And the winners are...

Yes, the Amherst Taxpayers for Responsible Change met last night (appropriately enough at the Rod and Gun Club) and overwhelmingly endorsed two Select board candidates. Both of whom I voted to support.

But I can't tell you who they are until the Ultra Crusty Bulletin goes to press. Gotta throw them a bone once in a while (although their editor is probably a vegan).

The Amherst July 4'th Parade Committee Executive Circle will be meeting with Mr. Laurence Shaffer Amherst Town Manager at 4:00 PM this afternoon in his office. (notice I didn't call him "Boss Hogg") No I will not blog live from there--although I assume it will be a short meeting.

And I make a return visit to Bill Dwight's WHMP radio show tomorrow morning at 9:30 AM to talk about whatever pisses me off at that moment.

Should old acquaintance be forgot...

I have beheld the Power of the Media from every possible angle: as a reporter, columnist, frequent Letter To the Editor contributor in print; as well as national news appearances on radio, TV, Cable and an early adopter off all things Internet—chat groups, listserves, and The Drudge Report.

But I have never encountered a more perfect weapon for the lone individual than this, the blog.

Seamlessly melding photos, audio, video with text made instantly available to anyone in the world (except China) via the simple button click is nothing short of revolutionary.

I once thought that if a tree fell in the forest and a reporter was not there to cover it than, indeed, it did not make a sound. These days’ chances are a motivated blogger will witness and record the event.

The Bricks and Mortar media can’t be everywhere 24/7. And they have advertisers to worry about and corporate owners who worry about offending their advertisers.

Bloggers are everywhere. And it only takes one to get the story out.

A year ago yesterday I started this blog figuring at the very least it would get me writing three or four times a week. Little did I know that it would sometimes become three or four times a day.

I think of this blog the same way I do my small business—obsessively. Allowing me--when things get rough--to draw strength from that core American value, pride of ownership.

(Now if only I can keep my cool when I spend two weeks in China!)

Happy St. Patrick's Day

And in Massachusetts state workers in Suffolk County are pretty happy, as they get the day off. Although technically I think it's called 'Evacuation Day' to commemorate the Brits turning tail and leaving Boston under pressure from cannons above (damn sneaky American).

Although at the airport coming down here on Friday I did see a commercial from Guinness asking folks to sign an Internet petition to make St. Patrick's Day a national holiday (kind of funny that a Brit company wants to establish an American holiday--but they would probably prefer we celebrate St. Patrick rather than a British defeat)

Yeah, I know today marks the One Year Anniversary of my blog. And yeah I should have something thoughtful to say. But I'm still in Florida, the sun is shining (74 degrees at 8:30 am)we need to get in our second day at Busch Gardens, get to the airport by 5:00 pm so Kira and I can fly home and Donna can fly to China.

And yeah, I'm watching as closely as I can the events in Tibet.

When a dollar is not a dollar (Only in Amherst)

So even from Florida I can, finally, read about the 70-K water debt discovered by a rookie Amherst meter reader.

Because this is not exactly a Watergate kind of story the Bricks and Mortar media left out some context: Amherst water system does not differentiate between water and sewer, although each is billed at $3 per cubic foot (1,500 gallons). Every drop that comes into a home is considered a drop that exits via the sewer system. So essentially, all Amherst homeowners pay $6 per cubic foot.

Thus when we water our lawns or wash the car in the spring and summer we really pay twice what we should. So I’m hoping town officials charged the car wash for both water and sewer (and 99% of their usage does leave via the sewer).

Thus the $70,000 is evenly split between two separate Enterprise Funds each costing about $3.5 million annually to operate. But the state says that all monies within an Enterprise Fund have to stay within that fund and cannot be used for teachers, police or library books.

Hence Town Officials (other than DPW, of course who ride on herd on them) don’t care about the Water, Sewer, or Solid Waste Fund. And they only took interest in the Transportation Fund when they stretched the law to siphon off $100-K for outreach PVTA buses that get sparse ridership.

And that is why the Select board, acting as Sewer Commissioners, were so quick to flush down the toilet the $40-K in effluent water Umass uses for heat (but will soon be using to irrigate extensive recreation fields and in the new Science Building for cooling thus potentially doubling their usage of effluent…and why not? The town has given them a Use-All-You-Want-Free card.

So that’s why I’m confused the Town Manager had to get the Select board to officially vote to give Umass the freebie (a close 3-2 vote with 2 of the 3 Yes votes having economic ties to Umass) but when another large user is inadvertently not charged for five years do to a billing error the Select board suddenly has no role?

Mutual Aid Trade Imbalance

Amount of Amherst PD overtime spent assisting Umass PD $18,500
Amount of Umass PD overtime spent assisting Amherst PD $00.00

Yeah, so much for His Lordship Gerry Weiss grand scheme to seamlessly meld Umass and Amherst Police Departments in order to save Amherst taxpayers money.

Amount of Effluent Water consumed by Umass over past eight months (at previous rate of one-sixth normal water rate): $24,204

And as we just found out with the Car Washwater fiasco (5 years without a bill): a few gallons here and a few gallons there, pretty soon you’re talking real money.

Must have been a B-52

So the DPW spent all summer repaving North East Street/Henry Street and already we get this? (click photo to enlarge)

Keenan on the case!

Who better to get excited about the interest free $70-K Water/Sewer debt owed by a multi-million dollar corporation than current Select board candidate (and former Select board member) Dave Keenan, pictured talking to reporter Scott Merzbach of the ultra-crusty Amherst Bulletin trying to interest him in this story. He was on "deadline" (dog bites man story no doubt) so he would would get back to Dave on Thursday.

Keenan recently paid the town $50,000 in overdue property tax and water/sewer bills dating back ten years with over half that amount due to interest (16%) and legal fees.

Keenan confirmed John Musante, new Assistant Town Manager (with a retroactive $10,000 raise), worked out the terms of the contract with F.L. Roberts and that our esteemed Select board, who are also the Water/Sewer Commissioners, were never told about this monstrous outstanding back balance. Hmmm…