0 for 2 on anti slum legislation

Amherst Town Meeting tonight gave the new housing code enforcement officer (approved earlier in the budget) one less bylaw to enforce by turning down a zoning change requiring one half of a duplex to be owner occupied or if both units are rented, an on site manager. Article #28 failed to reach a two thirds majority: 81-49.

The follow up zoning article #29 "Residential Parking Requirement" to forbid the unsightly practice of parking cars on lawns by requiring all parking spaces be paved also failed to garner a two thirds majority: 78-42.

These zoning articles were hatched in response to continuous complaints from older established town neighborhoods where single family homes converted to student housing by private "entrepreneurs" can make life miserable when UMass is in session.

Earlier in the meeting the body voted unanimously to pass article #27, "Adoption of Stretch Energy Code," which increases by 20% the energy efficiency requirements set forth in the State Building Code for new construction making Amherst a 'Green Community' with better access to state grants to fund programs such as efficiency initiatives or renewable energy projects.

The meeting started with a standing moment of silence for Bill Field, former Moderator of 20 years, who passed away yesterday. A visibly shaken current Moderator Harrison Gregg cited Field as his inspiration.

Party House of the weekend

219 Amity Street

Yes, now that UMass graduation is done the party house pickings will be pretty slim. And the students who show enough initiative to attend summer classes are probably not of the party demographic that wreaks havoc 7 or 8 months out of the year.

But we do have a (rooming) house of bothersome note that was issued a warning by APD, owned by James Cherewatti of Eagle Crest Management where police are all too often called to babysit. This morning at 5:36 AM for instance, where five males were frolicking in a home made hot tube. Beer for breakfast anyone?

Now I think I know why town officials choose the house next door two years ago to enforce the town bylaw preventing more than four unrelated persons living together. It was not the residents at the 265 Amity Street location (all five young ladies were Mother Teresa types) it was more the owner of neighboring 219 Amity, James Cherewatti, the town was trying to send a stern message.

UPDATE (1:30 PM): Turns out I mixed up Amity with 219 E. Pleasant Street--another party house--in the background article from two years ago. Hard to keep them all straight.

While the weary editors were sleeping

Daily Hampshire Gazette and Springfield Republican editors awoke Sunday morning with collective egg on the face. A small nuclear bomb detonated next door and somehow they managed to sleep through it.

Let's hear it for the distant BIG city bricks-and-mortar institution who still knows how to break a fully fleshed out story, even though they had to rely on unnamed sources "familiar with the evaluation."

But when you are the iconic Boston Globe you can get away with quoting unnamed sources.

Of course now the fun game is to watch closely and see who will first catch up to this Front Page story (and whether they assign a reporter to get a different quote or two from their own sources) on their webpage, since the ink presses will not run again until Monday morning.



UPDATE: 9:10 AM My ultra reliable source at the Gazette just sent me a link showing they just updated their Gazettenet main page with a "breaking story" citing the Boston Globe. OK they win, but still come in second place overall. And in journalism second place might as well be last.

And it may very well have been a tie since my Facebook buddy Scott Coen did put up a blogpost on Masslive--the Springfield Republican website-- with the story at 9:15 AM. Okay, so now we just need to hear from Ch. 22 (Scott Coen also absolves his main employer WGGB Ch 40)

Now I'm told by another Facebook buddy--who works for the Republican--that indeed the Gazette won as he published Scott Coen's blog post around 9:30 AM, about 15 minutes after Mr Coen hit his publish button and a few minutes after the Gazette went cyber.

And he also pointed out that there is no embarrassment being scooped by the likes of the Boston Globe. The young lad has been working less than a year and he's already complacent. Yikes!

Well I guess not that complacent. He responds:


"1.) I work for MassLive.com, a sister company to The Republican.
2.) I didn't say there wasn't any "embarrassment," just that it wasn't an upset i.e. I would expect the Globe to get this story because it's not, per se, a local one. The Holub decision will likely be made in Boston, not Amherst.

Acknowledging the good work of competitors is hardly complacency. You can quote me on that."

And so I did.

APD Open House

My daughter Jada wanted to see where the police keep the "bad robbers"--especially the ones involved with a rash of Breaking & Entering that has plagued the community for almost a year. Even at age four she is savvy enough to remind me at night to lock the doors. Today's open house afforded us the perfect opportunity to tour the station. Unfortunately, the bad people were not handcuffed in a holding cell.

Toilets are practically indestructible

Hobart Hoedown Wagon

No horse patrol but we have (2) Harley's

The grass was greener

Let's hope the rain holds off today

A taste of Woodstock

Muddy Brook Farm giving pony rides

Saturday 6:00 PM

Let the Rapture begin

7:30 PM: Looking southeast

An even more expensive view

Kimball House

Wednesday night Amherst Town Meeting voted to place an Agricultural Preservation Restriction on land already owned by the town that was purchased for municipal use (an ill fated attempt to build an elementary school there failed--one of only a few times Amherst voters turned down the sacred schools) as the final moving part in a complicated deal hatched five years ago to preserve the view of privately owned Kimball House.

This was the fourth time Town Meeting deliberated the fate of this parcel as former School Committee member Vladimir Morales failed three times previously to get Amherst Town Meeting to designate the entire 66 acre parcel as "permanent conservation land."

The land was not locked into this protective designation because insiders wanted to keep options open to use it in the future as a possible "exchange" for municipal development on other land in town that borders conservation property.

Five years ago when Town Meeting missed the two-thirds vote required (96-60) Francesca Maltese, then Chair of the Conservation Commission, said prophetically "Even if no one can build on Wentworth Farm, to leverage this and take some of other piece of conservation land out of conservation is almost an ethical issue to deal with. We don't want to use Wentworth Farm to break the covenant on another piece.''

And that's exactly what just happened--except the covenant was broken for a private individual. As part of the deal to remove land from the state APR program so Roger Cherewatti could build his spacious abode behind the Kimball House rather than on it, the town had to pay the state $268,000 (half down the other half over five years) plus find 10 acres of land somewhere in town to replicate the APR land lost on North East Street. And time was just about up for finding that land, otherwise the town would pay the state another $100,000.

Mr. Cherewatti's other house (577 No East St): $2 million valuation

So if the town needs to build, say, a fire station in South Amherst that treads a tad too close to APR land (and Amherst has a LOT of APR land) Wentworth Farm is no longer available as a trade.

Ghostly view west: Smoke stack from UMass $9 million Paradis boiler plant

A town meeting member reminded the body that part of the deal five years ago was the property would be farmed, and he demanded to know if that part of the bargain was being kept. Sure enough. Last year the Cherewatti's received approval from the Department of Agriculture to construct a one acre irrigation pond (for crops) on the remaining APR land.

Mr. Cherewatti's view to the east

And I suppose it's easy to assume that Mr. Cherewatti got the best end of the deal. Either way, he was going to build his beautiful home; but now he has two of them. And this year he will pay the town $40,000 in taxes for the pleasure of his views.

But for anyone traveling along North East Street he provides a beautiful view--for free.