They're Baaaaaaack...

The 29 flags in town center and thousands of students. And I missed them both.

Yeah, it’s a certain sign that summer is coming to end when Amherst swells to its full population of 34,000 unchanged since 1980. What has changed in the last three decades is the summer population of Amherst is a lot higher—around 20,000—so we no longer simply roll up the streets after Memorial Day and our small businesses no longer hang signs on front doorways saying “gone fishing until Labor Day”.

The students (and staff) revitalized the economy and the social scene in equal measure.

When I was a bouncer at The Pub 25 years ago the townies loved the summer because they briefly became Lords of the Manor. But on Labor Day the throngs returned and you had to wait in line to enter or to get a drink or even go to the bathroom.

And that was about the only time I had to get physical: to break up turf wars over this chair or that corner table, as the townies initially tried to hold on to summer memories.

But this morning the sun is perfectly radiant--the sky a stunningly clear light blue--and for a brief shining moment, all's well in the People’s Republic of Amherst. Welcome back.

Not in my backyard!

Okay, so we had our first “incident” near the Public School that my daughter attends in the Village Square of bucolic South Amherst far from the bumper-to-bumper traffic of downtown Amherst now clogged with returning college students.





Some twit neighborhood teen-ager decided to grasp his crotch, probably a hip-hop version of extending the middle finger, in public within spitting distance of three institutions that deal with young children: Montessori School, Kunon, and the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School.

Police response—a black and white cruiser and a 4-wheel drive jeep-- was what you might call swift, and the perp was sent on his way after a stern reprimand.

I have been assured that Amherst police consider this intersection a “school zone” (and this rapid response certainly belies that) so if anyone is caught dealing drugs within the area they would be charged with the more series offense of distribution within a school zone.

And any other calls for assistance will be handled as though a child’s safety depends on response time.

Just one more reason I’m such a fan of the Amherst Public Safety men and women, who work 24/7 to protect this town.

What a difference

A Billion dollars makes. Picture above is Amherst College's ($1 billion in reserves) new athletic fields.

Now take a look at the town of Amherst ($4 million in reserves) new recreation fields on Potwine Lane in South Amherst. Yikes!

Tired cheerleader

As usual the Daily Hampshire Gazette issued one of those wishy-washy, two-thumbs halfheartedly up for the recent town/gown agreement between Umass and Amherst that will generate a paltry $100,000 per year for the next five years to our beleaguered town.

Of course a hundred grand is nothing to sneeze at; but, when it could have and should have been FIVE TIMES that amount it’s just a little hard to celebrate. Obviously the crusty old Gazette lacks excitement, so the least little thing gets them up on the party dance floor (to the strains of Lawrence Welk no doubt).

Okay so if I were the Mayor of Amherst, how would I have handled the negotiation? Let them eat cake! I mean, let them drink beer! Or…we could have threatened to raise their water rates to the level that Hadley charges (what are they going to do boycott water?).

Last year that would have raised an additional $400,000 on water payments alone. And then we could have threatened to charge a differential between water and sewer (as we did for everybody EXCEPT Umass all during the 1990’s) thus raising another $150,000.

So it’s either pay $550,000 more for water/sewer OR make out a check to the Town of Amherst General Fund (so the money can be used for anything) for, say, $400,000 and we will leave your water/sewer rates alone, thus saving you $150,000. Everybody wins--especially the citizens of Amherst.

A question of priorities in the People's Republic

So the People’s Republic of Amherst can subsidize a Golf Course but not an Indoor Pool? The same public recreation superstar Barbara Bilz—the ace reliever called in to save Cherry Hill--was formerly charged with reviving and expanding indoor pool operations at the Middle School Pool.

The first thing marketing whiz Ms Bilz did was to change its name to the ‘Amherst Community Aquatics Center’ and hyped the “expanded hours and programs” and “warmer pool temperatures.”

Of course, something as huge as an Olympic pool is pretty expensive to heat and the swim team (the reason the pool was built in the first place) actually prefer the cheaper-to-maintain cooler temperatures, as they tend to work pretty hard in the water.

Last year the total overhead for the pool was $85,000 (vs. $243,000 for Cherry Hill) with the schools utilizing it slightly less than half the time and LSSE, our Recreation Empire, occupying the lion’s share.

The Schools cut them some slack on overhead charging them only $30,000 for FY07. The town has yet to pay that bill. I hope the schools charge the same 12% interest rate the town is currently charging Dave Keenan on his back taxes.

Interestingly when Ms. Bilz took over the ailing Cherry Hill Golf Course (if you consider her one-quarter time commitment taking over) the first thing she did was hype new programs to attract more customers—specifically women and children (note cover of the current issue of the LSSE brochure).

Last year, however, the Golf Course required $24,432 in tax support and currently is on target to lose at least that amount this year. Interestingly this year we could have had a GUARANTEED $30,000 in profit if the Town Manager had accepted the Niblik Management bid to privatize Cherry Hill.

That way the golf course could have stayed open and the town could have simply redirected that $30,000 to the schools to keep the Middle School Pool (now that LSSE gave up on it, I assume its name reverts back) available for all Amherst citizens—especially children.

Umass to Amherst: Pennies on the dollar

Why is it when Amherst negotiates with Umass it’s always a three-steps forward and two steps back scenario? At first the $425,000 in annual payments for Fire protection sound pretty good…but then read the fine print.

Umass takes credit for the $100,000 state Payment in Lieu of Taxes we get anyway so now we’re down to $325,000; and they were also paying $181,000 anyway for ambulance/fire service, so now we’re down to $144,000; and Umass got the town to donate wastewater that would have cost them $37,800 this year so now we’re down to about $100,000.

Amherst educates 50 or 60 children of Graduate students living in tax-exempt housing at an annual cost exceeding $500,000. The Campus Center Hotel has refused to pay the local 4% sales tax that everybody else including the Lord Jeff Inn (owned by tax exempt Amherst College) has paid since 1995. Next year that would generate over $50,000 to the town, IF Umass paid it.

And Umass recently purchased and leveled “Frat Row” on the entryway to the campus, thus taking $5 million worth of property off the tax rolls. Thus denying Amherst the $60,000 paid last year by those properties.

And I would guess at least the same 18% of the Police budget goes to Umass related events, as does 18% of the Fire/Ambulance Budget. So with a $3.6 million Police budget in FY07 Umass share would be well over the $450,000 cost of Fire protection.

Since Town Meeting axed two police officers this year to save $80,000, perhaps that extra $100,000 Umass money from heaven could be used to reinstate those officers?

Enough is enough!

http://www.dailyhampshiregazette.com/storyComments.cfm?id_no=55677

Well this should do it.

When the Amherst Regional High School shamefully cancelled a production of ‘West Side Story’ in 1999 they said it was not because they actually believed the play was racist but that the controversy had gotten so out of control that it was hard for education to take place among that kind of turmoil.

If Mr Sadiq is a stand up guy he will, for the good of all concerned, announce his resignation.