This one's for you

Jon Davies, Worcester FD

From the Governor:

Please be advised that Governor Patrick has ordered that the United States flag and the Commonwealth flag be lowered to half-staff at all state buildings from sunrise until sunset on Thursday, December 15, 2011 in honor of Firefighter Jon D. Davies Senior of the Worcester Fire Department who died in the line of duty on Thursday, December 8, 2011.

A short while before six Worcester Firefighters entered the "Building from Hell" and--despite the best efforts of comrades near and far--perished, I took an eight week Citizen Police Academy course where one night we did interactive, real time, audio visual training of possible patrol situations where I was killed in the line of duty.

Turns out that particular scenario was specifically designed for that chilling result to illustrate how, in certain circumstances, no matter how good your training and how well you execute that training, whereby you do everything right...death can still result.

A sobering truth for all public safety personnel--driven home once again.

The clean up continues

South Amherst Common yesterday

Amherst demonstrated the shop local initiative by signing a one year contract with Wagner Wood (with an option to renew for another two years) to clear the town's public ways of brush and tree debris still remaining more than a month after the devastating October 30 nor' easter.

Wagner was originally enlisted as an emergency measure the morning after the storm reigned down debris like a biblical curse, taking out power, blocking roads and driveways while damaging public and private property.

In those first seven dark days (the time period for Federal Emergency Management Agency 75% reimbursement) Wagner, Amherst DPW and other private contractors collected 3,000 cubic yards of fallout. And over the past four weeks an additional 3,000 cubic yards but with 1,500 remaining on public right of way and 1,500 on private property.

Currently the town has spent about $225,000 to clean up the 6,000 cubic yards, or 3,000 tons of debris.

Although Wagner is contracted and funded by tax dollars for public shade tree clean up only, Amherst has coordinated a deal whereby the town (using Wagner) will extend to private homeowners--many of whom dragged debris curbside expecting town pickup--a competitive $28/cubic yard removal charge, obviating the need to drag the unwieldy material to the town's transfer station to pay $50/ton, which works out to about the same cubic yard price.

Targeted letters will got out soon to impacted homeowners.

Wagner's winning proposal to the town:
For crew and equipment to collect and transfer wood and vegetative debris $28 per cubic yard. For crew of two and equipment (chipper) to collect and chip wood and vegetative debris along public way or Town property is $275.00 an hour. For wood and vegetative waste received at contractor site it is $6 a cubic yard and/or $50 a ton.

Shays Street

Those daring young men...

Shumway Landscaping still cleaning up after the Halloween weekend storm

A brave worker going after sky high, large "hangers" on the grounds of the Emily Dickinson homestead. Nice to see Amherst College using local contractors.

Dewey Defeats Truman?

Contrasting headlines one day apart

Two of the oldest sayings in journalism--"Never apologize, never explain" and "If your mother says she loves you, verify it"--spring to mind with today's mea culpa edition of the Daily Hampshire Gazette, although they still exude the former after woefully violating the latter.

And since I'm citing journalistic cliches let me throw in, "Readers soon forget who got it first, but will long remember who got it wrong."

I'm referring to a front page article yesterday saying a car dealership "Appears to have closed" simply because they were not open on a Sunday, the (65-year-old) owner had not responded to a Facebook message request for an interview, an empty car lot, and non functioning website and phones.

Sure, a fair amount of circumstantial evidence but no direct corroboration from the owner, an employee or disgruntled customer, all of which would be fairly easy to acquire--especially if they waiting until Monday when the business opened up to start the workweek.

A few months back the Daily Hampshire Gazette failed to publish a morning edition because their $10 million dollar Italian four-color process printing press malfunctioned. How would they have liked it if the blogosphere jumped to the conclusion that they had apparently gone out of business?

Which--to be perfectly honest--was my initial reaction when I failed to find my Gazette aside the Springfield Republican early on a Tuesday morning.

I can excuse getting lazy over verification for a who cares kind of article appearing on the back pages which few folks bother to read; but the front page is sacred, demanding adherence to the fundamental rules of journalism.

Now if it had been one of those damn blogs...

Oh I'd love to be...

Wienermobile: A snack for the Jolly Green Giant

The Wienermobile came a calling on the People's Republic of Amherst and, amazingly, they were not picketed by vegans or pelted with rotten vegetables.

Gymnastics, then the Wienermobile

AFD keeps rolling along

Sunday 4:00 AM Dumpster Fire behind Hillel House near UMass

Although far fewer ETOH (passed out drunk) emergency cases this past weekend compared to last, from 13 down to 5, it is still five too many, and a time consuming drain on our emergency services.

Surprisingly UMass, with only one case (compared to seven last week), did not win the weekly drink-yourself-into-a-stupor competition between our centers of higher education, while vastly smaller Amherst College was our weekend winner with two (five last week) and Hampshire College one (zero last week).

Unfortunately dumpsters provide an easy opportunity for mischievous vandals, and like the previous weekend, AFD had to deal with another early morning bonfire in a box, which, fortunately, is made of metal.

Amherst Fire Department weekend runs 12/9

Party House of the weekend

Amherst Police must be getting in the Christmas spirit as they issued ten warning tickets for noise and only two actual $300 noise complaint tickets over the weekend--the last one where UMass is still in session. So yes, the two winners had to go above and beyond the call of duty to garner a ticket.

Now anyone who has children and lives in a two story home knows how annoying it is when a temperamental child STOMPS all the way up or down the stairs...now just imagine living in an apartment complex where you share walls with immediate neighbors and it's after midnight and the "children" are fully grown.

According to Amherst Police who were called to apartment #1421 The Boulders at 12:59 AM:

Over 100 party goers with extremely loud music. Upon attempting to clear the party, the patrons began yelling and stomping up and down the stairs and refused to leave. The residents were uncooperative and after several warnings were taken into custody. Furthermore, after the guests finally were cleared out an additional noise complaint was called in due to the loud behavior in the parking lot.

Arrested for Unlawful Noise:

Since the judge dismissed their cases on Monday, I have deleted their names.

263 Grantwood Drive

At first glance this case may seem to be a tad heavy handed, as these two young ladies were all by themselves listening to (loud) music at 8:00 PM--but that was not the case last week when one of the housemates was busted for a loud party that attracted over 100 guests and was shut down at 1:00 Am.

So apparently they did not learn their lesson. Yes, 263 Grantwood is located directly across the street from 260 Grantwood Drive, my Party House of the Weekend a few weeks back.

According to this week's police report:

RP reports loud party somewhere on Grantwood Drive location.

Base heard emanating from inside the residence. Only two residents inside, no other guests. Stated they were playing music and didn't realize it was that loud.

Cited for Noise ordinance violation:

Lauren Whittemore, Fitchburg, MA, age 21
Vanessa Crespo, Fitchburg, MA, age 20