Trouble in Paradise?

 Larry Shaffer fist bump.  About to butt heads with the Mayor

Former Amherst, Massachusetts Town Manager now Jackson, Michigan City Manager Larry Shaffer had a hilarious quote in yesterday's local paper:  "I don't give up easily" asserted Shaffer in response to the city council reversing a yes vote he supports on an expensive solar energy project for their waste water treatment plant.

Mayor Martin Griffin strongly opposes the initiative saying, "I hope the project is dead."  Interesting power struggle.   Since Jackson has a Council/Manager form of government, the Mayor is apparently more of a figurehead than actual CEO.  But, nevertheless, Mayor Griffin looks like a strong guy who takes tough stands (slumlords want him recalled over a rental registration law he supported).

Mr. Shaffer, on the other hand...

Let's see, he took a strong stand on requiring Boy Scouts pay a tax on Christmas Tree sales, a beloved annual (tax free) town tradition for 60 years.  He tried to withhold the parade permit for the privately organized July 4 Parade to create a competing municipal parade that would embrace war protesters.  And he supported the Select Board's annual refusal to fly 29 commemorative American flags in the downtown to remember the horror of 9/11.

Best of all, he railroads the Select Board into giving him a two year extension on his contract and then only a few months later, suddenly, decides to "retire," to Michigan, leaving behind his wife here in Amherst.  Meanwhile his secretary concurrently vanishes with a $25,000 taxpayer payout nobody wishes to talk about.

Doesn't give up easily, eh?  I guess it depends on how you define "easily".  



 

Gas, Bread, and Wine

 Cumberland Farms, Amherst

Perhaps the busiest convenience store in Amherst is about to get even busier.  The Cumberland Farms on College Street (Rt 9) has filed for a Wine & Malt off premises alcohol license--meaning beer and wine to go. 

The town currently has 8 such licenses in this category allowed by law and only two are currently taken, so it's pretty much a slam dunk the Select Board, who are also the town liquor commissioners, will approve the $1,500 license.

A new law that went into effect January 1st allows individuals or corporations to own up to 5 of these permits in the state when previously the limit was only three.  Cumberland Farms will also have to pay the Alcohol Beverage Control Commission $5,000 for the privilege.

Yes, everybody--from the state on down--ferments money from alcohol.

 Spirit Haus, celebrating 40 years. Right across the street.

Blarney Blowout Busted?

Last night Town Manager John Musante "updated" his bosses, the Amherst Select Board, on important "quality of life" issues that give the town a horrible name, namely party houses like the one at 186 College Street (owned by individuals more interested in profits than peace) and party businesses--McMurphy's and Stacker's--only interested in keeping the taps flowing via irresponsible, juvenile promotions like "Blarney Blowout".

And while it sounds like Musante is taking the responsible parties to the woodshed for a much needed spanking (metaphorically speaking of course), since those discussions are private, we may never know.


Excuse the buzz in the background. Amherst Media seems more interested in TV than Internet feeds

AFD issues SOS

Amherst Fire Department Central Station

Every citizen in town--homeless or living in a $1 million palace--expects that in an emergency, highly trained professional first responders are only a three digit phone call away. 

And that when you do call 911--no matter what time of the day or night, what season of the year or holiday the entire western hemisphere may be celebrating, they will come--and quickly.

Consider this a wake up call, like a smoke alarm in the dead of night.  You have been warned.  Be afraid.

Fight For Your Right Party House

 370 Pelham Road, Amherst

While young adults their age are fighting and dying in a far off country, these boys are hastling their neighbors for calling the police trying to maintain the quiet enjoyment of their most cherished possession--home.  That too is a bedrock American right.

When police arrived at 370 Pelham Road around 10:00 PM Saturday night, called by a neighbor who stated her husband was in a verbal confrontation with a rowdy party boy, police discovered the source of the noise:  a live band.

Yes, this is the second time these perps have been arrested and heavily fined for a party using a live band.  You think they would have learned the first time.  But no, they are entitled.   

According to APD logs:
RP reporting her husband is on the front porch arguing with a male neighbor.  The neighbor came over unprovoked and started arguing with RP's husband about them complaining about noise coming from the neighbors house in the past.


Live band planing upon arrival.  20+ guests were cleared out.  Guests confronted Officers about breaking the party up, stating they had "rights" and that it was a "birthday party".

Arrested for Noise:
Nelson P Klein, 179 Appleton Street, Cambridge, MA, age 23
Geoffrey Dempsey, 6 Fruit Street, Hopkinton, MA, age 23
James Toshana, 370 Pelham Rd, Amherst, MA, age 19

Property Ownership Card for 370 Pelham Road, Amherst

The Week Ahead

Joint Capital Planning Committee:  reports to Town Manager

Time was, not so long ago, a news junkie in Amherst looked forward to the Monday night Select Board meeting because that was the hotbed of potentially entertaining news worthy issues--usually of the embarrassing kind.

But with the, umm, retirement--or I should say relocation--of Anne Awad and the orchestrated coup d'état that ousted Gerry Weiss as Chair, driving him into retirement as well, Select Board meetings  have become a coldbed of boring routine.  Evidenced by a lack of competition for open seats in the annual town election these past few years.

Thus Joint Capital Planning Committee promises to be the most interesting meeting this week (Thursday 9:00 AM) as they will, finally, vote on $4 million worth of capital requests from all town departments including the schools, a vote that will whittling the bottom line down to only $3 million.  And a JCPC thumbs up practically guarantees a rubber stamp by Amherst Town Meeting.

Will the Jones Library get 16 new wireless digital surveillance cameras? (probably)  Will Information Technology Department get it's fancy $32,000 Ford hybrid Escape? (probably not) Will Town Hall get an $85,000 generator? (damn well better).  Will Carol Gray get twitchy again about any cuts to the Jones Library requests? (safe bet).

On Friday The Jones Library Trustees will discuss a report from the Personnel Planning Policy subcommittee regarding the six-month evaluation of library director Sharon Sharry.  Ms. Sharry took over the Good Ship Jones after Carol Gray attempted a mutiny/takeover of the micromanaging kind, driving out Director Bonnie Isman after 30 years of admirable service.

Jones Library Trustees Chris Hoffman, Carol Gray

Interestingly Ms. Gray is on the the current evaluation subcommittee, but from all the reports I'm getting, Sharry is doing an admirable job thusfar and, thankfully, no controversy like the previous kind is expected when the evaluation goes public on Friday.

Also, on the optimistic immediate horizon for the Jones Library is the election April 3rd, where Ms. Gray is expected to lose her Trustee seat, like her inquisition compatriot Pat Holland already did last year (for the same good reason).

Although, she will not have to turn in her library card.

Old Pols Never Fade Away

 Jim & George McGovern

Even nearing age 90, George McGovern still knows how to work a crowd--probably a tad easier when the throng is obviously enthralled, as were about 100 fans who packed the Amherst Bookstore late this afternoon to give an icon of the democratic party a rousing reception.

Accompanied by former aid and current Congressman Jim McGovern, who told the local crowd he hopes to represent them in Congress, the former U.S. Senator and Presidential candidate gave a homespun extemporaneous speech--more like a fireside chat--extolling the subject of the book he lived, "What It Means To Be A Democrat."

Even conservatives could appreciate his bedrock background:  A B-25 pilot who survived 35 missions over Germany and then, like 8 million other WW2 veterans, took advantage of the GI Bill to get a PhD in history. Higher education was a good investment by the federal government McGovern pointed out, as the feds received back $2 for every one invested:  better education led to higher paying jobs, thus greater taxes generated.

Knowing perhaps that he was in the belly of the anti-war beast he said firmly, "I make no apologies for fighting in that war.  It was a war that had to be fought."  But then stated, almost as an aside, "Although I can't say I have supported any since."

Washington, DC is not the embodiment of evil as portrayed by Republicans he said to loud applause.  Retelling a  story about a verbal joust with William F. Buckley, he closed with the humorous punchline that a conservative like Buckley could never carry the state of Massachusetts.  And since that was the only state George McGovern carried in 1972, a fitting finale. 

And proof once again, the dream shall never die.