Community Choices Suggestion Box

Of the almost 500 folks who took the survey to provide feedback to town officials on the budget over the next five years a couple hundred had written "suggestions". The FCCC will publish them all unedited in an appendix of their Final Report (presented this afternoon to the Budget Coordinating Group and this evening to the Select board.) I culled these ten in no particular order of importance:

The town needs to become business friendly and develop means of generating income through technology and tourism.

Make hard choices without compromising ESSENTIAL services -- fire, police and schools.

Ask employees for a giveback on their raises

We must stop subsidizing ambulance services to Hadley and the other towns, and not accept a long-term contract in lieu of actual cost payments. We must foster economic development and business growth so that property owners are not the principal source of revenue.

No increase in budget. Aggressive initiative to change our form of government. It is dysfunctional to try to make choices by surveys. The results don't reflect to true political will of Amherst. The results only reflect those who go to meetings and fill out questionnaires . . . and there is no way for those who do participate to be assured that their concerns will be addressed our can they hold anybody accountable for choices made. Who will be held accountable for the choices made? Town Meeting? The community Choices Committee? Who and how and what consequences? Why not put all your efforts to finally changing our form of government to a fully accountable government of professional politicians that are paid and held accountable for their choices. It is the way the State, US and hundreds of thousands municipalities govern themselves. And please, don't respond that we have to work with the government we have. If you er-call, the first vote on the charter lost by 14 votes in an election where 9,000 registered voters didn't vote. If the "Choices" committee put their efforts into changing town government, perhaps two years from now we may still be in this mess, but we can be assured that choices will be made by people we know and who we can hold accountable. Jim Pitts

Prioritize better, focusing on maintaining public safety and education -- everything else is frosting on the cake. Close the branch libraries! Eliminate bus lines with low ridership; increase fees on remaining lines. Eliminate the human rights staff position, if it still exists. Increase LSSE fees to better cover costs. Close the Cherry Hill golf course. Open only one public pool in the summer, and/or charge a per-use fee (perhaps with summer pass option). Work very hard on business development, and on making sure we retain the businesses that currently exist (and generate revenue!). Quit using tax dollars for charity donations, that's inappropriate when we can't pay our own basic bills. Charge the farmer's market sellers a fee for use of the land each week. Pay attention to the fact that Hadley doesn't have a revenue problem -- I don't want to live in Hadley (weak schools, poor zoning), but they are very smart to use business development to create a strong tax base. We can be smarter about zoning, but still see some business growth.

Close branch (North and South) libraries Reduce budget at main library Negotiate for more money (PILOT) from UMass, Amherst and Hampshire colleges Renegotiate town employee’s wages/salaries and health insurance to lower cost Elementary Schools Reduce Special Ed program Make fee based ALL after school programs (academic and extra curricular) Regional Schools Eliminate and/or make fee based Russian and German language programs and Make fee based ALL after school programs (academic and extra curricular) Reduce Special Ed program

Increase tax base through business development, focus on core services, move to a mayoral form of government that provides greater accountability to the budget process.

Stop spending! This is not easy, nor is it popular but it must happen. Our town asks too much of its taxpayers. When times were more prosperous, we could better afford the wonderful services we have. Now, times are tough in the US and the world and we need to be satisfied with much less. We are ready for a mayor who has the skills to make the really difficult and unpopular decisions that need to be made. Amherst can remain a beautiful, New England college town without all the "extras" we have come to expect in the past. Please act responsibly and stop overspending!


Town should lives within its means--like any family budget.

Yes, Virginia...(especially in South Deerfield)

Not all corporations are cutting back on public service promotions. Yankee Candle pulled out all the stops to entertain the kids with Santa and Mrs. Clause dropping in by helicopter. The huge crowd--most with children in tow--loved every minute of it (nice to see those expensive full-page, full-color ads in the bricks and mortar media still work)

And yeah, I'm sure some of the folks went on to buy candles.

Cinderalla Committee Expires at Midnight

UPDATE: 2:20 PM According to the Select Board agenda posted on the town website the FCCC "report" is scheduled for 7:40 PM but the main attraction--"Select Board reorganization: Election of Officers" is scheduled for 6:40 PM. Maybe I will live blog it (although it will be hard to type and simultaneously pop the cork on champagne!)

Original Post 12:30 PM So the Facilitation of the Community Choices Committee, one of the goofiest named Committee's in a town know for goofiness, ceases to exist this Monday night. I"m told their Final Report will be ready after a final meeting at 9:00 AM for presentation to the Budget Coordinating Group at 1:00 PM.

Nothing like cutting it close; but, they did their job. Now it's up to the Select Board--hopefully under a new Chair.

The Amherst Bulletin gives a misleading impression with today's Front Page headline (the article itself is fine) strongly suggesting that the committee is endorsing an Override in the near future. Unfortunately all too many readers simply scan the headline and don't bother with the article.

Obviously "budget cuts" are going to happen immediately (and in fact already have), so with a headline screaming "Cuts and Override" that gives the impression that the FCCC was also equally endorsing an immediate Override. What they actually said is that one will be necessary over the next five years--but the cuts are needed yesterday.

And for next year they overwhelmingly supported a "Level Funded Budget", which by most people's definition means no use of reserves and no Override.

The Bully reports

A Thanksgiving Story (one year later)

UPDATE: 11/27/08 Olga Hagelberg had to leave the home built by her husband so long ago. The electric candles in the windows that have come on at dusk since Dick died in 1993 now shine for her as well. She is currently receiving care at the Vermont Veterans' Home in Bennington, in her beloved state of Vermont.

(11/21/07) Only in Arlington would posing for the greatest illustrator in American history on assignment for media juggernaut The Saturday Evening Post pass for routine.

Richard (Dick) Hagelberg returned to the family dairy farm after surviving five years in the 9’th Army Air Corps, flying 65 treacherous daylight bombings missions over Europe, including D-Day.

One summer morning he sat beside his 51-year-old mother Saara (Finnish spelling) for an hour of modeling; and two generations later, the scene still resonates.

Rockwell desperately recruited the Hagelberg’s at deadline. Initially they refused, but acquiesced when he offered them each $15. After publication, as he often did with models, Rockwell offered to gift Dick the original painting. He respectfully refused.

Last year Rockwell’s ‘Homecoming Marine’ sold at auction for $9.2 million and ‘Breaking Home Ties’ (a farmer sitting on the running board of a pick up truck with his son dressed in Sunday best clothes heading off to college) brought an astonishing $15.4 million.

Rockwell’s 1943 ‘Freedom from Want’, an extended family gathering around a sumptuous turkey dinner, would prove more popular than the minimalist “Thanksgiving, 1945: A mother and son peeling potatoes.”

But the earlier Post cover had a distinct advantage.



Part of Rockwell’s public relations war effort, the epic series of illustrations based on FDR’s 1941 State of the Union speech, ‘The Four Freedoms’ heartened a battered America still reeling from Pearl Harbor’s infamy.

The US Government originally rebuffed Rockwell’s sponsorship proposal so he settled on his regular employer, The Saturday Evening Post. The blockbuster results appeared over four consecutive weekly covers from February 20 to March 13, 1943.

‘Freedom From Want” hit the stands on March 6, 1943, so unlike ‘A mother and son peeling potatoes’ that appeared on November 24’th, 1945, it was not simply a seasonal Thanksgiving tribute.

The Office of War Information printed and distributed millions of full-color reproductions of the ‘The Four Freedoms’ and sponsored the originals on a War Bond Tour of major cities that raised $130 million.

Americans adored ‘Freedom from want’; but with Europe in ruins our struggling and beaten allies didn’t want a reminder that America’s heartland escaped war’s devastation.

For his Thanksgiving, 1945 cover Rockwell journeyed to Maine for a change in scenery, starting work in mid-August--the day Japan surrendered.

Rockwell drafted a 16-year-old boy for the veteran and a friend’s wife acted as his mother. When the illustrator returned to his Arlington studio he couldn’t make it work—the young man didn’t exude the stress of war.

Rockwell recruited two more locals but once again didn’t like the results, considering it too staged. Fortuitously, Dick, recently returned from battle, arrived to deliver milk fresh from the nearby Hagelberg farm. The illustrator had his subjects.

Rockwell originally posed Dick in a wheelchair striking a pensive pose imitating Rodan’s ‘The Thinker’, but decided it was too sad. The selected scene is still slightly incongruous, as Dick is performing one of the military’s more despised chores—KP duty—yet he radiates contentment.

Saara Hagelberg’s loving expression—the look only a mother can give—to a son who survived the ravages of a conflict that had claimed so many sons, personifies Thanksgiving.

Rockwell rejoiced: this time the handsome young man had weathered the misery of war; this time his real mother sits by his side.

So why refuse to accept the original painting? Rockwell, as he often did with models, took liberties with Saara adding twenty pounds and twenty years to her appearance. In fact, Hallmark later used her Thanksgiving image for an “I love you Grandma” card.

The dutiful son knew his mother—although proud of the overall result—was mad.

Saara Hagelberg died of cancer only two years later, a few months before the birth of her first grandchild. By then a priest had purchased the painting and he donated it to an American Legion Post in Winchendon, Massachusetts.

A Rockwell Museum expert rediscovered Thanksgiving, 1945 in the late 1970’s; aghast it hung in a smoke filled building with no fire suppression. The Museum borrowed it, where it remains to this day.

In 1988 the Hagelberg family returned from Stockbridge, Massachusetts disappointed the painting was not on display.

In an apology letter curator Maureen Hart Hennessey explained, “The museum has almost 500 paintings in its collection and can only exhibit 40-50 at one time. We also rotate paintings for conservation reasons to help preserve them for future generations.”

A few weeks later the Hagelberg’s enjoyed a private showing.

In 1993 Dick Hagelberg, after helping build a home for his daughter Nancy high on a hill overlooking the family farm that he also built, succumbed to cancer. His wife Olga, a proud WW2 Marine veteran, still lives in that home in Arlington, Vermont.



And lately, even around Thanksgiving, she briefly struggles…but then vividly recalls—keeping alive those magnificent memories.

The Torch will be passed (Thank God)

Perhaps if he spent more time on town affairs?

His Lordship Gerry Weiss, venerable Chair of the illustrious Amherst Select Board will lose his royal aura Monday night as rookie member (and you know how those young rookies can be hungry) Stephanie O’Keeffe will lead a coup d’état by forcing a mid-year “reorganization” of the five-member board.

The vote will be 3-1-1 (with former Chair Weiss having the good sense to abstain, and his water carrier Diana Stein voting against)

What an auspicious evening! The Facilitation Committee will turn over its Final Report calling for a ‘Level Funded, Core Budget” thus making it impossible for town officials to use as cannon fodder for a property tax Override this coming year.

But with this Select Board reorganization and the rise of the “new majority,” perhaps the town will start operating more efficiently, lessening the need for a taxpayer bailout.

The Bully reports (sorry I missed it live)

Cruch Time

7:15 PM Bangs Community Center Final "working" meeting of the Facilitation Committee as their Final Report is due Monday night before the Select Board (and if they don't get this done the SB may send them to bed without their supper).

7:20 Let the arguing begin. Irv Rhodes vs Kathy Feldman: about having the University cooperate with an accounting study of how much money they cost the town. Kathy (A Umass employee) says no way in hell (in so many words) will Umass cooperate and pay half the cost of that.

7:33 Bob Saul, co-chair, is worried they are getting into micromanagement with some of their suggestions for "closing the budget gap." Stan Gawle had suggested cutting some of the over $2 million in Capital spending and throwing the lions share of it to the schools (the town tries to keep Capital spending at about 7% of the overall budget).

7:37 Rich Spurgin wants them to recommend that town officials " develop a plan to reduce the pension and retiree health care costs." The motion passes unanimously.

8:07 Now discussing the many suggestions from private individuals that came out of the survey of almost 500 residents. Some FCCC members to keep the Committee's recommendations very general, but these suggestions are very specific (damn public!).

8: 12 Kathy Feldman does not like the Committee making official suggestions based on a sample that may not be representative of the population.

8:15 John Musante suggests all the suggestions from folks be placed in an appendix to the report.

8:20 Some are having second thoughts about the official recommendation to the Select Board to consider cutting Capital expenditures and reallocating it to operations (especially the Schools).

8:23 Alison thinks they are being "inconsistent" If you are going to "micromanage" the Capital budget then why not look at some of the other areas of the budgets and micromanage them (as in make very specific, concrete suggestions based on what respondents said in the survey).

8:27 Martha Hanner makes a motion "to let the open comments (from the survey) speak for themselves." Hey, it works for blogs!

8:36 Bob Saul wants to extract from the survey comments "just the facts" and include those in the Final Report. The word "sanitize" gets thrown around a lot. Martha wants to see it in writing before approving it. Stan suggests they meet on Monday morning to look that over.

8:40 Martha's motion to let the entire comments stay in the Final Report fails. Alison moves to have Bob reduce these 'mini recommendations' to their essential pieces.
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That's all folks (battery is dying)

Blind Justice

So the “Justice For Jason” roadshow came to Amherst ‘s taxpayer funded Bangs Community Center this evening for one of those organizational –community-activist- outreach –strategy- sessions. First of all, they could use some work on their signage.

Only a handful of folks attended compared to the mob that marched on District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel’s office last Wednesday to publicly pressure her into dropping charges against Vassell.

Yeah, now there’s an antic even PT Barnum would have had second thoughts about. Trying to physically intimidate a female DA while searching for self-styled justice reminds me of that old anti-war slogan from the 60’s: “Killing for peace is like Fu_king for chastity.”

Whatever happened to “give peace a chance”?