CPA snafu

So the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has decided: the precedent setting case is now the law of the land (Massachusetts land that is): A community cannot use CPA funds to improve or rehabilitate land that was purchased prior to the creation of the CPA.

Like our Plum Brook Weeds, errrrrr, I mean Soccer fields--land purchased in 1974 for conservation/recreation and thirty years later expensively fine tuned into a more specific recreational pursuit, although still not ready for Prime Time.

While the court did not decide whether to grandfather projects already illegally completed (such as Plum Brook) they did clearly say: “We also have been urged to specify that our interpretation will be applied prospectively such that our ruling will have no effect on CPA appropriations already expended by municipalities throughout the Commonwealth. This issue has not been raised by the parties, and we reserve opinion on the matter until it is properly presented.”

Either way, The People’s Republic of Amherst was greedy enough to leverage CPA funds by taking out a large loan repaid over ten years.

So now you have to wonder: where is Amherst going to find the $40,000 annual loan payment over the next five or six years to retire the original $500,000 loan?

If Amherst cannot expend legally and properly the money it gets with the 1.5% CPA tax, how can we trust them with doubling that tax burden to 3%?

My original "I told you so"

The Boston Globe Reports (yeah, the Crusty Gazette will get around to it)

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Of course the funny thing is Mr. Obama will have no problem whatsoever winning the People’s Republic of Amherst, or Taxachusetts for that matter.

Even more hilarious, if you polled the entire DPW department--you know the men and women who do the actual day to day work--McCain would probably hold a slight edge (although the majority of them would not be Amherst registered voters because they cannot afford to live in the town they work for).

Eating for a good cause

10:30 AM
So I couldn't find any bake sales to benefit the next nuclear aircraft carrier but I did find the next best thing: A pancake benefit put on by the always-working Amherst Fire Department. All proceeds benefit SAFE (Student Awareness of Fire Education) an education program that teaches kids about a most formidable foe, fire.

The men behind the curtain

Grrrrrrrr

No it is not Anne Awad doing gardening in her "love nest" in South Hadley. It's a full grown black bear rumbling around the Bike Path in South Amherst (Mill Lane) around 3:00 PM. My wife called from her bike saying to get down her quick with a camera.

But when I went into the woods to get a decent shot she kept yelling to get the Hell back into the car and shoot from there.

The bear just wandered off into the brush. I would guess he was about 400 pounds or so--a lot bigger than me. Back in the day, I had a sidekick that stopped Andre Tippett dead in his tracks (when he was a Pro Bowl linebacker for the New England Patriots), but he probably only weighed in around 275. And that was 20 or so years ago.

So yeah, maybe Donna had a point...

All politics is local

Yeah, that’s our antiquated almost-extinct Amherst Town Meeting, with over half the members already having one foot in the grave. The illustrious Select Board moved back the start date from November 5 to November 10 because they figured everybody would be soooooo tired from campaigning on November 4 and watching the election results that they would need a reprieve.

Of course if McCain wins, about half of Town Meeting will succumb to heart attacks thus making it hard to get a quorum.

The decline of downtown Amherst

UPDATE: 9:00 AM Wednesday

Talk about prescient headline. This morning’s crusty Gazette has a banner headline announcing the Jeffery Amherst Bookshop—a downtown institution for over two generations—calling it quits.

Interestingly Barry Roberts said he had two bookstores as tenants (must be the other two) and they seem “to do well”. Well, I guess they will do a little better now.

Original post: Tuesday 10:30 PM

If all roads lead to Rome then you better have ample spaces for folks to park their chariots.

Hometown developer Barry Roberts drove home that message in a 1.5 hour discussion with the Amherst Redevelopment Authority, a quasi-state agency with the power of eminent domain made up of four locally elected members and one Governor appointed.

Barry was the guest speaker at our meeting tonight (also attended by rookie Select Person Diana Stein) And since the undersized downtown parking garage was the last project the ARA had any involvement with, his message hit home.

He noted “A significant change in the atmosphere of the downtown,” for commercial rental property (a fair amount of which he owns.) “There’s just not the demand like 10 or 15 years ago. Most of the people are looking to open restaurants.”

But he noted that Amherst College and Umass are doing a better job with food service, so the students no longer flock to the down town as they did in the good old days (at least not for food anyway)

With downtown business overly centered on restaurants we simply “Don’t have a great mix of stores.”

Barry’s advice? “Amherst has to figure out how to be that special place” (that attracts people to the downtown.) And they will want to park.

There they go again...

Amherst Town Center 8:00 PM
So yeah, once again I’m not overly worried a sitting President or retired President has died because with Amherst College flying the US flag at half-staff could be anything: the death of a lunch lady, or Pulitzer Prize winner.

Their prominent flag spends so much time at half staff most local folks no longer even notice when it is down in the position of mourning (that only a US President or Governor can order).

Belchertown gets it!