Eye see you

Schools In

A good crowd under perfect blue skies on the Amherst town common tonight

Amherst Regional Public Schools start tomorrow -- except, alas, kinder garden and preschool -- so tonight school officials threw a party for kids and their happy parents on the Amherst town common. Vehicular traffic was heavy as seemingly all roads lead to Amherst, the education capital of the Happy Valley.

State Representative Ellen Story was hard to miss in red skirt

Umass dorms open tomorrow and 4,560 freshmen -- er, I mean -- "first-year class",  will descend on Amherst just in time for the Blue Moon on Friday night. The 46th Annual Community Breakfast was also held this morning with new Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy doing the staged schmooze routine.

Let's hope his act plays better than his predecessor, and he can bring some long-term stability as captain of the state's flagship of higher education.

Mourning Overload?

 Amherst Town Center, this morning

Yes the town flag is once again at half staff by Governor's orders, this time for U.S. Army Major Steven Brothers of Arlington, Massachusetts who died on May 30 from leukemia .  This now makes the 5th time in a week, all for military personnel, 80% of whom died by non-military related causes.

Makes you wonder if folks by now are starting to get desensitized to Old Glory in that position of mourning?

The federal government only recognizes four annual occasions for the flag to fly at half staff:  Pearl Harbor Day (December 7 for you young'uns), Peace Officers Day (5/15), Memorial Day and most recently 9/11.  Of course special occasions do occur like the death of a former high ranking political figure, or to mourn mass murders like Virginia Tech and the most recent Colorado theatre shootings.

A timely example is President Obama noting the passing of astronaut Neil Armstrong with just such a well deserved honor this coming Friday.

On Monday night the Amherst Select Board mentioned a number of times as their predecessors have done over the past ten years, that the town does recognize and mourn 9/11 by flying the town flag (that does fly 24/7 all year) at half staff.

I particularly remember Selectman Robie Hubley (secretly married to SB chair Anne Awad at the time) seven years ago saying he brought the flag down to half staff in town center "with my own bare hands".  Of course once the photo op was finished Mr. Hubley forgot to return the next day to bring the flag back up to full staff and it stayed down for the next two or three days.

And my fear this year is that the Governor will have the flag down on 9/8, 9/9, 9/10 for state reasons, and by 9/11 it will be a little less noticeable. Combine that with the recent decision of the Select Board not to fly the 29 commemorative flags in town center on 9/11, and you are heading down a dangerous path:

 "Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it."

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.