How the seat was won

After the no foolin April 1’st election, Precinct 9 had two open seats because Stephanie O’Keeffe and Diana Stein were elevated to Select board.

Robie Hubley and two others all had received one write-in vote for Town Meeting (probably their own). So on April 16 the Town Clerk convened a meeting of Precinct 9 Town Meeting members to fill the two open seats and Hubley came in second with eight votes.

Simply because we say so

July 1, 2008

222 North East Street. Unit 5
Amherst, MA 01002
June 29, 2008

Board of Registrars for the Town of Amherst
Town Clerk
Town Hall
Amherst, MA 01002

Dear Sirs and Madams:

We have received your mailing that advises us of a complaint against us which claims that we are not residents of the Town of Amherst and therefore we are not legally registered voters in Amherst

Mr. Lawrence Kelley has made his determination that we do not live on Amherst on several erroneous assumptions:

1. Voter residence and registration. Both Anne Awad and Robie Hubley are registered as legal residents and voters in Amherst, and nowhere else. We both affirm that that is the case. It is the burden of the complainant to prove that we are not residents and voters of Amherst for this procedure to move forward. If the complainant cannot prove those allegations the complaint must be dismissed.

2. Homestead Act. Mr. Kelley maintains that a Homestead Declaration equals residence. Actually, MGL Chapter 188 says “An estate of homestead…may be acquired…by an owner or owners of a home…who occupy or intend to occupy said home as a principal residence.” [emphasis added]

3. Mortgage documents language. . The mortgage document relating to the South Hadley home includes a phrase that we should take occupancy by June 10, 2008. Mr. Kelley maintains that the occupancy date is an inflexible and compulsory matter of law. Florence Savings Bank officers have assured us that this provision is a rule of the bank, not a matter of law

If summoned by you, we shall appear and respond to any questions you may have about our residency. You have here our declaration that we, Anne S. Awad and Robie Hubley, are and remain long-time residents and registered voters in the Town of Amherst. We live here, sleep here, eat here, and go about our lives here. It is true that we purchased a house in South Hadley and we plan to move to that house when it is appropriate. When that occurs, we shall register as residents and voters in South Hadley, and proper notice will be given to the Registrars/Town Clerk to remove us from the voter rolls for Amherst.



________________________________________________________________________
Anne S. Awad Robie Hubley

More than one way to skin a rat

Office of the Secretary of The Commonwealth
One Ashburton Place
Boston, Ma 02108
7/14/2008

Dear Secretary Galvin,

Please consider this a formal complaint under 950 CMR 56:00 regarding the (in) actions of the Amherst Board of Registrars taken—or I should say not taken—on July 3’rd, and a request for a formal investigation by your office.

I requested a local hearing in accordance with Chapter 51, 48 to decide whether there is “sufficient grounds for an investigation” concerning the legal residency of Amherst Town Meeting member Robie Hubley and his wife Anne Awad a member of the Amherst Select Board (resigning as of 8/31).

On April 10 Mr. Hubley signed a Homestead declaration for a new home at 4 Jewett Lane, South Hadley. He and his wife Anne Awad also both signed another legal record that day.

The FDIC backed mortgage from Florence Savings Bank, signed under pains and penalties of Federal Law, clearly states: “Borrower shall occupy, establish and use the Property as Borrower’s principal residence within 60 days after the execution of the Security Instrument and shall continue to occupy the Property as Borrower’s principal residence for at least a year after the date of occupancy”

And as I’m sure you know, a Homestead is a notarized one-page legal document that clearly states: “I own and am possessed and occupy said premises as a residence and homestead.”

In response to this legal information going public, the couple published a Letter in the Amherst Bulletin declaring: “The homestead declaration, cited frequently by this newspaper as proof that we are already living in South Hadley, was an error on our part. We were unaware that such protection can only apply to one’s primary residence. We removed the homestead declaration as soon as we realized the error. It now applies only to our Amherst home as it has for years."

But according to a check of the Registry of Deeds this afternoon the Homestead for the South Hadley residency was never “removed” and is still in legal effect.

At the July 3’rd “hearing” the Amherst Board of Registrars completely ignored the Homestead evidence and they declared the mortgage residency requirement a “private matter.” Both Anne Awad and Robie Hubley attended the hearing but were not asked any questions by the Board of Registrars.

The Board unanimously voted, after a half-hour discussion, that there were no grounds to move on to a formal investigation.

To allow this Keystone Cops “investigation” to go unchallenged will only undermine the confidence of Amherst voters in our system of government when a vital national election is only four months away.

Sincerely Yours,


Larry Kelley
Amherst Town Meeting
Amherst Redevelopment Authority
5Th Generation Amherst resident

Deep Creek Maryland

Only in America (There's a place for us)

At 4:35 PM this afternoon, as she was carried off Continental Flight 88 from Beijing in New Jersey’s Liberty Airport, Jada Kelley became an official All American Girl.

You can go home again

Professor Li, a Chinese visiting scholar to Babson College and a friend of ours lives here in Hefei and picked us up at the airport. His university is only a few blocks from the Novotell and he once had the main manager as a Grad student so he got us a room upgrade from economy closet to penthouse suite.

He also hired a comfortable van and driver for the two-hour trip to Kira’s orphanage and came along with his 11-year-old daughter to act as interpreter.

Although we had prearranged the visit a week prior to leaving the US and paid the $150 tour fee plus $50 to our adoption agency for delivering the cash to the orphanage, the director still seemed surprised by our mid-morning visit.

He said we could take pictures outside the main gate but had to stow the cameras upon entering the compound. Ten years ago the BBC aired a documentary—“The Dying Rooms”--about the horrors of Chinese orphanages; the proud country became enraged and shut off international adoptions for a while.

Thus they are still distrusting of anyone with a camera. Probably a good thing.

The orphanage is bordered on one side by a graveyard and as we stood at the front gate swarmed over by dozens of children anxiously grabbing the small toys and trinkets we brought a cacophony of booms rang out, like the grand finally at a July 4’th fireworks.

Professor Li was told it emanated from the graveyard—to ward off evil spirits.

As the sun climbed higher in the pale blue sky the concrete/tile structure oozed heat. Combined with oppressive humidity and carrying my new 25-pound daughter who screamed if I even thought about putting her down on the ground, I was once again bathed in sweat.

The compound, about half the size of a football field, consisted of a perfect square made up of four narrow hall-like walls two stories high allowing for a large courtyard inside with an overgrown garden and one small, recent play structure (monkey bars, slide and swing)

Kira’s old room still looked the same: 21 ft by11 ft with one large open window in the center back wall. Three metal cribs on each sidewall with two babies per crib. The room was stifling. An air conditioner mounted on a wall up near the ceiling went unused.

Just as well, because the stench—even with the window wide open-- was overpowering. The white plaster walls, discolored and streaked with a sooty grayness, added to the somber scene.

They use industrial strength brown reusable diapers that look as rough as burlap and then cover them in plastic. Large 10-gallon red clay pots are lined up outside each room as bathrooms. Although we would occasionally see children simply squat in the courtyard and relieve themselves.

The older children helped the caregivers distribute baby bottles with formulae. The toddlers knew enough to lie flat on their backs to receive the bottles. And the nipples had extra large holes so the formulae flowed swiftly.

The second floor had four rooms marked “infant rooms” although only one, with five babies in residence, were what I would describe as infants (under one year old). The other three rooms were at full capacity (one dozen) and they all seemed to be about Jada’s age (18 months) or even older,

While Jada now eats solid food, drinks from a glass and dresses in normal clothes (over diapers) these children were still on the bottle and probably stayed in nothing but diapers the entire time.

The Huainan Children's Welfare Institute currently houses 100 children with responsibility for another 30 outsourced to foster parents in the community.

They have 30 employees. The director was not the same as five-and-a-half years ago when we adopted Kira. He was in his early 30’s and seemed as harried as he was bored.

My batteries died after only 3 or 4 photos out in the unrestricted area. One of the workers who shadowed us the entire time looked mentally challenged, so I’m sure if my camera was working I could have seriptiously snapped a few photos.

The wide-eyed kids with open sores on their face, a child with no hands, an albino boy, and the less than hygienic condition of the kitchen or piles of dirty diapers in the doorways.

But no camera could capture the most stunning assault on the senses: the smell, that awful smell. Smells like…misery.

Last leg of a long journey

For American adoptive parents in China no matter where you spent the last week picking up your child all roads lead to Guangzhou, home to the only American Consulate that does entry visas for these children about to become American.

Around 3:00 Tuesday afternoon, 31 sets of parents boarded a bus at the White Swan Hotel and took a 30-minute ride to the American Consulate. We took an oath that everything stated in the US Immigration paperwork was true and then received our entry papers to the United States of America for our adopted child.

The moment we land on American soil (beautiful New Jersey) Jada becomes an American citizen.

In Guangzhou we lost our novelty status as we shared the streets with about 100 other western couples with Chinese babies all staying at the White Swan. And like us, many of them were on their second or third adoption.

It was an odd mix of Average America—most of the couples older, many of them overweight. In fact, the majority would not survive the newer stricter adoption regulations recently enacted by China.

We are now heading to Hefei, capital of Anhui Province a small city of 2 million, where we will once again be an oddity. We will stay at the Novotel (a nice 4 star hotel half the price of the White Swan). In 2002 we first met our daughter Kira in their ballroom.