A simple symbol

Borrowing from the Air Force "missing man formation" to honor the fallen, the Child Welfare League of America designed a hard-to-miss Children's Memorial Flag. The town put it up Friday in solidarity with National Child Abuse Prevention Month (April.)

Nice gesture. (Now if we could just lose the UN Flag)

Blogger reprieve with update (at least I asked)

UPDATE 10:00 PM:
From: Debbie Westmoreland
To: amherstac@aol.com
Cc: Maria Geryk

Sent: Mon, 27 Apr 2009 1:16 pm
Subject: Appointment w/Superintendent
Dear Mr. Kelley:

Thank you for contacting me to set up the meeting Superintendent Geryk
requested. She is available at 9:00 a.m. this Wednesday, April 29th, which I
understand is also a convenient time for you to meet. If your availability has
changed, please let me know. Otherwise, she will plan to meet with you here in
the Superintendent's Office on Wednesday.

Thank you,

Deb

amherstac@aol.com> 4/27/2009 1:38 PM

Hey Deb,

Works for me. May I record the meeting?

Larry


From: Debbie Westmoreland
To: amherstac@aol.com
Sent: Mon, 27 Apr 2009 4:05 pm
Subject: Re: Appointment w/Superintendent

Hi Mr. Kelley:

I'm glad the meeting time is still O.K. for you. I checked with Maria and she
does not want the meeting recorded.

Thanks,

Deb

#############################################################
ORIGINAL POST: 10:00 AM
Damn, now I don't have a good excuse to miss Town Meeting next week--although in mid-June I'll be in Korea (the good half) so if they are still droning on...

So what is the interim Super going to do, make me write 100 times "I will not criticize the venerable Amherst School system", or as the Sisters of St. Joseph used to do--make me hold out my hand and WHAM with a wooden ruler???????

The original notice

And a good time was had...

UPDATE: 4:00 PM Traffic is gridlock as the light is back out again (damn electricians don't want to work on sunny saturday's)

Amherst Town Center 2:00 PM

Town center was still pretty much gridlock when I cycled by this afternoon. But it was worse around noon when the light at Rt. 9 was not working properly, simply flashing red. Luckily the drivers negotiating the gauntlet were not smoking pot.

And strangely enough last year I cycled up to the Extravaganja around the same time and noticed a lot more smoke hanging in the air vs. today, when theoretically it is decriminalized. Hmmm...

Maybe it is just not cool anymore.




(Click to enlarge). Last year, same time.

One is the best number.

So the League of Women Voters, a supposedly non-partisan entity, laid down their weapons without firing a shot, retreating from the idea of throwing a second competing July 4'th “protest parade”

Too bad, I was soooooo looking forward to some brash individual displaying a sign “League of Women Vultures sucks” or something colorful like that. And of course we had a number of folks who may have something to publicly proclaim about our Town Manager.

Funny, when they found out there’s no such thing as a free lunch and you have to pay for police and insurance, they surrendered. Thank God they were not at Valley Forge.

The Republic reports:

Ghost of Christmas future 2

Back 15 years ago Phillip Sweeney asked Amherst Town Meeting to zone this property Village Square to allow commercial development. They overwhelmingly turned him down. I of course voted in favor. One town official even told Town Meeting that someday this entire corridor (ultra-busy Rt. 9) would be zoned commercial but Mr. Sweeney is a tad ahead of the curve (naturally the NIMBY neighbors spoke against the rezoning.)

His speech was one of the most disjointed I have ever heard in Town Meeting and he looked, with his frizzy hair, a bit like a male version of recent sensation Susan Boyle (but without the speaking/singing talent)

When the lopsided vote was announced (and it required a two-thirds majority to pass) a long-time Town Meeting member sitting behind me said to the member next to him "That's because we don't like him." Hmmm....

He did manage to open the Maplewood Restaurant under a "farm stand" exemption (what is more natural than fresh brewed beer?) but with all the rules and regulations restraining his commercial activity the restaurant only lasted a few years.

And now it just sits there, abandoned. The first commercial enterprise you see when approaching Amherst from the east. A reminder of the motto: bury your business in Amherst.

Size does matter!

South Amherst 11:15 AM

All the news...

So today's front page's of the venerable Daily Collegian and by comparison reverent Gazette demonstrate these embarrassing issues have legs.

Of course the Gazette uses a pull quote from one of their unpaid, Hampshire College professor Columnist's who led the charge to increase costs to maintain the "lunch ladies" as school employees, but now laments the increase in spending for the new Super from Florida.

Hey maybe Rodriguez will pull a Governor Patrick with his $15-K housing/transportation allowance and buy a Cadillac (one that runs on vegetable grease of course)

And it seems the Gazette goes out of their way not to mention the firestorm reverberating within the blogesphere about this outlandish payraise issue.

But at least they are paying attention. So if those pissed off women do indeed burn their property tax bills in a hibachi outside the Superintendent's office window, the Gazette will give it Front Page play (and the AP will probably pick it up as well). BUT, you will see it first on the blogesphere.

And what can you say about nitwit Umass kids who dislike what a newspaper publishes so they ban the paper from future publication and steal the current copies?

The Student Government Association should consider their image. If they want the town of Amherst to take seriously their recent concern with the 4-person unrelated housing bylaw (and they damn well should) then stop doing stupid things like violating the freakin First Amendment!