No Miracle on Boltwood Ave

Last night Amherst Town Manager Larry Shaffer once again reaffirmed that his unfair tax on the joy of Christmas has not been his “…most glorious moment in public administration.”

He also garnered little support from the Select Board. Kusner (looking at Shaffer): “We were caught off guard by this; I just want the public to know it was your decision.” Select person Brewer distanced herself: “Even though the Town Manager has the legal authority under the town act I would hope he will continue to talk to us about this…”

Brewer also (looking at scout representatives) wanted to publicly “thank the scouts for being so agreeable; I realize you didn’t have much choice…I’m glad we’re still talking about it.”

Clueless to the core (if indeed he has one), Shaffer still doesn’t get it. His bland” report” was a rehash of cold bureaucratic excuses.

Explaining his $1 per tree tariff Shaffer states: “They went away, set up their sale of Christmas trees. And I expected that arrangement would go on unbeknownst to anybody. Little did I know this would become the cause célèbre going forward.”

For a public official to arrange a deal in private, hoping that his dictatorial terms remain "unbeknownst", is bad policy.

UPDATE: 2:36 Yeah I know, the video just uploaded 10 minutes ago but my friend and fellow investigative blogger Paolo at northamptonist.blogspot.com just forwarded me the link to WHMP radio's softball interview with Shaffer. I love his comment at the outset "I don't know if anything went wrong." Talk about clueless.
http://www.theriverondemand.com/mp3/vannah/larryshaffer.mp3

UPADATE: 3:30 Ch. 22 enters the fray (what took them so long?). Where's the AP?
http://www.wwlp.com/Global/story.asp?S=7511628

Breaking News: Grinch Report

9:20 pm. So the Select board heard a Town Manager Report on the Christmas tree tax fiasco. He started of by announcing that developer Barry Roberts and hotel magnate Curt Shumway, both local boys who made very good, will pay the town the entire tax (between $775 to $800) and we also know--although the Town Manager did not give them a plug--Amherst DPW workers already donated a check to the Scouts for roughly that amount.

Thus the new Spin is Amherst did the Boy Scouts a favor, because now they are getting all these extra donations from concerned citizens. Hmmm...


Kinda like saying getting mugged is fine if the culprit is caught and then loses a sizable civil court case for damages.

His Lordship Mr. Weiss decided not to act as The Inquisitor and coerce the local Boy Scout troop into branding their national chapter as discriminators simply to use town property.

More tomorrow. I'm tired.

The joys of ownership

Rt. 116—one of the busier stretches of highway was once state owned and maintained. Five years ago the state decided to install a badly needed traffic control signal at this busy South Amherst intersection as well as other road improvements—all with state money.

With the design work about 80% completed, Amherst decided it didn’t like the cookie cutter design and wanted to “calm” traffic in the Village Square, enticing folks to pull up a park bench whip out a copy of the New York Times and slowly suck down a few cappuccinos while discussing global warming.

So now we own about three miles of busy roadway that yesterday required a fleet of DPW trucks, tons of chemicals and lots of peoplepower (many working on overtime). $10,000 here, $10,000 there…pretty soon you’re talking real money.

Notch Excursion in a storm.

2:00 pm. For those of you who do not live in Amherst, The Notch is a bump of a mountain on the Southern most part of Amherst. We started out at Atkins Fruit Bowl, a local institution that normally does so much business on a Sunday that they have to hire a police officer to direct traffic. I don't even want to think about how much money they lost today being closed during the Christmas shopping season.

We made it to the top in about a half-hour using lightweight snowshoes and cross country ski poles.

Then we took a sharp left off the old logging road and entered the woods.

The Woodpeckers abandoned their Totem Pole.

A river runs thru it (more like a stream.)

My lovely wife leading the way.

And we didn't get lost, didn't have to call 911. Finished around 3:30. Way more fun than, ugh, shoveling snow.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

So believe it or not the Crusty Gazette actually published a Letter on Saturday supporting the Town Mangler’s Scrooge Tax on the Boy Scouts Christmas tree sales: Alex Kent, a member of the Kanegasaki Sister City Committee closed with:

“All who use town property for their activities, whether they are for profit or not, should compensate the town for their use of public land. Mr. Shaffer's $1 fee is well within the bounds of reason, a welcome if small contribution to hard-pressed town coffers, and in no way undermines the good intentions or positive contributions of the Boy Scouts.

Alex Kent
Amherst”

So Alex ol boy, perhaps we should start charging the PeaceNiks who inhabit the corner of town center every Sunday at noon (and if we back charge them for the past 35 years we could afford to hire an Assistant for Assistant Town Manager John Musante.

Ch 3 TV out of Hartford, Ct. covers the story (yeah, I emailed a packet of material to the Connecticut media mentioning Shaffer's Vernon Ct. background):

http://www.cbs3springfield.com/news/local/12520971.html

Taking the town by storm

Town Center: 9:30 pm Just after the last flake fell.

Hickory Ridge Golf Course 2:00 pm. The next day. As serene as town center.

Ax the Tax!

The Town Mangler’s bewilderingly bad decision to tax our Boy Scout's Christmas tree sales has most certainly taken on a life of its own and may prove a bonanza for the intrepid scouts. As first reported on this Blog (and the Crusty Gazette caught up today) the DPW is donating over $600 to the Boy Scouts. No strings attached.

And more than a few folks have stopped me in the Bricks and Mortar world to say they are going to drop in on the beleaguered tree encampment specifically to buy a Christmas tree they might have purchased elsewhere, or just going to give them a few bucks.

This phenomenon reminds me of the idiot teenaged gang (none of whom I bet were Boy Scouts) stealing the bright yellow-and-black, angry bumblebee “No More Overrides” lawn signs one night before the May 1’st tax Override. Now that was the PR gift that kept on giving.

Of course His Lordship Gerry Weiss is going to demand public action that could risk their charter: 'Before we go any further, I would want the local troop to distance themselves from the national organization's stance,' Weiss said. 'We can't allow groups that discriminate to use town property.'

Select board Chair Weiss also stated that Shaffer might make a statement during his Town Manager Report on Monday. Let’s hope the Pot Rally police fee for using the Town Common also comes up on Monday.

I would love to watch His Lordship look honest, law-abiding working-folks in the eye as he advocates for taxpayers to subsidize the rights of potheads over the rights of Boy Scouts. Only in Amherst!
UPDATE: 5:00 pm. So even though the Crusty Gazette takes a while to get to a "story" and publishes hardcopy before uploading on the Net, at least they allow cyber comments on their (snail-like) Internet edition. Funny stuff:
http://www.dailyhampshiregazette.com/storyComments.cfm?id_no=72186