown.

Perhaps made even brighter due to a dark pall that had descended on our town & nation only 6 months earlier when the stunning report instantly echoed from sea to shining sea:   "Shots fired on the Presidential motorcade."

And for my Irish Catholic mother a double shock because she had just two months earlier lost the only other man she ever loved, my father.

As she handed each of her four children a (very) limited amount a ride tickets, in the light cast from the Ferris wheel, I could see on her face something I had not seen in eight months:  a smile.

Overbearing Bear

For the second day in a row Environmental Police were called to Amherst to deal with a large wild animal roaming about our town -- this time a 300-400 pound female bear.

17-year-old girl scratched by small bear in South Amherst.  APD enroute to scene.  Mother taking her daughter to hospital.

— Larry Kelley (@amherstac) May 31, 2015

A little after 9:30 last night Dispatch received a call from a Belchertown mother saying she was transporting her 17-year-old daughter to the hospital after she had been scratched by a small bear as she was house sitting and walking a dog on Tracy Circle in South Amherst. 

The young woman climbed aboard a parked car to escape the critter.

When Amherst police arrived shorty after, the bear could be seen in a backyard.  And there was nothing "small" about it.

The officer reported it was not a juvenile, weighing in at between 300-400 pounds and was wearing an electronic tracking collar so it was known to Environmental Police.

About 30 minutes later, just after an Amherst Police officer told Dispatch the bear was getting "restless", Environmental Police arrived and safely dealt with it.

"The bear will live to climb another tree", said the Amherst police officer.

Posted June 1st

Pay The Piper

UMass Mullins Center straddles Amherst & Hadley

So what are we, chopped liver?

Hadley just recently renewed a deal with UMass to cover municipal police costs associated with the Mullins Center, which is only partially on Hadley property and the other part in Amherst.

Hadley gets a 10% raise, from $50,000 to $55,000 annually.

But the annoying this is whether the Mullins Center is in Hadley or Amherst, either way, any medical call is handled by Amherst Fire Department, because Hadley does not have an ambulance service.

And on nights the Mullins Center hosts Electronic Dance Music events AFD is often stretched to the breaking point.

The town signed a "Five Year Strategic Partnership" with UMass to cover AFD ambulance runs to campus (but not the more expensive fire related runs) back in 2007.  It expired June 30, 2012 -- almost three years ago!

Sure the pact was continued on an interim basis the past three years and resulted in the regular $370,000 in ambulance reimbursements plus the extra $80,000 UMass kicked in a few years back to cover extra high ambulance demand on weekends when schools are in session.

So even a lousy 10% increase in that formal signed multi-year agreement would generate an extra $45,000 annually, or enough to pay a little over half the salary of the new Economic Development Director.

But after School Superintendent Maria Geryk told the Amherst Finance Committee and Town Meeting that children living in tax exempt UMass housing  cost the Amherst Public Schools well over $1 million annually, the town may be looking for a better offer than a paltry 10% increase.

Representative Stephen Kulik recently filed a bill (with Mass Municipal Association support) that would allow cities and towns to collect from tax exempt entities 25% of what they should be paying if they were assessed like everybody else.

Unfortunately, since UMass is "government" owed, they may still be exempt should the bill miraculously become law.

But at least Amherst could then extract money from Hampshire College the #3 landowner in town who pays nothing for Payment In Lieu Of Taxes, unlike Amherst College who pays $90,000 annually for AFD services.  

Ah, the burdens that come with being a "college town."

Moose (No Longer) On The Loose

Here's lookin' at you kid

A young female moose that had a penchant for the Amherst Public Schools was safely knocked out via tranquillizer dart late this morning along the access road that runs between the Amherst Regional High School and Middle School.

 I'm so pretty, I'm so pretty ...

The Environmental Police used a single well place shot from a tranquilizer gun to knock her out peacefully.  As in, she was not killed. 

Amherst Welfare officer Carol Hepburn was on the scene the entire time, and while she has a tranquilizer gun she is only authorized to use it on domestic pets (mostly dogs) rather than wild critters such as a moose.

 Wildlife District Manager loading up

Bus blockade

School officials immediately closed off the access road using a bus on the Middle School side and wooden barricades on the High School side.

Don't fence me in!

Fortunately the moose was in a fenced in wooded area most of the time.  She was first spotted yesterday in the vicinity of Wildwood Elementary School.

School leaders on scene: Mark Jackson, Marisa Mendonsa, Mike Malone, Maria Geryk

Moose takes the fall 

Bagged and tagged

The (High) Cost Of Preservation

Cost to repair old barn at 35 Tyler Place:  $48,614

Earlier this month the Amherst Historical Commission hit Amherst College with a one-year demolition delay -- the maximum extent of their powers -- to (temporarily) protect the Little Red Schoolhouse.

On June 15 Amherst College will go before the Dickinson Local Historic District Commission to request demolishing an ancient, dilapidated barn at 35 Tyler Place, tucked away in a location invisible to the general public.

The Historical Commission, at their May 19th meeting, voted not to even bother holding a hearing on the matter.  In other words, tear down this barn!  (with apologies to President Reagan).

   Old Amherst College Barn

Interestingly the Dickinson Local Historic Commission is required to hold a hearing and if they vote not to allow the demolition, then that is the end of the story.  Do not tear down this barn! 

In other words they have unlimited power when it comes to preserving a building within the Dickinson Historic District. 

No wonder NIMBYs are chomping at the bit to form Local Historic Districts. 

Community Gardens Go Wanting

Mill Lane Community Gardens

It would appear -- at least from 400 feet up -- that the Amherst Community Garden program is having a bad year for participation.

Which I find surprising since the town is proud to have a book and plow for a town seal.

 Amherst Town seal

Although maybe someday my suggestion will take hold:  changing it to a BANANA.

Certainly it isn't the cost of participation at between only $15 and $35 per year per plot.  And the space at Mill Lane (owned by Amherst College) is not even restricted to Amherst residents only.

 Amethyst Brook Community Gardens

Maybe someday when pot is legalized ...

Elisa Campbell's lupines at Mill Lane Gardens

Solar Sabotage?

i

Solar array on E. Hadley Road, Hadley (just over Amherst border)

Perhaps emboldened by their Amherst NIMBY counterparts who successfully torpedoed a 4-Megawatt solar project at the most perfection location on God's green earth -- an old landfill -- Shutesbury residents are now taking up pitchforks and torches over a proposed 6-Megawatt installation out in the middle of nowhere.

 30 acres out of a total of 830

While the 30 acres the array will require may sound like a lot, it is located on a 830 acre site known as the "Wheelock lot" owned by the state's largest private landowner W.D. Cowls Inc.  The property will be leased for 20 years by a big time Chicago firm, Lake Street Development Partners LLC. 

Since Shutesbury, like Amherst, is a "green community" the permitting of a commercial solar array shows the quaint hilltown can walk the walk rather than just lip-servicing sustainable energy.

In addition the economic benefits from a facility that requires no town services is alone more than enough reason to support the project.

The current offer on the table for Payment In Lieu Of Taxes (PILOT) is $8,000 per megawatt or $48,000 total, which over the 20 year lease comes to pretty much $1 million dollars.

The entire parcel is currently in the forest conservation program (Ch 61) so total payments to the town in 2015 come to only $891.

   Shutesbury Solar Opposition

The opposition seems to be led by Michael DeChiara which comes as no surprise.  He orchestrated the ill fated M.N. Spear Library expansion Override yes campaign that bitterly divided the town.  And lost. 

And Mr. DeChiara has spent the past three years as the Shutesbury representative to the 4-town Regional Agreement Working Group, which overwhelmingly voted to support the expansion of the current 7-12 Regional School District all the way down to Kindergarten & grades 1 thru 6.  DeChiara voted No. 

The obligatory new website dedicated to opposing the solar project Alliance for Appropriate Development, seems to be drawing plenty of time and attention from Mr. DeChiara:

 Click to enlarge/read

(UPDATE: Friday morning: Since this was first published the website removed the Recent site activity" button at the bottom of the page.  Hmm ...)

Which is fine I suppose.  After all Mr. DeChiara does live there.  But he's also a recently elected member of the Shutesbury Select Board, so you have to wonder when Conflict of Interest law applies.

   Shutesbury Cowls Solar Project

License Plate Stall

Unless the UMass Alumni Association gets lucky enough to have a meme or YouTube video go viral, the total circulation of 3,000 specialty license plates by October 1st is looking about as likely as a winning football season.

Currently, after 20 months of sales efforts, only 1554 plates are on the road -- only 54 over the minimum number required by the Registry in order to have convicts crank out the plates. 

Ah, if only somebody can get a picture of Aaron Hernandez working on one.

But the Registry also requires 3,000 be on the road by year two, a deadline fast approaching.
 
The Alumni Association had to put up a $100,000 bond guaranteeing the 3,000 sales within two years, or the Registry can discontinue the plate and keep the bond money.   

These days the Alumni Association has trouble even giving them away.  A recent offer to pay the $40 plate fee plus $20 swap fee resulted in less than 50 takers.  The University makes $28/plate, but certainly not when they give them away.

So even if all 1,554 plates were legitimately paid for by exuberant alumni, that's only $43,512 into UMass coffers -- less than half the amount of the $100,000 bond they stand to lose.

With a target base of 120,000 graduates living in-state (almost all of them drivers) you would think selling 3,000 plate to 2.5% of them would be easier than selling all-you-can-drink Solo beer cups at a frat party.

Heck, I would have purchased one if "Amherst" appeared somewhere in the logo.