The Squeaky Wheel

TMCC turns the table on reporter Scott Merzbach 1/11/12

So third time was the charm for the Town Meeting Coordinating Committee request for reporter Scott Merzbach to "join us" at the table for a friendly discussion of public relations in general and free press for their open house town meeting recruitment drive 1/31 in particular.

Pat Holland pulled the "I'm hard of hearing" routine and Mr. Merzbach was too much the gentleman to turn that down.

The Committee had listed the reporter as an agenda item, so I thought maybe they were going to upbraid him for something or other the way I was at the last Town Meeting for daring to use flash photography. But no, they just wanted to hit him up for free PR advice.

Although during the discussion they seemed to fully understand the basics. If you want to get media attention, send out a press release. Or, apparently, put them on your agenda as a discussion item.

Carol Gray: "You're welcome to come on our bus tour, Scott"

Daily Hampshire Gazette Friday the 13th (appropriately enough)

Da Boot

If you owe Amherst ticket money, don't park near Town Hall

Now if only Amherst was this aggressive with recovering those $300 nuisance house violation tickets, our neighborhoods would be soooooo much better off. And if UMass really cared, they would assist the town by linking payment of these fines to the issuance of a diploma--like they do with their parking tickets (not that party hardy types have a high graduation rate).

Yes, within hours the fines were paid

Out With A Bang

Maria Geryk, Rick Hood, Catherine Sanderson, Irv Rhodes, Steve Rivkin

Former Amherst School Committee member Steve Rivkin exited like he came in, asking the tough question no one comfortably ensconced in the current establishment wishes to answer: why do our schools have platinum costs with only base metal performance?

Comparing Amherst to Northampton he comes up with a compelling difference in number of highly paid administrators, where Amherst has ten times as many as Hamp earning over $100K (even worse when you set the bar lower at $85-K).

And anyone who has run a small business knows all too well, labor cost is you're biggest overhead--particularly in public schools, where it accounts for 90% of the budget. And in the current Fiscal Year the schools account for 53% of total town spending.

Almost two years ago when this Amherst/Hamp school cost comparison first came up, then acting Superintendent Maria Geryk told the Gazette "Sometimes comparisons are not helpful. It's not negative to look at other communities and reflect on our costs, but it takes someone very skilled at looking at finance and data reporting. It's complicated."

Interestingly, the Citizens Budget Advisory Committee--chaired by someone skilled in data analysis--was formed to get to the bottom of the problem of high cost per student compared to Northampton but essentially gave up due to a lack of cooperation by the school administration.

Kind of like the hen house shunning the fox. Geryk told the school committee, "this question is still under analysis and there will be a report soon."

Two years later, they are still waiting. And the cost difference has gotten worse. In 2009 Amherst spent $15,846 vs Northampton's $11,699 or a difference of $4,147 per elementary school child; and last year Amherst spent $16,413 vs Northampton's $12,068 or $4,345 per child, times 1242 students that difference comes to a whopping $5,396,490.

Conservative Stan Gawle pointed out, "People make comparisons when they go to the grocery store to shop, and when you see such disparity, it's incumbent on the schools to explain why."

We're still waiting...

Water, Water, Everywhere...

McClellan Street 10:30 AM

The Department of Public Works is not often thought of as "first responders" like AFD or APD, but this morning their quick response became vital, with a water main break just off town center causing water pressure to drop town wide.

Since the town has instituted a water/sewer fund price increase for the upcoming fiscal year perhaps town officials should look at improving the aging infrastructure to avoid such inconveniences in the future.

The Very Hungry Gaggle

UMass pond (pre-development)

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.