So about the only thing louder than the chainsaw used to unsnag the house as it tried to squeeze by the Dickinson Homestead was the collective sigh of the Shade Tree Commission.
UPDATE: 1:00 pm The Dinosaur has landed. Almost there (another 50 yards or so)
Amherst Taxpayers for Responsible Change have a warrant article calling for Town Meeting to consolidate all the reserves (about $4 million) into the Stabilization Fund by transferring the vast majority money from the Free Cash Account.
Town Meeting can spend (and we know they love to spend) from Free Cash with a simply majority vote; but spending from Stabilization Fund takes a two-thirds vote.
Of course some of the dumber things this esteemed body has done (like spend $2.2 million in 1982 dollars for a Golf Course they could have had for free) has been done with over a two-thirds vote.
The Finance Committee will still have their own little 100-K slush fund for “emergencies” (like last year’s cost overrun at Cherry Hill Golf Course or the extra moving expenses for the Town Manager). ################################################################################# WOLF IN THE FOLD: Last night the Select Board voted to appoint chief spokesperson for the Amherst Taxpayers for Responsible Change Stan Gawle to the Budget Coordinating Group’s (BCG’s) 'citizen facilitation team' (God, I hope he can hum "Kumbia")
So even though I too used the comparison of 9/11 and gay rights (see video) and agreed that explicit how-to sex posters (straight or gay) should not be posted publicly at the Campus Center, I’m not with the Young Republicans on this one.
The Stonewall Center is an official Umass RSO group and as such should have access to the listserve.
Yes, Ralph Hexter is President of Hampshire College but he’s acting as the keynote speaker for an official Umass event. But I’m sure the Stonewall Center will love all the extra press this angry release generates.
And of course, now Mr. Hexter has got me wondering, “What if the President were Queer?”
UMASS-Amherst campus leadership:
Regarding the below message:
Why is the enormous (1000+ student) UMASS Signature Responsibility email list AGAIN being used for these ridiculous purposes???
Let me state for the record that the UMass Republican Club finds these emails being sent on the UMass server a *criminal and incomprehensible waste of valuable taxpayer-funded IT resources and unconditionally absurd*.
I have cc'd 14 state elected representatives - 8 state reps and 6 state senators - for their perspective on this matter.
I don't care about a "queer graduation invite" and if these gay rights activists at Hampshire College have access to the entire school SR email list here at *UMASS*, then why don't I – a fee-paying and taxpaying UMass student and citizen of the Commonwealth, and leader of one of the largest and most well-funded groups on this campus – have this same access ???
Dean of Students Joanne Vanin has consistently denied me access to this list for matters of disseminating information of patriotic 9/11 Veterans Day Flag Displays and legitimate UMass events, yet gay rights activists at A DIFFERENT SCHOOL are allowed use of this huge email list to promote an obviously exclusionary event at Hampshire???
UMass campus leadership continues to let nonsense like this go and then cries to the state legislature about being under-funded and ignored - something has to give.
Someone in Whitmore must have granted the approval to send this extremely unnecessary email: can someone inform me who that person was?
This is an obvious misuse of power and boggles my mind.
We, as a campus community, need to do better and be more aware than this, or else I strongly urge the elected officials of this state’s General Court to continue to cut our funding as a campus.
With administrators like the ones we have in charge apparently asleep at the switch yet again, we clearly don’t deserve any more funding from the hard-working taxpayers of this state.
For efficient tax-dollar and resource use,
Brad DeFlumeri
President, UMass Republican Club Petty Officer, United States Naval Reserve -----Original Message----- From: rso-information-bounces@stuaf.umass.edu [mailto:rso-information-bounces@stuaf.umass.edu] On Behalf Of Brett-Genny Janiczek Beemyn Sent: Friday, April 11, 2008 11:27 AM To: undisclosed-recipients: Subject: [Rso-information] Queer Graduation invite
The Stonewall Center cordially invites you to The 10th Annual Queer Graduation & Awards Ceremony
Monday, May 12, 2008 Memorial Hall Lounge 6:30pm: reception, 7pm: ceremony
Keynote Speaker: Ralph Hexter, “What If the President Were Queer?” Ralph Hexter is the president of Hampshire College and one of the first openly gay college leaders. Please RSVP to the Stonewall Center: stonewall@stuaf.umass.edu, 545-4824
About 100 good folks converged on the VFW last night for a night of fun, food, dancing and prises with all proceeds going towards the July 4'th Parade. Former Umass Police chief Gerry O'Neil won the large screen flat panel TV, and I won a $25 gift certificate to 'Crazy Noodles' in town center (We're going to walk uptown tonight and use it).
Last year Town Meeting spent $287,000 tax dollars to preserve the view of the Kimball House in North Amherst. Not to purchase the land leading from the road to the front door but a complicated buy out with the state of APR designation for the land out back.
Umm yeah, I guess you can still see the Kimball House. Kimball-&-Bits
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
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.
