The Grinch Gets (deservedly) Scrooged!

(6:10 am) So I guess this is what you call BUZZ (more like what the Brits called"Buzz Bombs"). Yikes! Remind me NEVER to do anything so stupid in public, private or even after I'm dead.

Of course the crusty Gazette was especially quick to publish these response Letters to Saturday's Front Page article, but you will still have to wait God knows how many hours to read them in the online edition (or you could click the photo to enlarge). UPDATE: the Gazette went cyber around 10:00 am.

Now the question of the day is will the Gazette do an editorial? At least we can tell whose side they're on.
UPDATE 9:42 pm (yeah, my bedtime). The cyber comments to the Letter section were also interesting: http://www.dailyhampshiregazette.com/storyComments.cfm?id_no=71575

Gremlin?

On Saturday folks who parked their cars next to Puffers Pond to watch church members jump into the icy water to protest Global Warming garnered a card under their wiper. On the back of his official Town Hall business card (who would have thought they get cards?) Select man Rob Kusner printed: "walk, bike, take the bus."

So when Kusner gets voted out of office this April 1'st (no foolin), does he have to turn in his remaining cards? And you have to wonder: were they printed on recycled cardstock?

Take that! (Sunday, 2:00 pm)

Forecast: Freezing Rain, Sleet, Snow, Locusts, Dead Fish and Frogs.

NO Green boxes distributed around town with sand/salt. NO sand left at the DPW. See what happens Amherst voters when you don't support the Override!

http://www.amherstbulletin.com/story/id/70863/

UPDATE 3:30 pm I'm not one of those who wish bad things to happen so you can say "I told you so", so I just called 911 to request they get ahold of SOMEBODY at the DPW to refill the sandpile. After all, if the forecast is correct they should have an army arriving about now.

UPDATE: 3:45 pm. Damn, that's what I love about our 911 emergency response professionals (and the DPW)! We now have a MOUNTAIN of sand available,so 'come on down' folks . Let is snow, let it snow, let it snow.


UPDATE: Monday 6:00 am. So I gave up counting after 100 the numbers of cars and trucks coming to get sand last night (my home/office overlooks the pile). Maybe the DPW should reconsider the ban on Green Sand Boxes around town?

A smile is just a frown turned upside down

So the bricks and mortar media gave the Town Manager’s Select board evaluation the old positive spin and missed the most interesting paragraph of the wordy two-page report card.

“Larry (Shaffer) has taken on the task of looking at the organization of every department and quickly made changes at Cherry Hill Golf Course, Town Counsel and the Veteran’s Services Department that have cut costs and improved services.”

Hmmm. So he “quickly made changes at Cherry Hill Golf course,” by
firing long-time superintendent Dan Engstrom (on St. Patty’s Day 2007, the day I started this Blog) for misusing a company credit card and taking up residence in the Clubhouse.

Yet seven months earlier on August 18, 2006 Shaffer wrote “The town is fortunate to have Dan Engstrom, Course Manager, to continue his expertise in maintaining of the of the highest quality public golf courses in Massachusetts.”

And his unfortunate firing of long-time, well-respected Town Council Alan Seewald sparked controversy; and now His Lordship Mr. Weiss seems to say our new advisor, Kopelman and Paige—the BIG BOX McDonald’s of the legal profession is “improved”?

If I were the former Town Attorney, I would suit for defamation of character.

Shaffer almost single handedly torpedoed the May 1’st tax Override by bluffing with Public Safety cuts he would never had implemented; and turning down the $30,000 per year offer to take the terminal Cherry Hill Golf Course off our hands.

And the current fiasco of charging a tax on every Christmas tree sold by Amherst/Pelham Boy Scouts is an astounding error demonstrating the Town Manager is clueless with culture.

Let’s hope the Select board gives him an appropriate Christmas bonus: a lump of coal.

"This is no drill!"

“I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto




“With confidence in our armed forces - with the unbounded determination of our people - we will gain the inevitable triumph - so help us God.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt

UPDATE (Noon): University of Massachusetts @ Amherst REMEMBERS


NATURALLY the Town of Amherst FORGETS.

Say what?

Yeah, Only in Amherst would a town committee waste half the exposure provided by the most premier location in town. Fortunately Amherst needs a Human Rights Commission like Saudi Arabia needs snow plows.

Render unto Caesar…

After 60 years of tariff-free trade on a ritual that marks the transition into the Christmas season for generations of Amherst residents, the Grinch has finally gotten his due: $1 per tree.

Yes, Town Manager Larry Shaffer got mugged by Umass in the ‘Strategic Agreement’ and walked away from $30,000 in annual rent for a municipal golf course that will cost taxpayers that amount this year, but--by God--put him at the table with Boy Scouts of America and he takes no prisoners.

Operated entirely by volunteers, the Amherst Boy Scouts Christmas Tree Sale on Kendrick Park raises money for hometown Troops 500 and 504 to help offset scout related expenses, including scholarships for those who can’t afford the required summer camping.

So it’s not like this is a BIG business generating profits surreptitiously slipped in a back pocket, or applied towards a new Lexus.

The 40-50 Amherst and Pelham Boy Scouts do plenty of volunteer work for their merit badges including food collection for The Survival Center, clearing our extensive Conservation Trails, or helping distribute 3,000 candles on the first anniversary of 9/11.

And while a dollar may sound trivial on trees priced at $35 or $40, last year former Scout Master Bill Hart estimated the entire month-long endeavor generated between $4,000 and $6,000 in net profit. So Amherst’s cut of $775 in rent, amounts to a tax on “profits” of 13%!

Doing ones duty to God and country shouldn’t be so taxing.