Another expensive view?

Barry Roberts bought the Henry Hills House and all the surrounding property from the Amherst Boys and Girls Club last year for $750,000 then paid $75,000 in moving expenses to bring a house from Kendrick Park that he bought from the town for $500 and then flipped everything for $1.12 million.

Now the new owners want to sell the Henry Hills House “as is” for $850,000 (with little land). They put some work in the Kendrick Park house and want $650,000. Amherst College gave them two old houses AND will pay for the moving expenses. They will probably want $650,000 for each.

Now the town is salivating over the two remaining lots down on Main Street (to protect "the view" of the Henry Hills mansion) with a price tag of $400,000. Hmmm.

This simple $750,000 transaction from a year ago is fast becoming a $3 million windfall. In Their Own Words

Road to an Override?

So as of this morning both papers have covered the new three-year teacher contract for the Amherst Schools, the second largest employer in Amherst (behind that juggernaut Umass) and both articles do the complicated math, providing average salaries for all 400 teachers or the 14 at the top step but nobody does the simple math:

What is the total dollar amount of increase over last year’s 1% increase for salary/wages due to this blanket 2.5% raise and did the Superintendent factor that dollar amount into his budgets presented to the School Committees and coming before Town Meeting next month?

The combined school budgets are 49 million and colloquial wisdom is that employees account for 85% of that, or around $40 million. So a 2.5% raise comes to an extra $1 million (Hey a million here and a million there…).

My concern of course is NEXT year when it jumps another 3.5% from the NEW higher number, or $1.3 million.

I emailed Superintendent Hochman and longtime Finance Committee member Alice Carlozzi early Monday morning to ask what the dollar amount is and neither of them knew. Not a good sign.

UPDATE: April 11. So I heard back yesterday from Superintendent Hochman and the figures are: $294,701 for last year when the raises were only 1% and this coming year FY09 694,947 and next year at the 3.5% will top $1 million.

Freedom isn't free

Protestors climbed the Golden Gate Bridge to put up a “Free Tibet” banner. Now since San Francisco is the Mother of All refuge cities for illegal immigrants you gotta wonder if the perps were legal. And if one of them fell while performing the act of civil disobedience, could they suit the city?

Let’s hope His Lordship doesn’t get any ideas about Amherst’s downtown banner.

Breaking News! (Ho Hum)

Well I guess my slight boo boo on predicting the April Fool’s Day election is now vindicated. Long live His Lordship! But his Court will certainly be less regal calling the other four by their first names. But I like that rearranged seating. What’s that cliché about deck chairs on the Titanic?
Springfield Republican

Safe Bet!

Tonight’s Select Board “reorganization” will see Gerry Weiss retain his exalted title, actually both of them: ‘Chair of the Board’ and ‘His Lordship.’

What controversy?

The Regional School Committee tomorrow night will take up the discussion of “Controversial Issues In School” policy for possible revisions (after the way the Committee handled things in the past I’m surprised to learn they have a playbook).

I only have two suggestions:
Don’t ever cancel ‘West Side Story’ (no matter how many kids sign a petition) and don’t ever allow the school to sanction ‘The Vagina Monologues’ again.

Colors of Spring

So Betsy Gage, who lives nearby and inherited the “job” from another neighbor, every year about now loads this big green bucket located on the South Amherst Town Common with brightly colored flowers (in late summer she may replace them with mums). She doesn’t get paid to do it, and she herself finances the flowers purchased from a very local farm.

Yeah, even the People’s Republic has people who genuinely care (thank God!)
Click photo to enlarge.