Town Manager gets a raise

Okay so for those of you who say I never admit a mistake, pay attention.  Last week I predicted Town Manager John Musante, previously tied for highest paid town employee, would get a 5% raise in order to keep up with School Superintendent Maria Geryk, who recently received a 5% bump from her then $140,000 salary.

The town just announced Musante will receive a 1.5% raise, about what all the lower echelon employees have received recently.   Bully for him!

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Take teachers for example: According to the Daily Hampshire Gazette they are currently in the second year of a two-year contract, with each year providing 1.5% COLAs. The contract covering the previous three years had annual COLAs of 2.5, 3.5 and 3%. About half the teachers also get step increases of about 4% a year

9/11 Déjà vu

SAD UPDATE:

#AmherstMa Select Board pocket vetoes flying flags on 9/11. Did not even take a vote. No commemorative flags in the downtown this 9/11.

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Tonight at 8:00 PM the Amherst Select Board, like a previous Select Board did almost 11 years ago, will decide the fate of 29 commemorative flags:  to fly or not to fly, on the most depressing anniversary of my lifetime, 9/11.

Currently SB policy is to allow the commemorative flags, which do fly every Memorial Day and five other holidays,  to fly on 9/11 once every five years or what SB Chair Stephanie O'Keeffe referred to as  "milestone anniversaries." 

On the night of September 10, 2001 about 12 hours before the first plane struck its intended target in New York City, I closed my brief presentation with a question:  "Do you really want to be remembered as the politicians who voted against the flag?"

And tonight I will leave this Select Board with another simple question,  "Do you honestly believe 9/11 is only worth commemorating once every five years?"

Party House of the Weekend

179 Heatherstone Road, Amherst

Amherst police responded to 179 Heatherstone Road twice within a half-hour late Friday night into early Saturday morning, the first time for a loud out-of-control party that generated a "nuisance house" ticket, and the second time for a report of a "missing laptop."

Thus, making for an expensive party.  A $300 civil infraction fine for violating the town's bylaw crafted to protect the peace and quiet of residential neighborhoods, and a laptop computer that is l-o-n-g gone.

I guess it's fortunate the semester has not yet started so no valuable school work was lost with the laptop ... Yeah, sarcasm. 

Welcome Students! Well the vast majority of you anyway

Preserve and Protect (self interest)

North Amherst Congregational Church (now under new management).

After narrow back-to-back victories sabotaging the attempted rezoning of North Amherst Village Center to encourage denser, smart growth through Form Based Zoning, the local NIMBYs -- who only need  one third plus one of antiquated Town Meeting to agree with them to block such proposals -- have come up with a new scheme, yet another hurdle for town officials and local developers: Declare the area a "historic district."

A recent article in Preservation Nation portrays the merry band as selfless neighbors fighting valiantly to protect their heritage against "future threats," presumably the evils of corporate greed.

But they fail to mention the lead architect of this gambit, Louis Greenbaum, is a major rental property owner of less-than-upscale housing, who stands to benefit by preventing any mixed-use development that increases the supply of Amherst rental housing.

Oldest saying in capitalism:  "When products compete, they get better."  And God knows, with the squeaky tight housing market in our little college town, home to a very large flagship University, we could use new housing developments to compete with the current supply of aging, expensive units.

Historical preservation, when used correctly, is an admirable, worthy endeavor.  Using it as a weapon against badly needed development is a travesty.

Gambling on a Casino

Let the advertising begin ...

So my friends at the Springfield Sunday Republican have already benefited by the (gold) rush to place a gambling casino somewhere in Western Massachusetts, as evidenced by today's full page, multi- color, full press run ad prominently placed -- usually at a 20% premium placement charge -- on page three.

My guess is around $15,000 ... or pocket change compared to the non-refundable $400,000 MGM recently paid the state in order to be a player.

Thus, even if MGM does get the coveted license and Peter Picknelly does not buy the newspaper's land for many, many millions of dollars, The Republican will still benefit by a resort casino in downtown Springfield via advertising revenue.

Providing of course MGM lavishly continues to put their advertising dollars into print as opposed to the Internet, radio, TV, direct mail, billboards, etc.  Hey, maybe they will hire the homeless to hand out leaflets. 

Of course you also have to also factor in the print ad revenue lost from local mom-and-pops driven out of business by the gambling Juggernaut.  Bowling anyone?

The Republican, 1860 Main Street, Springfield

Sultry Saturday

War Memorial Pool, 2:15 PM, 92 degrees hot

After being abandoned for four years and then missing two opening deadlines this summer, the War Memorial Pool finally did open on July 8.

But, as scheduled, a couple weeks before Labor Day, it closed ... with no signage now to indicate that (other than a lack of people).

What A Gas

 Hess Express, West Street, South Amherst

It took almost exactly a month -- but probably their least profitable month of the year anyway -- to switch out the gas tanks and add diesel to the Hess Express, the busiest little convenience store in South Amherst and probably in the top two for all of little old Amherst.

No doubt they will be serving a slew of students and their parents over the next few weeks, only they will have to stick to gas, bread, milk, coffee and lottery tickets as our Select Board recently turned them down unanimously for a beer/wine permit.  

Meanwhile the Snell Street Bridge replacement, the state project  two miles up the road, seems to be moving along.  The new replacement steel superstructure is now on site and certainly fits the motif of Amherst as a "green community."

Snell Street replacement bridge

And what would late August in Amherst be without turkeys?

Family of turkeys in South Amherst