A Hopping Good Time

 Easter Bunny comes to Amherst Town Common

Children and parents took advantage of the delightful weather and the convenient Amherst town common downtown location to hang out with the Easter Bunny and practice hopping in a couple of bounce houses, as well as sharpen agility via a bounce house obstacle course this morning at a free event sponsored by Vita Nova Church.  

Plus of course, an Easter egg hunt.  Thankfully, there were no reports of pushy parents fighting to discover the most hidden eggs.  

Party House e-x-p-a-n-s-i-o-n

Amherst ZBA from right:  Mark Parent, Hilda Greenbaum, Keith Langsdale. Jeff Bagg town planner

In spite of strong objections from neighbors and a first round "NO" vote from member Hilda Greenbaum that would have denied the Special Permit, the Zoning Board of Appeals eventually came around to a unanimous 3-0 vote, allowing the house at 156 Sunset Avenue to double from a one family to a two family dwelling, thus legally allowing eight unrelated occupants--guaranteed to be UMass students--to take up residence.

While neighbors concentrated on the problems associated with college aged kids herded into non owner occupied dwellings without on-site managers, many turned their ire directly at Eaglecrest owner James Cherewatti.

 Neighbor Mark Sims voices displeasure (no one in crowd spoke in favor)

Last weekend, for instance, the house in question was the scene of a major party broken up by APD.  An analysis of downtown properties owned by Eaglecrest (123 total living units) shows 75 police calls over the past three years.

Unlike a new zoning bylaw approved by the Planning Board and a two-thirds vote of Town Meeting that applies town wide, this case was only about this particular dwelling.  And since only a small part of the structure was too close to adjacent property, the house could have been brought into conformity (and thereby guaranteed two family status) via a chainsaw.

 156 Sunset Avenue, Amherst

 ZBA member Mark Parent pointed out to the hostile crowd that at least now they can put conditions on the expansion, one of which is for Eaglecrest to enforce a "three strikes and you're out" clause to evict unruly tenants.

 Phil Jackson (rt) questions whether Jamie Cherewatti (left) will enforce discipline rules

Unfortunately the ZBA did not make that a mandatory provision of maintaining the Special Permit, so if Cherewatti does not enforce his own lease provision, there is no mechanism to revoke the Special Permit, thus leaving little recourse for beleaguered neighbors.

As Sonny and Cher would sing, "The beat goes on." Party beat, that is.

NAVC: Round Two

Planning Board Chair David Webber center:  White Shirt (Good Guy Cowboy)

It sounds like an acronym from the Viet Nam war era.   And the battles surrounding it are taking on the same persona of citizen protests...angrily questioning their government.  Only this time it's about zoning, the North Amherst Village Center rezoning to be exact, and to a lesser extent, Atkins corner in deep South Amherst.

Last night the Planning Board unanimously (with one abstention) endorsed the new and improved Form Based Zoning proposal for North Amherst.  But not before NIMBYs had their say about "sprawl, historic preservation" and, of course, "students slums."

Area resident and long time town meeting member Louis Greenbaum, a major rental property owner and husband of Zoning Board of Appeals member Hilda Greenbaum, played his usual role of Winston Churchill rallying his troops while attempting to intimidate the Planning Board:  "North Amherst has been the dumping ground for cheap housing, for multiple dwelling...for large complexes of low cost housing," he stated in his usual forthright manner.

Mr Greenbaum's voice rises in anger as now he is really on a roll:"We wanted no more of these units north of Meadow Street.  We had more than our share...did you not hear this? This would completely, completely, change the nature and the quality and the aspect and living in our neighborhood, completely."

And the crowd applauds.  Planning Board Chair David Webber throws gas on the fire a short time later by defending students and all the positive things they bring to the table.  NIMBYs resented being "lectured".

Last Fall this zoning proposal failed to clear the high hurdle of a two-thirds vote at town meeting although it did garner a majority,  119-79.  Since then town officials wisely decided to divide the bookend village centers into two zoning articles thus increasing the likelihood of passage (by reducing the formation of a NIMBY union of North and South) and reducing the size of the area impacted in North Amherst Village Center, the more controversial of the two.

These modification concessions should make the critical difference, but not with the hard core NIMBYs obviously.  

Blue area top center north of Cowles Road seems to be the sore spot

And the winners are...

Amilcar Shabazz sworn in this morning for School Committee by town clerk Sandra Burgess

Precinct 1: Pat Holland,Janet Keller, Hilda Greenbaum, Sharen Pouvinelli, Mary Jane Laus, Vince O'Connor, Louis Greenbaum, Kenton Tharp, Melissa Perot, Terry Franklin, Nonny Burack, Paula Distefano, Valerie Cooley, Sarah Swartz, Meg Gage, James Perot, Eric Nazar, Jane Wald, Phillip Gosselin, Nancy Buffone, Peter Gray Mullen, Deborah Timberlake, Daniel Kramer, William Witton

Precinct 2:  Barbara Ford, Margaret Kroeplin, Cynthia Brubaker, Nolan Anaya, Edith Macumllen, William Mullin, Stephan Golfin, Daniel Clapp, Michael Sullivan, Megan Rosa, Jean Swartz, John Coull, Addrienne Levine, Cyrus Cox, Robert Biagi, Sharon Vardalirto, Roy Johnson, Rita Burke, Barbara Levine, Chris Riddle, Arnold Alper

Precinct 3:  Sonya Berquist, Eric Magazu, Nancy Gregg, Marcy Sala, Jacqueline Churchill, Leeta Baily, Andy Churchill, Rob Kusner, Kathleen Carroll, Brian Morton, Catherine Porter, anurag Sharma, Lawrence Orloff, Sherri and Ryan Willey, P. Mcpeak-Larocca

Precinct 4:  Charles Moran, Alan Powell, Kay Moran, Gregg Anderson, Baer Tierkel, John Pistel, Greg Boisseau, Jon Stewert Nelson, Audrey Smith, Patricia Blauder, Carol Johnson, Michael Rosseof,Michael Giles, George Ryan, Katherine Troast, Mark Parent, Christine Pilsner, Peter Blier,

Precinct 5:  Katherine McGovern, Sam Andrews, Mandi Jo Hanneke, Marylees Turner, Michael Mascis, Pat Church, Tom Ehrgodd, Nina Wishengrad, Nancy Pagano, Barry Federman, James Oldham, Hisham Nakshbendi, Walter Wolnik, Tong Shen, Kevin Noonan, Robert Joy, Kevin Eddings


Precinct 6: Marilyn Blaustein, Gordon Freed, Daniel Rivera, James Smith, Silvia Brinkerhoff, FaytheTurner, Kathleen Traphager, Lisa Kleinholz, Josef Wille, Jeff Blaustein, Kevin Vanderlowden, Joan Logan, Ed Mientka, Joe Wronka, Amy Brodigan, Paul Kaplan, Vladimir Morales, Connie Kruger, Paul Drummond.

Precinct 7:  James Brassord, Chris Hoffman, Janet Chaven, Albert Chaven, Marylou Theilman, Gertrude Como, Isabelle Callahan, Carol Gray, Laura Quinn, Alice Swift, Harvey Allan, Adrienne Terrizzi, Louise Hammann, Rebekah Demling, Karen Lennon, Robert Wellman, James Como, Ernie Dalkas, Edward Harvey, Nelson Acosta, Matthew Jacobson, Thad Dabrowski, Jeff Lec, James Smith.

Precinct 8:  Amilcar Shabazz, Gerry Weiss, Lise Halpern, (Mother) Mary Streeter, Frank Gatti, Clare Bertrand, Janie Ratner, Elaine Fronhofer, Jennifer McKenna, Issac BenEzra, Glen Bertrand, Barry Roberts, Sonya Sofield, Charles Scherpa, Fred Mosely, John Kick, Bart Bouricious, Diana Spurgin, David Mullins, Eleanor Gatti, Richard Spurgin, Joan Tempkin, Ruth Hooke, Janet McGowan.

Precinct 9:  Joan Burgess, John Edwards, Sara Ross, Peggy Roberts, A.E. Krogh-Grabbe, Felicity Callahan, Denise Barberet, Aaron Kroff, Simon Leutz, Julia Rueschemeyer, Max Page, Stephen Schreiber, Jessica Wilkinson, Otto Stein, Neils Lacour, Jonathan O'Keeffe, Pam Rooney, Matt Lebowitz, Sarah Lacour, Sara Auberbach, Ben Grosscup, Gavin Andresen, Jan Eilelson, Raymond Laraja.

Precinct 10:  Judy Simpson, James Turner, Stephen Braun, Hwei-ling Greeney, Steven Bloom, Nancy Gordon, Maurianne Adams, Lewis Mainzer, John Michaels, Christine Kline, Regina Rheault, Brett Butler, Jonathan Nelms, Phil Jackson, Richard Bentley, L. Paige Wilder, Robin Fordham, John Fox, Elissa Rubinstein, Robert Pam

Bad Night For Incumbents

Two high profile candidates for reelection, in races where a second place finish would have been good enough, came in third, and thus out of the money.  Irv Rhodes, chair of the Amherst School Committee, fell to newcomers Lawrence O'Brien and Amilcar Shabazz--both of whom wished to be appointed two months ago to finish out the term of Steve Rivkin.

Presciently, Rhodes was at first reluctant to even fill the school committee position, worried it would give that person an advantage in this April 3 election; but then he strongly supported Shabazz.  The combined Select Board and School Committee, however, chose a high school student instead.

This stunning loss for Rhodes mirrors the school committee election of 2004 when incumbent chair Barbara Love came in third behind newcomers Andy Churchill and Thomas Flitte.  Pundits at the time lay the blame on a mediocre campaign that reeked of overconfidence and taking the voters for granted.

While Michael Aronson came in a distant fourth with 433 votes his base in all liklihood bullet voted (did not use their second vote).  If even half of Aronson's supporters had thrown their second vote to Rhodes, it would have put him in second place.

Incumbent Carol Gray also was odd person out in the three way race for two seats on the Jones Library Trustees.  She joins former chair Pat Holland who lost her seat last year as a result of leading an inquisition against 30 year Director Bonnie Isman.

Birds of a feather crash together.

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By The Numbers:

School Committee

Lawrence O'Brien     1526

Amilcar Shabazz     1160

Irv Rhodes               1004

Michael Aronson     433

Jones Library Trustee

Austin Sarat     1380

Tamson Ely       1245

Carol Gray         907

Voter Turnout:  15.2% (2,429 voters out of 15,991)

Statement of Michael Aronson - Candidate for the Amherst School Committee

I extend my congratulations to the winners of the school committee race in Amherst.  I enjoyed the dialog we shared. I encourage those of you stepping into public service to remember the substance and focus of the debate: determining why we spend so much more than other school districts in our area; returning resources to the classroom; and eliciting the creativity of Amherst to the benefit of the children of our community.

Voting for Dummies

Since it is such a tough task for harried voters to keep track of 24 candidates per precinct (especially with some precincts not having enough candidates to fill all those seats) our friends at Sustainable Amherst did all the work for us and came up with a handy cheat sheet, err, I mean "printable voter guide" you can bring into the ballot box and march in lock step with the supposed "Amherst Center."

If you remember, these folks lost their Op/Ed column at the Amherst Bulletin for journalistic improprieties concerning election endorsements two years ago, so take their election advice with a truck load of salt.  Although I do agree that this election will have a lousy, err, low turnout.  And I could not agree more with their Jones Library Trustees recommendation, which mirrors my Anyone But Carol endorsement.

Notice for School Committee they do not even mention Michael Aronson, the only candidate who dares to discuss the gilded school costs that give rise to the highest property tax rate in the area--almost twice that of neighboring Hadley where school achievement results are comparable to the venerable Amherst system.

Unfortunately Town Meeting is the only game in town.  But voting for someone you do not know is like a bomb disposal technician doing "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe" to figure out which colored wire to cut.

Amherst Voting ABCs

Even with all 240 Town Meeting seats up for grabs, the lack of competition for the highest elected office in town, Select Board, combined with a plethora of status quo candidates for Library and School Committee--a good thing in the former not so good in the latter--will lead to a fairly routine, lousy, voter turnout in the 18% range (while the upcoming November Presidential election turnout will be in the fairly routine 70% range).

On Tuesday Amherst Regional High School will distribute 2nd period "report cards".  For School Committee this election should also act as a report card for the only incumbent candidate, Irv Rhodes:  Fail. 

For the past few years--certainly the entire three year tenure of Mr. Rhodes on School Committee--the exceedingly high average per student cost of Amherst education compared to state average or especially compared to Northampton has been an issue of contention, especially since that steep investment does not result in corresponding high MCAS results.

Most Recent MCAS results: worst in seven years

Former School Committee members Catherine Sanderson and Steve Rivkin brought up this platinum plated disparity continuously at SC meetings, Amherst Bulletin columns and on Ms. Sanderson's high traffic exceedingly public school committee blog--the one Mr. Rhodes wanted the District Attorney to investigate for Open Meeting Law violations.

In fact, a School Budget Advisory Committee was formed in early 2010 specifically to ascertain why Amherst's average costs were $4,000 higher per student than Northampton's.  Four months later they disbanded in disgust due to a lack of cooperation by highly-paid school administrators. 

Apparently the only impression made on Mr. Rhodes by all that budgetary discussion was to develop knots in his stomach. Mr Rhodes also failed to file his campaign financial report due last week.  If he can't properly run a low-budget school committee campaign, how can voters have confidence in him to oversee a $50 million enterprise?

Two other SC candidates--Amilcar Shabazz and Lawrence O'Brien--are also firmly in the blank check, rubber stamp, cheerleaders for highly-paid school administrator league.

Michael Aronson, on the other hand, has made that whopping spending disparity between Amherst and Northampton a campaign centerpiece.  And he has the guts and business experience to do something about it.  Thus the School Committee voting choice could not be more black and white:  Bullet vote for Michael Aronson.

The Jones Library Trustee race (also two seats open for 3 year terms) really is as simple as ABC:  Anyone But Carol!  Carol Gray, that is.

After running off 30 year director Bonnie Isman and seeing her partner in mayhem Pat Holland defeated last year as a result, Ms Gray's ignominious defeat is like a long lost library book:  W-a-y overdue.