Missing In Action

Snell Street no bridge

Former Snell Street Bridge

The state made good progress on the Snell Street Bridge replacement this week, managing to remove the entire historic old RR bridge in just five days and only closing the road off from 7:00 AM till 3:00 PM.

Since state Department of Conservation Recreation is about as communicative as a hunk of metal, we do not know if the new bridge will be dropped into place starting next week or not.

First warning/blockade/detour for users is about 100 yards away

Blockade at bridge is formidable enough to stop a bike going full speed

And Another One Gone

 35 South Pleasant Street, heart of downtown Amherst

If only a business could run on heart, good intentions and enthusiasm, the enormous failure rate in the start up year would be -- like the bubonic plague -- all but eradicated.

35 South Cycle, an aerobic spin class business, opened in town center in January, peak month for the health fitness industry, and closed in late July, the worst month for the industry--especially one located in a college town.

I bumped into owner Jeff Brown during my brief photo shoot and asked him about prospective tenants -- as in what kind of business was he now seeking to occupy his former law office?  "Probably not a restaurant," he laughed.  Or fitness business.  Restaurants are  #1 for failing in the startup year and health fitness businesses are in the top five.

 Beautiful ornate brick walls, windows looking out onto Main Street USA

With a rent of $3,000 per month the age old wisdom of parents counseling their child about to leave the nest still applies:  Rent should not be more than 25% of your income.  So if you are going to open a business here, make sure your annual revenues exceed $150,000.

Yes, $3,000 per month sounds like a lot for 1,000 square feet of space, probably a little more than Barry Roberts charges but less than the Grandonico family, downtown landlords who own a significant portion of the downtown.

And this location, location, location does benefit by fairly significant foot traffic generated by adjacent icon AJ Hastings and less-than-iconic Bank Of America (unless of course Occupy Amherst comes a calling).

Opening your own business is like a being a member of the The Flying Wallendas:  It takes skill, courage and know how, where the rewards are great and the downside ... well ... death. 

Three-out-of-four of these prime downtown storefronts are now empty

Fair & Balanced Representation?

UPDATE (Friday afternoon):

The ducks are starting to align in the march towards K-12 Regionalization as Leverett and Shutesbury are on a fast track to secede from Union 28 so they can join Amherst/Pelham in a proposed mega merger.

Meanwhile former Amherst School Committee Chair Irv Rhodes posted a response on my very public Facebook page to this article:  "When all is said and done, either the school committees/ and or towns will correct this situation on their own -- or be forced to by legal actions of concerned citizens."

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Before the venerable Amherst Regional Public School system decides to expand regionalization to the elementary level (currently the Region is middle and high schools) they should get their own administrative house in order by bringing the current nine member Regional School Committee into compliance with state law. 

According to Mass General Laws Chapter 71 section 14E:  "Electing committee members by voters in member communities with each community’s representation apportioned according to population."

In Amherst all five elected School Committee members automatically become members of the nine member Region.

Thus Amherst, population 37,819, has a 55% say in governing the expensive Regional school system ... although we make up 88.4% of the 42,762 total population.

The other three school committees do indeed appoint members to serve on the Region.  Pelham, oddly, the smallest of the three, with a total population of only 1,321 has two members serving on the Region.

Leverett, population 1,851, and Shutesbury, population 1771, have only one each chosen from their 5 member school committees.

Hmm...

But yes, according to that same state statute, another way to populate the Regional Committee is  "appointing committee members by locally elected officials such as school board members."

So then who decided itsy bitsy Pelham should have two members?

Either way, Amherst is getting shortchanged. And let's not even talk about the Union 26 "partnership" we currently have with Pelham to govern the elementary schools; where Amherst provides 90% of the students -- and pays 94% of the overhead -- and has only a 50% say in governance. 

Where's "no taxation without representation"  Daniel Shays when you need him?

Our neighbor, Frontier Regional School system, does the right thing

What $ They Make

Amherst Town Hall, in the morning

So I've been pissing people off as of late with my public documents dumps ... this one could go either way.

Every city and town in the state should do this so a) employees could compare their salary with comparable communities to see if they are being fairly compensated; and b) taxpayers, who pay everybody's salaries, could decide for themselves if people are fairly compensated.

I do have a Public Documents request in with the Amherst Regional Public Schools (their total salary expenditure will be a lot larger), made at the same time as my request to the town, but -- to be fair -- HR director Kathy Mazur was going on vacation, so a subordinate is going to get me the data ... eventually.

Town of Amherst $15 million salary database (via Google Docs)

All Amherst Employees Pay 2012

All American Tweet

 Everything about Big Y is BIG, including their flag

One of the great things about Twitter is how seriously practitioners usually take it.  And now that more and more institutions are embracing Twitter as a 21st century two-way suggestion box, customer service can greatly benefit.

 Big Y Amherst 8/14/12

Now if you live in the Happy Valley you know first hand that Big Y Supermarkets proudly trumpets its "all American" image as a "family owned" business since 1936.  The quintessential American success story.  In fact, if Senator Scott Brown needed a poster business for the "I built this" campaign, he could not do any better than Big Y World Class Market.

Obviously they have embraced social media and use it well.  Within 5 minutes of my original tweet I had a response and within two hours the problem was solved.  God bless America (and free enterprise).

New Sheriff in Town

 

UMPD Headquarters

Congratulations to John K. Horvath who will assume command of UMass Police Department just in time for the September/October uptick in hijinks.

This now makes the second top official assuming leadership roles at the flagship Amherst campus.  Kumble Subbaswamy replaced Bob Holub as Chancellor after he was run out of town June 30th.

UMPD, unlike the political bureaucracy that runs higher education, is of a military mindset.   A great department in a top-of-the-line new building.  And fortunately, the vast majority of students they oversee are hard working, mature, responsible adults. 

I hope Chief Horvath continues to maintain the strong, mutually beneficial partnership his predecessor, Johnny Whitehead, enjoyed with the Amherst Police Department. 

Historic Indeed

321 Main Street Amherst, neighbor to Emily Dickinson 

While the current parking lot reconstruction probably would have distracted Miss Emily from her writing 130 years ago (although her room was on the other side of the neighboring Homestead, farther away) this does demonstrate rather concretely that the new Amherst Local Historic District is not a hindrance to owners within the district doing basic maintenance or renovations on their property.

And since local landscaper Taylor Davis is doing the work, safe bet it will be completed within the next week, in plenty of time for the students return.  

Even better: I'm told Rob Morra, the new building commissioner, is very easy to work with, helpful and proactive.  That too is historic.

UPDATE: Saturday morning 8/18/12 Parking lot finished and operational