NIMBYs at the Gate(way)

John Fox on the attack at ARA meeting earlier this month.

So Umass neighbor John (crazy-like-a) Fox seems spoiling for a fight at every opportunity--even when he has to s-t-r-e-t-c-h it a bit in order to engage.

He attended the 12/15 zoning forum (fair enough, as it was advertised as a "pubic forum") and joined forces with other anti-development BANANAs: (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone) to rail against anything remotely resembling progress--especially the Gateway Project, a once-in-a-generation joint enterprise between Umass, the town and the Amherst Redevelopment Authority, a quasi-state agency with a proven track record at urban redevelopment dating back 40 years.

And since the ARA did not attend the forum, Mr. Fox made sure to forward his 7-page diatribe to our entire 5-person committee (four elected by town voters and one appointed by the Governor) via Planning Director Jonathan Tucker, even though Mr. Fox has our individual email addresses.

Today's Springfield Republican article should answer what appears to be his central question asking where the "new" Town Manager John Musante stands on the this long overdue coalition/partnership with Umass, an entity where Mr. Fox was once employed.

Indeed his location to campus, only an underhand pitch away, must have been awfully convenient back then.

Mr. Fox purchased his home in December, 1983 when the total student population was 25,833-- not much more than the 27,569 hosted today. And if memory serves (since I was attending the University back then) the fashionable nickname at that time--deservedly so--was "Zoomass." An image the University has worked hard to change over the past decade, with good results.

So it's not like Mr. Fox can argue the real estate agent never told him about this giant entity that looms over his frontyard. And at that time "Frat Row"--at the entrance to his street--was in its absolute glory, with about 200 rowdy kids who loved to party hardy. Former "Frat Row", with depressing shadow cast by NIMBYs

Neither is it likely that this intimate close proximity to Umass has hurt his property value any, since Mr. Fox's humble abode is currently valued at $546,800 and he only paid $109,100 twenty-seven years ago when a dollar was worth 2.1 times what it is today, or $229,110 in current dollars. Not a bad ROI.

Last night Mr. Fox carried his cacophonous campaign to the final Select Board meeting of the year, where he submitted a petition (how very 60s of him) requesting the town stand down on spending $30,000 for a consultant to help facilitate the "visioning process"--a very long, involved public input period, which I'm sure Mr. Fox will take every advantage of to press his one-note protest song.

The ARA has never said student housing at Gateway would be "substantially" or "primarily" undergraduate housing. We are saying the University needs additional housing (undergrads, grads, faculty) and Amherst's downtown desperately needs an economic boost, and our anemic less-than-10% commercial tax base could use some reinforcements.

This mixed use, privately developed project substantially dresses up the main approach to Umass and will be--as Umass deputy chancellor Todd Diacon has stated many times--"a win win."

Umass gets upscale housing that will provide much needed competition to the local slum lords who take advantage of students by packing them into one-family houses in residential neighborhoods, while the town gets a much needed increase in the commercial tax base, and the downtown expands seamlessly into the heart of Umass via an attractive corridor.

The $30,000 consultant cost is not town tax money, it is ARA money. In fact, Amherst has no control over the ARA, although we do work closely together with the town for the common good--something these noisy neighbors should try sometime.



ACTV did not air live the first few minutes of Mr. Fox's diatribe. When they get around to rebroadcast, if they air the entire monologue, I will reedit.
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Disclaimer: Although I'm a longtime member of the ARA, Umass graduate, currently a Continuing Education student and 5th generation Amherst resident, I speak here, as I always do, strictly for myself (and for the hard-pressed taxpayers of this town) using that cherished American ideal known as the First Amendment.

Free at last, free at last

So the Spring Street reconstruction, started last June by our DPW, is almost complete as vehicles can now freely pass to and fro. Private contractors are still busy on the Lord Jeff Inn renovation project and a sidewalk (paid for by Amherst College) is still to go in along the south side of Spring street nearest to the historic inn, scheduled for reopening this spring.
Engineering wing collecting final survey information for the reconstruction of the upper parking lot, where the Farmers Market will be displaced for, gasp, six weeks this spring.

Party house of the weekend

Obviously the "Keep out" sign did not apply to Amherst Police. They were called to this house at 675 Main Street in response to a fight in progress late Saturday night. The fight was finished when they arrived, but a large party was still in progress (the two of course are connected.)

So they broke up the party without having to issue a 'nuisance house' ticket (meaning the party goers were cooperative about dispersing) but did cite the responsible leaseholder with violating the town by law requiring a keg permit.

Yes, in Amherst a permit is required to have a keg. Just another arrow in the quiver for keeping rowdy parties in check. This past semester only one was applied for and granted; counting this most recent incident, Amherst police have issued ten $300 tickets.

And is seems to be working, as APD has not issued a $300 'nuisance house ticket' for the past two weeks.

Fast tracking an expensive project

Hawthorne from the middle of the meadow looking towards E. Pleasant St (barns in red)

Since the People's Republic of Amherst never met a conservation land deal it could hike away from, the $500,000 Hawthorn Farm purchase of 6.76 acres (40% of it unbuildable wetlands) not far from town center for community housing, open space and recreation breezed through Town Meeting by unanimous vote last spring.

The construction of soccer fields, however, rather than conserving open space (preventing a theoretical 4 to 6 houses) or "community"--Orwellian for affordable--housing was the main reason for the purchase; and that now brings another potent lobby group to enter the fray: soccer parents, who presumably drive mini vans and actually vote in local elections--the favorite demographic of the Amherst center.

Ah, but then an ironic bee came buzz bombing into the ointment. The town's own Historical Commission failed to march in lockstep and recently voted to enact a one-year demolition delay on the 150-year-old house and larger barn, which have provided a pleasing curb view along East Pleasant street for many generations.

The one year demolition delay bylaw to protect historic structures was only enacted by Town Meeting five years ago and was of course mainly designed as an anti-development device against those evil private developers.

As can be expected, the immediate neighbors are unhappy about the increased traffic that will surely result from soccer field(s), and perhaps more important the tree hugging, ground kissing farm preservationists are not to keen seeing another New England farm permanently plowed under . Throw in some landscape design/architectural academic types and this is shaping up to be a PC battle royal better than a schoolyard rumble between the Sharks and the Jets.
This 100-year-old row of quaint New England sugar maples are now on Death Row. Ironically, Stan Ziomek only recently retired as Amherst's Tree Warden, a position he held for 38 years.

Fiscal conservatives will also become aroused (admittedly a distinct minority in town) when construction costs for the soccer field commence--which will start out expensive and work its way up, like most municipal construction projects.

Considering the town spent $750,000 to develop the Potwine Lane fields, constructed from a parcel of land that already looked like a soccer field, it's hard to imagine the costs to tame the wild rolling topography at Hawthorne.

But soccer aficionados will no doubt rely on Community Preservation Act money, which Town Meeting squanders like manna falling from the heavens. The $500,000 purchase price, naturally, was appropriated from CPA funds and leveraged to the max by borrowing the amount and repaying over ten years.

And of course Stan Ziomek, chair of the Leisure Services and Supplemental Education (fancy name for a Rec Department) commission chair is the ultimate Amherst 'Don' of all things recreational--especially baseball. Stan is also a former acting Amherst Town Manager and also currently vice chair of--you guessed it--the Community Preservation Act Committee.

Does not hurt that his son Dave Ziomek is the Director of the Conservation Department. And according to minutes of the 3/19/10 CPA meeting: "Dave said that staff has proposed all along that this property be used for active recreation. It has been vetted by the Conservation Commission, the Agricultural Commission, and staff. He is not interested in a public process to vet different ideas because this property has been studied extremely well."

As in to Hell with the general public, I'm here from the government and we know best.

At the 2/4/10 CPA meeting the committee heard testimony that "The land would need significant grading and filling to create level fields." And the committee was also told the farmhouse--the one town officials now want to vaporize--was "structurally sound."

At that meeting the total "appraised value" of the property was pegged at $415,000--yet the town's assessor valued it at only $306,100. A second appraisal came back at $500,000 and six weeks later according to April 1st (no foolin!) CPA minutes "The new figure would help the negotiations with the owner be more successful."

And amazingly, LSSE director Linda Chalfant in no doubt bruising negotiations with the owner managed to land the deal at--you guessed it--$500,000. A lot to pay in a year when the real estate market was particularly frigid.

Only in Amherst would town officials be happy to spend W-A-Y more than assessed value to expand their empire at taxpayer expense. And that is only the beginning...

The other open area (except for pricker bushes) to the rear of the barns
Easternmost portion

From the barn looking towards the meadow

Centrally located for sure. Wildwood school on right.

Pride goeth before the fall

The most interesting exchange of the 12/14 Regional School Committee meeting perfectly underscores the hubris of Amherst--and it came from a member of the Regional Committee who is not even from the People's Republic of Amherst.

Kip Fonsh of Leverett trots out that tired old saw about Amherst educational superiority that may have been true at some point in the past, but certainly those days are long gone. Other than being the only High School in history to cancel a production of 'West Side Story' or allowing young girls to perform the R-rated 'Vagina Monologues', nothing springs to mind where ARHS has blazed a trail--at least with things of educational value.

And even Mr. Fonsh, a major cheerleader for the current administration, seems to indicate study halls are not exactly something worth bragging about. Notice too how Superintendent Geryk and Principal Mark Jackson (Amherst's two highest paid employees) are not overly quick to respond to Rob Spence's question about how Amherst compares to Northampton or Longmeadow on this issue.

"Prisoners of the budget" indeed. With ARHS currently having the highest cost per student in the area, hard pressed taxpayers have to wonder if perhaps those holding cell toilets are gold plated.

Turn the volume w-a-y up on your computer; and yes, I know the lip sync is something out of a Chinese martial arts movie. My $30 shareware editing program is being a tad funky today.

Mediocrity Confirmed

Left to rt: Superintendent Maria Geryk and Chair Rick Hood. Center (of the storm): Catherine Sanderson, (empty chair: Rob Spence), Irv Rhodes, Steve Rivkin 12/14

The dissident wing of the Regional School Committee (all three from Amherst of course) and the highly paid regional administrators--Superintendent, High School and Middle school principals--reenacted the Civil War clash of the ironclads: lots of cannon fire, but no real damage.

Unless of course you are student in the system or parent who subscribes to the theory "a mind is a terrible thing to waste."

The full committee--by not taking action--endorsed the concept of quiet time in a room with no actual teaching taking place, supposedly valuable simply because a certified teacher is acting as traffic cop.

According to the written opinion of attorney Regina Williams: a directed study can count toward time in learning so long as a teacher is present, and “where the teacher is available to assist students academically”.

The study may be held in “a classroom, computer lab, media center, etc.” However, it cannot cover a “large group of students with no clear educational focus who are housed in a cafeteria or auditorium where a teacher is present to monitor but is not interactive…”

As far as a I am aware, the last time the Department or the Commissioner issued any advisory on Time in Learning was in 1999 after the regulations’ amendments. The regulations have also included directed study as part of the “structured learning time” necessary to meet the 990 hour requirement."
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But even with this lower setting of the bar (assuming it is indeed legal--and this attorney has been wrong before), the Amherst Schools just barely meet the minimum state requirement for time on learning. No real reason given as to why this seems to happen 'Only in Amherst', the Happy Valley's supposed flagship of public education.

Northampton and Hadley manage to get their teachers to actually instruct while in a room with students. And their average cost per student is--Hadley just under $11,000 and Northampton at $11,699--considerably lower than Amherst's $16,909 (state average including those upstart Charter Schools is $13,062.)

About 90% of the Amherst schools operating budget goes towards employee salaries and benefits. Hmm...

Jones Library has a new (acting) director

Left to right: Tevis Kimball, Chris Hoffman, Kathy Wang, Patricia Holland (President), Emily Lewis

For the first time in a generation, the Jones Library will not be under the direction of Bonnie Isman, who retired December 10th after thirty years of steady leadership.

Last weekend the Trustees offered in house employee Tevis Kimball, Curator of Special Collections, the temporary position and she accepted. A pair of outside candidates withdrew at the last minute not wishing to sacrifice their current jobs for a short term position.

Presumably Ms. Kimball will return to her in house position after a permanent Director is hired. Next week the Trustees will discuss forming a search committee composed of trustees, staff and members of the general public (presumably library patrons).

December 14, 2010 8:53:29 AM EST
Subject: Jones Library Announcement

I am pleased to let you know that I have accepted the position of Acting Director of the Jones Library, effective today, with responsibility for operations of the Library, and will continue in a limited role as Curator of Special Collections. During this time, Kate Boyle will be the central contact for the collections.

As a crucial part of this transition, I will be supported by George Hicks, Sondra Radosh, and Maggie Spiegel, each of whom will also have new and expanded roles. Effective immediately, George, in addition to his current responsibilities, will oversee capital projects. Sondra will be responsible for day to day personnel issues, as well as her position as Children’s Librarian. Maggie will be responsible for special management projects, while maintaining her role as North Amherst Branch Librarian.

Over the next few days, I will be working with each department to answer questions and to further clarify our transition plan. As we transition to a new permanent Director, we all as a team play a very important role in shaping the future of this great institution, The Jones Library.

Together, in the spirit of teamwork and with a dedication to excellent service, we will continue to enrich the lives of this community. I very much look forward to our accomplishments in the coming months and want to thank you for all that you do for each other and for our patrons.

Best Regards,

Tevis