Art in the Park

The Youth Action Coalition--those kids who brought you a permanent mural on the side of the Amherst Cinema building--are at it again, this time with a less ambitious art project dangling in the middle of Kendrick Park: "Amherst Truths."

Oh, if they only knew.

Click photos to enlarge/read

Ghost in the machine

North Whitney Street crossing

I hope the town manager, fresh back from a two week vacation, reads the Amherst police logs as New England Central Railroad made their report twice over the weekend--both times for maintenance issues.

Coincidentally enough the Town Manager is giving an "update on the train derailments" to the Select Board this evening. Spfld Republican Reports

High Street Crossing

Busy Main Street crossing

APD contacted NECR on Sunday afternoon as citizens were complaining the lights and bells had been on for an hour and a half with no train in sight. Again late Sunday night just after midnight another complaint from High Street the next street over for phantom trains setting off the bells and lights.

Well I guess it is better for the alarms to be going off when there's no train a comin' vs not having them go off when a train is barreling through town. I guess...

High Street crossing Monday 10:45 AM with no train in sight

The same mysterious white powder found on Station Road

And our flag was still there

Hard to believe it's been over six weeks since that terrible tornado tore its way through the city of Springfield, surrounding towns and neighborhoods. Here's just one of them--and it doesn't come close to measuring up to the damage inflicted on some others nearby.

A moveable feast

Amherst Farmers Market opened for business today (rent free as always) in a new location, a stone's throw from the old one currently undergoing a six week makeover by our DPW. This parking lot, although a tad smaller, is located more directly in the heart of downtown.

Last November a brief "Save the Market" campaign started on the privately owned town meeting listserve where activist rail at the drop of a hat, and market organizers flooded the Select Board with letters/petitions of concern. Unlike the Boy Scouts selling Christmas trees at Kendrick Park (for far longer than the Farmers Market has been in business) the town would never dream of banning or disrupting the farmers--a prized, protected demographic.

After all, the town seal is a book and a plow.

Cherry Hill: A sucking sinkhole

Despite Finance Committee assurances to Town Meeting that our lackadaisical golf course would produce "a small surplus for FY 11," (ended June 30) Cherry Hill scored yet another losing season costing Amherst taxpayers $40,000, money that could have funded a police officer, firefighter or teacher--a far better use for tax dollars than subsidizing the Rich Man's Game of golf.

According to draft figures provided by Comptroller Sonia Aldrich, Cherry Hill generated $223,538 in revenues on "operation expenses" of $220,140 which are the only two figures town officials ever wish to compare.

Since Cherry Hill requires employees, the hidden human costs--employee benefits--which are paid out of a separate budget totaled an additional $25,230; and business liability insurance $3,300 plus a big ticket capital item: $15,000 to dig a new well to feed the expensive irrigation system. Total overhead of $263,670 on revenues of only $223,538 equals $40,132 in red ink.

In 1987 Amherst absorbed the nine-hole golf course after a developer proposed 134 high-end houses around the golf business, which he planned to donate to the town or UMass Stockbridge School of Agriculture for free. Instead, the town--at the urging of North Amherst NIMBYs-- used the power of eminent domain as an "emergency measure" (thereby making the heavy handed action immune to voter Referendum) costing taxpayers a whopping $2.2 million, the most expensive acquisition in town history.

The golf course operated as an "Enterprise Fund" (tracking all revenues/expenditures) because the business was supposed to cover all expenses--including employee benefits--plus show a profit. After operational losses of over $1 million Town Meeting dissolved the Enterprise Fund status five years ago, allowing town officials to hide costs and issue disingenuous press releases touting "net operating profits."

Nero supposedly fiddled while Rome burned. In the People's Republic of Amherst, town officials fiddle with golf--at taxpayers expense.

Gateway: "Not dead yet!"

I was considering a motion for the next Amherst Redevelopment Authority meeting to use our remaining funds ($30,000) to hire a hitman to take out Amherst Chamber of Commerce Director Tony Maroulis over his Front Page/Above-The-Fold comment in today's Amherst Bulletin: "I think what we came up with for the Gateway parcel is not so exciting." Yikes!

But then I received this email:

Sent: Thu, Jul 14, 2011 11:16 am
Subject: FW: Gateway article corrected quote for blog

My quote was taken out of context within a much larger conversation that was a much more relevant expression of my thoughts on Gateway. I said I wasn't excited about Gateway with the caveat that I said that that money was well spent. Especially since there is consensus around high-density zoning near and around Kendrick Park. The plan was also a rejection of the status quo, which in the end, even if we don't get what I think is exciting is a big step in the right direction.

I also made a lot of salient points about people insisting change is bad, expressed so within the article by Louis Greenbaum. Change is always happening, and we need to make some changes to be the best college town in America.

The project's legacy will be long felt, I believe, even if nothing is constructed on the parcel right away. People acknowledged what's there now is not acceptable, which suggests to me something MUST happen in the future.

Tony Maroulis

##################################

The Bully Reports

The article also makes it sound like the ARA is limping off into the sunset, dejected and defeated. Hardly. At our most recent June 30 meeting the ARA unanimously voted to accept/endorse the plan/concept/vision put forth by our consultant Gianni Longo, and to continue as the lead agency to promote the mutually beneficial partnership with UMass for the development of the former Frat Row, two acres of exceeding prime, open, shovel-ready, property.

Straight line through a round circle

Looks like somebody forgot to go round the UMass roundabout intersection at Eastman Lane/North Pleasant Street. Could have been one of those late Friday/Saturday night kind of things. Let's hope that driver stays away from the two new roundabouts at Atkins Corner when they come on line two years down the road.