Miss Emily's facelift

Duh!

Princess Stephanie: try to keep up.

The time to put a Proposition 2.5 Override on the current local ballot election (3/31) has long since passed. So if you want to do an Override it will have to be a stand-alone election costing the taxpayers an additional $12,000 to $14, 000. And, like the last time, you will get your ass kicked.

Since it takes the Town Clerk about 35 days to do all the legal stuff she needs to do in order to make an election happen (and you don’t meet again until March23’rd) you would be pushing the unwritten law (that Comrade Gerry Weiss seems to take so seriously) about not having an election when the students are away, courtesy of Eric the Rat --a dead Hippie who would have been happier at Hampshire College rather than Umass.

So just tell the folks the reality: President Obama may come to the rescue via Federal money, but forget about local money via a Proposition 2.5 Override.

Amherst Town Hall Thursday morning

10:30 AM

Hey, at least the building was wide open (although abandoned) . So I got to walk around with my RPG looking for a soft target (nothing sprung into my crosshairs).

"Numbers are slippery things". Hmmm...

Dr. Ben Ricci was my favorite Umass Professor (friend and mentor—even though he gave me a C in Kinesiology.) He single-handedly, against all odds, took down the State School in Belchertown--a government operated warehouse for the mentally retarded.

And amazingly he did it in the pre-internet age (early 1970’s) when activism was a Hell of a lot harder than it is today.

He had a saying he used in class about once a week (born out of his political activism no doubt): “Figures don’t lie, but liars do figure.”

Now we have a new post-internet age slogan from rookie Selectman Aaron Hayden: “Numbers are slippery things.”

No Mr. Hayden, numbers are not slippery things. They are simply numbers. They are what they are! And you or anybody else should not be afraid of them. And if so, what are you trying to hide?

"Sunshine is the best disinfectant"

Cherry Hill: the pampering continues...

Yes Alisa, Cherry Hill Golf Course is the ONLY seasonal beer and wine license in the town.

The category was specifically created for Cherry Hill ten or 12 years ago and at about half the charge of a comparably license. The argument was they were only open for seven months out of the year so pro-rate the charge. Amazing how business friendly the town can be with itself, eh?

So back when Cherry Hill was an Enterprise Fund it was charged $700 (never paid it of course). And yes having alcohol out there probably increases the liability insurance but who cares, the insurance—like the brand new $22,000 lawn mower they bought last July—comes out of a different fund other than their Operation Budget.

And that is why I say Mark ‘Harpo’ Power got such a great, sweetheart deal, a few years back when Czar Anne Awad and Barry Del Castilho gifted him (in a no-bid contract) complete use of the new Clubhouse for only $150/month--and that included the liquor license (which alone should have been $100 per month)

And of course Mr. Power was granted a three-year contract by the former town manager. Yet when a management company offers to take the entire turkey off our hands for $30,000 per year, the new town manager turns him down because they wanted a three-year contract.

Funny how quick Aaron Hayden wanted to rubber stamp the damn thing and move on. You would think a mid-level, long-time Amherst College employee would not be so quick to do a favor for their main competition.

Amherst College does own Amherst Golf Course, the only other nine-hole operation in town. Although, unlike Cherry Hill, they do pay taxes on it ($7,000 last year.)

Come to think of it, Mr. Hayden probably should have abstained on that vote.

No smoking!

UMass/Amherst new $130 million Power Plant 9:00 AM, 34 degrees
Side view. Yeah, I think it is supposed to be doing that. Security? What security.

There he goes again

Vince O'Connor, activist

So comrade Vince is at it again. After miserable failures on the floor of Amherst town meeting as late—the “dark sky” initiative (turn downtown Amherst into North Korea after dark) or the “abolish the Amherst Redevelopment Authority” (but then comes in second in a write-in race for the one open seat that year) you would think he’d come up with something that stood a chance of passing, especially when it only take ten signatures to get anything on the warrant for Spring Town Meeting.

Now he want s the town to take by eminent domain the downtown building recently purchased by Amherst College (thus eventually removing it from the tax rolls) and use it for “economic development” and eventfully resell it to anyone but a tax-exempt entity.

But Mr. O’Connor thinks we take it away from Amherst College (who paid $2.3 million) for only $1 million (the actual assessed value). Hmmm…I would think a court would disagree and force the town to pay fair market value, which has now been established to be $2.3 million.

Not exactly the loose change the town can find stored in a bottle somewhere.

Interesting that Mr. O’Connor spearheaded the taking of Cherry Hill Golf Course for $2.2 million twenty-two years ago by eminent domain (which may be the last time the town used that power--and did so under an "emergency" clause that made the Town Meeting vote referendum proof) in order to prevent development.


Fiber Arts Center building