Flame of Hope

APD Chief Livingstone (center) cheers the troops 

If your mother ever gave you the sound advice, "Don't run from the law..." why not make mom really proud and run WITH the law.  All for a great cause.  Special Olympics.

The Amherst Police Department will once again sponsor and participate--and invites us civilians to join them--in the Law Enforcement Torch Run relay, a three mile jaunt from APD headquaters in downtown Amherst to the UMass Southwest Towers on Saturday, August 11 starting at 7:10 PM .  It only cost $15 and the t-shirts alone are worth the price (not to mention the sterling company).

 

Amherst Police headquarters 111 Main Street

EVENT Info (click)

Meanwhile Amherst Fire Department Local 1764 took to the roads this morning under threatening skies for the 6th annual Motorcycle Muscular Dystrophy Association Poker Ride.

Goes to show Amherst is blessed with public safety personnel who go above and beyond the call of duty.

Malfunction Junction

 Malfunction Junction, Manchester, VT

If a roundabout or two is good enough for those common sense Yankee types who inhabit Manchester, Vermont, then I have high hopes for our own pair at Atkins Corner, now supposedly slated to open for traffic by August 15. 

Although it seems Amherst is well ahead of Manchester when it comes to construction speed.  Go figure.

Any Given Friday

8:20 PM Downtown Amherst

 

Amherst Police and Fire personnel tend to Christopher Lynch this evening, one of about a half dozen of the homeless who frequents the downtown, drinks too much, then falls down and cannot get up.

FIREGROUND360° ‏@FIREGROUND360

7.27.12 / 8:08PM / MEDICAL / S PLEASANT + MAIN - AMHERST, MA / PARTY WITH POSSIBLE BROKEN LEG / (DCN)

Going to the dogs--in style!

 Pet Hotel Hadley, coming soon

Always nice to see a business opening in the Happy Valley that does not target UMass students.

With the pet care industry recession-proof and their new location about as perfect as you can get, situated halfway between Amherst and Northampton, the new luxurious Pet Hotel Hadley is destined to be the cat's pajamas. 

Two thirds of Americans own animals (about 86 million cats and 78 million dogs) so the market is nothing if not elephantine.

And since veterinary care accounts for the lions share of service oriented annual spending on pets this new operation--specializing in boarding and grooming--will probably not represent a significant threat to long-time local mom and pop operations like Dr. Katz's Hampshire Veterinary Hospital in Amherst or Valley Veterinary Hospital, also located in Hadley.

Take No Prisoners

 Butternut Tree on Shays Street in the public way

Normally I would say anything left leaning will have a long and happy life in the People's Republic of Amherst--just not when it's a tree leaning in the direction of a utility powerline.  For instance, take this butternut on Shays Street--which they are about to do.


Amherst Tree warden Alan Snow gave me a demonstration last week of an inspection double-check on trees marked for death by Western Mass Electric Co. This butternut, besides the lean, has a host of problems--exposed roots, bug bore damage, rip away bark, and a couple of splits he could put his hand in.

Sure he could insist that WMECO simply trim off the overhanging limb as the tree would most likely survive...for now. Until all the other problems meet up with a major storm.

 Tree Warden and DPW division director of trees and parks, Alan Snow

Being judge/jury/executioner for the town's tree canopy is a tough job--perhaps made even tougher by  town meeting approval for 2,000 new trees. Healthy trees--even beautiful old historic ones--are now more subject to extermination for the convenience of developers and the utilities simply because they are so easily replaced by new ones, although a lot less beautiful and historic.

Therefor it's even more imperative we have someone who will speak for the trees.

Parking Problems

 Newfangled Parking Machines

So it comes as no surprise that overall parking revenues are down $52,716 compared to last year. The new Internet based computerized system took some getting used to, and the Spring Street Parking lot--in a super prime town center location--took many months to renovate.

Of course the real cost is hard to calculate as that $52,716--when measure in nickels and dimes-- represents drivers who did not come to our downtown to shop, eat or catch a movie.  Or perhaps they did come, but then drove away in anger and hence may never come back. 

But town officials are working on it.  They made a (long) check list.  And the Chamber of Commerce and new Business Improvement District will chime in with (self) helpful suggestions.

Amherst Parking Machine Problems

Meanwhile, summers in a college town are the slowest/deadliest time of year for business--unless of course you sell frozen yogurt.

FroyoWorld, North Pleasant Street

GoBerry, Amity Street

Guppies Rejoice

Although you will not know it by perusing the town website (and currently the phones lines are down so you cannot call to confirm either) the War Memorial Wading Pool is, finally, open.  As you can imagine anything mechanical constructed when Give 'em Hell, Harry (Truman) was in office is prone to cascading failures:  you fix one thing and something else goes.

So parents, you may want to enjoy it will you can.  I'm told by a nice lifeguard that the hours (starting today) are weekdays 11:00 AM until 4:00 PM and weekends 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

About the only good idea former Town Manager Larry Shaffer (and now former city manager of Jackson, MI) had over his three year tenure here was to consider turning the wading pool and basketball court at War Memorial into a spray park like the one at Look Park in Northampton. 

Since the state was kind enough to cover most of the cost of renovating War Memorial (what us townies used to call "the big pool"), town officials should reconsider Mr. Shaffer's idea in the near future.  Heck, maybe Larry will return to Amherst to oversee the project.