Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Monday, October 24, 2011
Amherst Supports Business Improvement District
The Amherst Select Board voted unanimously to support the organization of a downtown Business Improvement District financed by a self-imposed, additional property tax collected by the town with the extra money going towards capital improvements (benches, lighting, plantings, etc) and advertising/marketing the wide variety of goods and services provided by downtown merchants.
Promoting Downtown Amherst co-chair Jerry Jolly reports 65% of downtown businesses have signed on (state law requires 50%) as well as Amherst College and the University of Massachusetts, our two main educational institutions and the top two landowners in town.
The hearing tonight was packed with supporters and not a single detractor. SB Chair Stephanie O'Keeffe pointed out the board could continue the Public Hearing for a couple weeks in case somebody missed the opportunity to oppose the project, but she also noted that the BID only impacts the business community, so little opposition or concern from NIMBYs was expected.
If the town is also going to contribute funds that will have to get Town Meeting approval in the future.
The BID will put downtown Amherst on the same level footing as the nearby Hadley Malls which charge all the tenants a similar fee for joint promotions and improvements (and have a lot more parking).
Pushing our luck
Once again this past weekend we had the not uncommon situation where all four on-duty ambulances were simultaneously tied up, meaning none available to respond had you called with a real emergency late Friday night.
And what were those four emergencies? Well if you read my post this morning you should be able to guess, as that particular Party House was half the problem. Yes, all four ambulances were required to ferry four college students to the Cooley Dickinson Hospital due to ETOH, an overdose of alcohol.
That kind of avoidable, irresponsible behavior endangers the particular students themselves and the general public left waiting should they require immediate help.
AFD weekend statistics
"I just compiled the stats from Thursday 10/20, 6pm to Friday 10/21 6pm. It breaks out like this:
And what were those four emergencies? Well if you read my post this morning you should be able to guess, as that particular Party House was half the problem. Yes, all four ambulances were required to ferry four college students to the Cooley Dickinson Hospital due to ETOH, an overdose of alcohol.
That kind of avoidable, irresponsible behavior endangers the particular students themselves and the general public left waiting should they require immediate help.
AFD weekend statistics
#######################
And according to AFD Chief Tim Nelson, Thursday was hectic as well:"I just compiled the stats from Thursday 10/20, 6pm to Friday 10/21 6pm. It breaks out like this:
UMASS – 6 Responses: 1 Fire Alarm; 5 EMS, one of which was an ETOH female.
Hampshire College – 2 Responses: 2 EMS, one of which was an ETOH male.
Town – 13 Responses: 11 EMS; 1 Fire Alarm; 1 Car into People’s United Bank.
During that 24 hour period we also requested station coverage 6 times due to all of our resources being committed to calls for service."
ETOH=Alcohol overdose
Party House(s) of the weekend
These rowdy kids were lucky APD did not also issue them each a $300 "nuisance house" ticket on top of the $300 noise violation tickets issued very early Saturday morning (1:30 AM).
According to Amherst Police Department narrative:
Assessors Card for ownership of 872 N Pleasant St
According to Amherst Police Department narrative:
RP reports a large party, bottles being thrown
Excessive loud party with approximately 300+ guests on property. Upon arrival guests were observed kicking bottles into the street. All four residents placed under arrest for TBL noise. One under arrest for minor in possession. Two ETOH (passed out drunk) parties one male, one female transported by Amherst Fire Department to Cooley Dickinson Hospital.
James Llewellyn, 11 James Ave, Hull, MA, age 21
John Fay, 75 Edgelawn Ave, N Andover, MA, age 20
Alexander Swanton, 41 Crossbow Ln, Andover, MA, age 20
Michael Serrur, 1046 Church St, Saugerties, NY, age 21
All arrested for noise violation. APD arrived on scene 1:34 AM, cleared the scene 2:03 AM
James Llewellyn, 11 James Ave, Hull, MA, age 21
John Fay, 75 Edgelawn Ave, N Andover, MA, age 20
Alexander Swanton, 41 Crossbow Ln, Andover, MA, age 20
Michael Serrur, 1046 Church St, Saugerties, NY, age 21
All arrested for noise violation. APD arrived on scene 1:34 AM, cleared the scene 2:03 AM
Assessors Card for ownership of 872 N Pleasant St
###################################
Owner Card for 76 Taylor Street
76 Taylor Street, Amherst
APD dispatched 2:00 AM (early Sunday) cleared 3:49 AMNow I know this house is located smack dab in the middle of a residential neighborhood, because it is about five houses away from where I grew up on High Street.
According to APD narrative:
Loud music, noise and voices were emanating from listed location. Residents were not cooperative and did not clear out the party as officers told them. Three males taken into custody.
Silas Ray-Burns, 295 Lincoln Ave, Amherst, MA, age 23
Joseph Quinn, 52 Pond St, N Easton, MA, age 23
Alexander Morrall, 51 Cutler Rd, Barre, MA, age 22
According to APD narrative:
Loud music, noise and voices were emanating from listed location. Residents were not cooperative and did not clear out the party as officers told them. Three males taken into custody.
Silas Ray-Burns, 295 Lincoln Ave, Amherst, MA, age 23
Joseph Quinn, 52 Pond St, N Easton, MA, age 23
Alexander Morrall, 51 Cutler Rd, Barre, MA, age 22
Owner Card for 76 Taylor Street
Labels:
Amherst Police Department,
nuisance house
Sunday, October 23, 2011
UMass Chancellor strikes back
So it took a while, but the lame duck leader of the flagship University of Massachusetts at Amherst Chancellor Bob Holub responded to the Front Page, above-the-fold-glorification-of-student-parties story that appeared in both the Daily Hampshire Gazette and Amherst Bulletin on September 29--a Friday no less.
His Letter To The Editor appears in this Saturday's Gazette--the most widely read press run of the week--along with two other letters sternly criticizing the student party mentality oozing from the original article by two young champions of the ZooMass image of old, Peter Clark and Emerson Rutkowski.
I actually tried to get our venerable Amherst Select Board to respond with their own Letter To The Editor a couple weeks back, but apparently to no avail.
SB Chair Stephanie O'Keeffe can publicly criticize our beleaguered DPW for not completing construction of the downtown Spring Street parking lot in the middle of an unexpected monsoon season, but hides her head in the mud when it comes to riotous student behavior that degrades the quality of life in neighborhoods near and far from UMass, the largest employer in Western Massachusetts and Amherst's second largest landowner--all of it tax exempt.
His Letter To The Editor appears in this Saturday's Gazette--the most widely read press run of the week--along with two other letters sternly criticizing the student party mentality oozing from the original article by two young champions of the ZooMass image of old, Peter Clark and Emerson Rutkowski.
I actually tried to get our venerable Amherst Select Board to respond with their own Letter To The Editor a couple weeks back, but apparently to no avail.
SB Chair Stephanie O'Keeffe can publicly criticize our beleaguered DPW for not completing construction of the downtown Spring Street parking lot in the middle of an unexpected monsoon season, but hides her head in the mud when it comes to riotous student behavior that degrades the quality of life in neighborhoods near and far from UMass, the largest employer in Western Massachusetts and Amherst's second largest landowner--all of it tax exempt.
Sunday Morning
Labels:
Peter Clark,
Robert Holub,
Stephanie O'Keeffe
Saturday, October 22, 2011
A Better Chance
About 100 runners and half again as many walkers, a dozen or so dogs, and half again as many baby carriages participated in the 40th annual A Better Chance 5K Fall Foliage race/walk to benefit the program that brings disadvantaged minority youth to live in Amherst and attend Amherst Regional High School. Since the programs inception forty years ago, 120 youths have graduated from ARHS.
My stragglers
And then there was one
The Republican, Massachusetts' 4th largest newspaper, took a giant leap into the Digital Age by shedding the bricks and mortar ties that bound them to that long ago era when daily newspapers were the ultimate gatekeepers, synthesizing a river of information into a tidy dose of daily news that arrived on your doorstep with an early morning thud.
As of October 1st The Republican has shuttered satellite news office bureaus in Chicopee, Greenfield, Holyoke, Northampton, Palmer and Westfield. Their battleship of a building in Springfield, which houses their seven story, high-speed color press remains firmly afloat however.
Today information comes in tidal waves, and anyone can tap into it directly via the Internet.All a reporter needs is a laptop, camera, cell phone and Wi-Fi connection. The town of Amherst is even kind enough to provide free Wi-Fi in the downtown.
Whether news is gathered in an office cubical over a rotary phone and tapped into a story via a Smith Corona typewriter, or captured on a flip video camera, edited on a MacBook Air and posted directly to YouTube, it's still flesh and blood reporters that ask questions, record results and package them for, potentially, a world wide audience.
And that I hope, will never change.
As of October 1st The Republican has shuttered satellite news office bureaus in Chicopee, Greenfield, Holyoke, Northampton, Palmer and Westfield. Their battleship of a building in Springfield, which houses their seven story, high-speed color press remains firmly afloat however.
Today information comes in tidal waves, and anyone can tap into it directly via the Internet.All a reporter needs is a laptop, camera, cell phone and Wi-Fi connection. The town of Amherst is even kind enough to provide free Wi-Fi in the downtown.
Whether news is gathered in an office cubical over a rotary phone and tapped into a story via a Smith Corona typewriter, or captured on a flip video camera, edited on a MacBook Air and posted directly to YouTube, it's still flesh and blood reporters that ask questions, record results and package them for, potentially, a world wide audience.
And that I hope, will never change.
Labels:
online journalism,
Springfield Republican
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