Burn Baby Burn!

Treemageddon. 10/30/11

Apparently Town Manager John Musante learned nothing from predecessor Larry Shaffer's PR major malfunction--charging Boy Scouts a fund raising tax on selling Christmas trees. So it's time for yet another town manager to be taken to the woodshed.

Amherst is now trying to profit on the freak Halloween weekend snow storm that littered the landscape with tree debris by charging a $25 open air burn permit paid to Amherst Fire Department (money that will not even stay in their budget), something that has been free since 1759.

Unlike Belchertown or South Hadley, Amherst saved a bundle by failing to open an emergency warming shelter in those critical first few post-storm days, and charging folks $100 ton for the storm debris cold, weary citizens dragged to the heavily tax subsidized Transfer Station, although an advertising error later forced them, grudgingly, to reduce the price to $50 ton.

So maybe now they're trying to make up for it. Last week the town announced yet another hike in user fees (water/sewer) that amounts to $24 annually for the average user, but did so with six months notice in order to give users time to adapt. This new $25 burn fee came out of nowhere (and it is fairly well buried on the town website).

Yesterday an irate citizen called Town Hall to complain, and a Town Manager staff member was not even aware of the new charge.

Like potholes, these seemingly trivial customer service items are issues l-o-n-g remembered. Snuff out the burn fee--a penny wise increase in revenue at a ton foolish cost.

South Amherst 1/11/12 A bonfire waiting to happen

Run it up the flagpole

Amherst Town Flag draft

A joint meeting of Amherst Historical Commission and the Design Review Board pretty much saluted artist Barry Moser's design proposal incorporating a shield, open book and sheaves of wheat for an official town flag (even though Amherst was never known for wheat harvest) winnowed down from nine variations he submitted.

The only recommendation is to add the date 1759 in a subtle way to the background. The Amherst Select Board --a body not known as flag connoisseurs--will have final approval.

Select Board member Diana Stein first raised the idea for a town flag in June, 2010 and the town encouraged citizen submissions which resulted in 8 designs, but none of them a clear winner. Select Board member Jim Wald contacted renowned artist Barry Moser, who agreed to volunteer his design services.

The flag will hang at the Massachusetts State House in the Great Hall alongside pennants from most cities and towns in Massachusetts . Twenty years ago the state came up with the idea of hanging flags as a means of improving the acoustics in the spacious hall.

Who would have thought state government could be so practical?

And yes, Amherst is the same town that restricts the flying of 29 commemorative Americans flags on 9/11, to once every five years.

All Systems Go

The Amherst Fire Department descended on the Lord Jeffery Inn this morning for final inspections, parking their rigs at nearby Town Hall.

After spending $14 million in renovations, pretty safe bet everything checked out okay.

All they need now is an American flag

Do as I say...

Kid is thinking: What about Police and Fire?

Baer "The Turk" Tierkel is asking fellow Amherst liberals to post this town meeting recruiting poster on Facebook to drum up support for the aging institution. Now yes, Mr. Tierkel is an Amherst resident and a town meeting member, so no hypocrisy there...but, umm, he also does not send either of his children to the Amherst public schools. I guess it all depends on how you define "support."

The Catcher in the Rye

To fill a void

Amherst Regional Middle School

UPDATE (Monday morning): According to an email from SB Chair Stephanie O'Keeffe the School Committee is now scheduled to discuss this important matter at their 1/17 meeting and will make a recommendation to the Select Board for their 1/22 meeting. Let's hear it for transparency!

I also loved former chief legal counsel to Governor Romney and now State Rep Dan Winslow's tweet about this all too typical Amherst affair: "Taxation without representation in my hometown?!? Say it ain't so Amherst."
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ORIGINAL POST (Sunday night): According to policy published on the Amherst Regional Public Schools website, "When a vacancy on the Amherst or Pelham School Committee should occur for any reason the School Committee will notify the Selectmen that a vacancy has been created within 30 days after it has occurred. After one week’s notice has been given by the Committee to the Selectmen, so that voters of the town may have the opportunity to state their candidacy, the two governing bodies will meet to fill the vacancy by roll call vote."

Also, according to a 1/4/12 email from the Town Clerk to the Select Board, "Chapter 41, s. 11 provides for such vacancy to be filled providing the remaining school committee members give written notice thereof within one month of said vacancy, to the selectmen, who, with the remaining member or members of such board, shall, after one week’s notice, fill such vacancy by roll call vote."

According to the 1/6/12 Amherst Bulletin, however, Amherst School Committee Chair Irv Rhodes has no intention of following state law and filling the seat left vacant by the December 30 resignation of Steve Rivkin. Mr. Rhodes declares the seat will remain vacant until the next local town election, April 3.

Fortunately, according to the Town Clerk, "Chapter 41, s. 11 further provides for such vacancy to be filled by the selectmen if such board (school committee) fails to give said notice within the time herein specified."

I respectfully request the Select Board place on the agenda for their 1/26 meeting a public discussion about filling the vacant School Committee seat ASAP, with that follow up vote by the Select Board scheduled for their February 6th meeting.

(And yes, I do know of one qualified candidate willing to compete for the open seat.)

Thank You,

Larry Kelley

Cc: Select Board, Town Manager John Musante, Amherst School Committee, Town Clerk Sandra Burgess, School Superintendent Maria Geryk, Nick Grabbe

More $ down the drain

Amherst Cherry Hill Golf Course (metaphorically speaking)

Just so all of us "customers" have time to adapt, Amherst announced six months in advance a 3% price hike in water and sewer rates. Yeah, that $24 annual increase takes a long time to soften the shock. Thanks.

Or I suppose households could cut back--a bath here and a toilet flush there. But try telling that to my two kids.

Now too bad the town could not correspondingly swing a magic golf club and guarantee an increase in the bottom line at our floundering golf business. Interestingly, the town has incrementally increased rates almost every year for the past decade or so but it still loses money hand over fist because of sinking interest in the expensive game of golf.

And with H-U-G-E capital infrastructure expenditures coming up soon, those already too large losses will only grow exponentially.

Government seems to do just fine in the marketplace when it has a monopoly on a vital service like running water or education, but tanks in a competitive arena where good quality at a fair price matters.

Unfortunately the taxpayers are all too easily tapped to cover the difference.