Camp David

Keenan that is. Sunday night.

Those who live in glass houses...

So we bust a former Select board member for having an unkempt home but a current Select board member can store scrap metal in his driveway for years on end.

Handwriting on the wall...

Amherst certainly didn't waste any time condemning Mr. Keenan's humble abode...or should I say the town's humble abode.


And I couldn't help but notice a portable heater/grill unit (looking a tad tired) a chair and tent equipment sitting on the front steps. Hmmm.

Mi Casa, Su Casa

So as predicted, the town found enough structural defects in Dave’s castle to bring down a skyscraper and probably by the close of business today will condemn his Happy Home. Funny how quickly the system works when hassling a Gadfly.

I don’t think the Springfield Republican reporter quite realized that Dave was serious when he said perhaps he would relocate into the Town Hall stairwell (after all, it is currently covered by a plastic sheet,)

This incident reminds me of another infamous Barry Del Castilho episode, now South Hadley’s $65/hour interim town administrator. Del Castilho desperately wanted a multi-million Override for Town Hall renovations (where his office was located) so he made a HUGE health issue of pigeon poop in the attic.

His secretary Laurie Benoit (whom he later married, after divorcing his then wife Linda) was posed for the Front Page of the crusty old Amherst Bulletin wearing a surgeon’s mask to filter out the supposed biological hazards.

And the two of them used a mail order air quality test kit (that at the time was about as reliable as a coin toss) and submitted samples from the back filter of an air conditioner (Gee, you think maybe that turned up a few beasties?)

Del Castilho then commissioned a $10,000 study by a reputable consultant to study the air quality in and around Town Hall. Hilariously, the study revealed the BEST air quality in the building was located in the attic because of the hot dry air up there (and all the poop was stuck to the floor so it didn’t go airborne).

And the WORST quality air was directly outside the building (called normal New England air in late Spring or Summer).

Along comes Dave Keenan suggesting volunteers simply clean up the poop for free and fix the broken window that the pigeons were using to enter the nice warm attic for the winter. The Town Manager, not wanting to grant Keenan a positive headline for selfless volunteerism, unequivocally said No.

Dave then crashed a Select Board meeting with a few friends (no, not me) dressed in space suits singing the song Ghost-Busters. Although changing the key word to Pigeon-Busters.

The town went on to spend over $100,000 to clean up the poop. And about then Dave stopped paying his taxes.

Town Meeting later overwhelmingly voted a $2.7 million Override with only two out of 155 or so voting No. I was one and Hill Boss the other. A week or so later Boss Hill wrote a Letter To The Editor of the crusty Bulletin saying he changed his mind and now supported the Override. It got walloped at the ballot box.

Town Meeting tried again; and again voters said take a hike. Town Meeting then used a loan to pay for it (thus bypassing voters) and by then it had grown to around $4 million. And even then a couple years later, Town Hall required a $200,000 more for roof repair and next week Town Meeting will be discussing how to pay another $600,000 for the current exterior repointing.

Only in Amherst.
http://www.masslive.com/hampfrank/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-12/1193989899272420.xml&coll=1

War averted

So the question at 10:30 this morning: Would Mr. Keenan submit to the court order and keep his door open to Amherst Building inspectors or do a Perp Walk?


And it didn't hurt that the media--Springfield Republican, Daily Hampshire Gazette, Amherst Bulletin and a blogger or two--showed up in droves!

About equal to the number of public officials: Police, Sheriff, Town Attorney, Building Inspectors


Inspectors enter Dave's Humble abode, unmolested. Good Call Dave!


Kudos to Chief Scherpa for his behind the scenes negotiations (as well as on the scene)
UPDATE 5:00 pm: So Mr Keenan confirms the building inspectors (two no less) found numerous health code and safety violations. A town official just called and asked Mr. Keenan if he could at least put batteries in the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. Keenan told them to talk to the owner. That is, of course, the town of Amherst. Hmmm

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.