A horse is a horse...

Reunited!

So South Hadley now has our two highest paid former town officials (each of whom collects $80-K annually in retirement benefits from Amherst taxpayers) in the beefy guise of former Town Manager Barry Del Castilho and School Superintendent Gus Sayer.

Of course Gus retired from Amherst just after an embarrassing inappropriate contact incident at the High School between the new principal (they didn’t do a very extensive background check as he had a pedophile background) and a 15-year old student. Mr. Sayer neglected to file the mandatory form with the state to report the incident and then quickly retired.

And he retired at $103,000 just under Barry’s salary at the time and was replaced by Jere Hochman at $130,000. Then Barry’s ego got all aflutter (because he is after all the Top Dog) so he orchestrated a sweetheart raise in mid-contract while the sensible center Select board was still controlled by Carl Seppala, just before Czar Anne Awad came to her brief reign.

Current Select board member Greeney then filed a Town Meeting advisory article requesting the Select board negate the last-second raise and it passed. The Select board of course declined to roll back his salalary. And then he retired (after sleepwalking thru his last year and taking the last three months off completely) with an even more cushy retirement because of the raise.

Strangely enough, my favorite Barry episode has nothing to do with the always-ailing Cherry Hill Golf Course (now actually doing a little better since Barry left).

In late 1999 he got caught up in the Y2K scare. A couple of Umass secretaries (maybe one was Vinchesi’s) formed an “End Of The World” committee and started making recommendations to stockpile food and water, switch to wood heat, and buy generators.

Barry actually had the town host a public forum (roping the Police and Fire chief into presenting public safely protocols for major incidents) to allow these whackos to rant. And he went so far as to recommend $60,000 to buy a back-up generator for the Bangs Community Center. Fortunately cooler heads prevailed and that money was never spent.

I'll Drink To That!

Since the main goal of the Taxpayers for Responsible Change Town Meeting warrant article “strongly urging” the Select board to redo their $500,000 in free gray water to Umass is simply to bring the issue before the general public, last night’s Select board meeting was a resounding success.

And to get an (egotistical) board to vote 3-2 on something that advises them to undo something THEY did is downright historic.

Most interesting disclosure of the 55 minute discussion came from Select Man Anne Awad who stated she was “insulted” that the Town Manager signed the Strategic Agreement (knowing the effluent waiver was an important part) and only gave the Water/Sewer commissions a couple days notice to sign off on the waiver.

And obviously the Town Manager didn’t do his homework on the economic impact of the waiver.

Did his Lordship get testy with me (you know the guy who recently whined I had a “chilling effect” on the operation of his board)? Well…just a little. Select man Greeney was speaking directly to me about figures and when someone is sitting at a head table less than 10 feet away and looking you directly in the eyes it’s hard not to just respond when they are done talking.

But since I did not beg permission of His Lordship to speak he said, “please be quiet”. Hey at least Mr. Weiss didn’t say “shut up.”

And for the next few weeks, neither Stan Gawle nor I will “be quiet”. The Truth Is Out There!

His Lordship's Folly

Select board Chair Gerry Weiss was so proud of himself for championing a Mutual Aid Pact between Amherst and Umass Police Departments, even though most observers considered it a mere formalizing of a relationship going back many years.

Of course Mr Weiss naively hoped the pact would expand overall police presence in the town while reducing overhead to Amherst taxpayers. And, he could use it as an excuse to cut two officers this fiscal year.

But the mutual aid pact is a two-way street. And guess who has provided all the extra aid in the two months since the agreement was signed? Yes, those Amherst officers in riot gear patrolling Umass these past two weeks have cost Amherst taxpayers around $15,000 in overtime.

A Gathering Storm...

Town Manager Larry Shaffer
Re: Article #20 Umass effluent waiver

Please consider this confirmation that Taxpayers for Responsible Change--sponsors of this important financial article--will appear before the Select board this Monday night October 29 at 7:20 pm to explain our Town Meeting petition article supported by well-over one hundred Amherst resident/voters.

Since the discussion will get technical, we strongly urge the presence of DPW Chief Guilford Mooring to provide his unbiased expertise on this important matter.

Thank You,

Stan Gawle
Larry Kelley

Cc: Amherst Select Board
Onlyintherepublicofamherst.blogspot.com

Last House On The Right (leaving Amherst)

Of course if you approach Amherst from the west (Hadley) this shining house on a hill, here is what you see in all her resplendent glory:

A Shocking Revelation

If the most honest guy on the Good Ship Amherst says there were discussions about free electricity from the new Umass Powerplant than it must be true. (Thank God our DPW Chief didn’t defend His Lordship’s goofy position on 9/11).

Of course, now I find it scary that Hilda Greenbaum would be in the loop. Mr. Weiss must have forgotten when he sent that reply all email that this was a BIG SECRET only known to choice insiders.

Now I understand why Umass would dangle that carrot before our novice negotiators. Give us the meat-and-potatoes in this 5-year ‘Strategic Agreement’ and next time maybe we will throw you a (baby) carrot.

But five years from now, with Umass an even larger juggernaut, the no-longer-new Powerplant will be producing less than 80% of the electrical needs of the campus; so why would they divert some juice to Amherst? As Guilford pointed out, they will have to keep their connection to WMECO and will pay dearly for that remaining 20% balance of power required.

And if the Town Manger was so easily beaten up by the school yard bully, having his lunch money stolen, why do we think he will do any better five years from now?

In a message dated 10/24/07 3:54:24 PM, MooringG@amherstma.gov writes:

That is a goal, to get free power from UMass. We have talked about it several times with Larry S. and it was discussed at our level with UMass when Barry was here. A few issues came up.
1. The Waste Water Plant is on town property. If UMass sells, gives or trades electricity to us they become an electrical generation utility. Not just a campus with an electric plant. They would then possibly fall under DTE regulations.
2. We would have to keep our connection to WMECO and there would be an extra fee if we did use WMECO power.
3. Instead of electricity they could give us steam. This would require us to purchase equipment and operate a power generation facility.


Guilford