Deja vu Day

Kira sprints to finish Larch Hill XC Classic this morning 

Alfred Hitchcock said the secret to suspense was to place likable characters in harms way, where the viewing audience knows full well the danger about to descend while the unsuspecting players haven't got a clue.

We all remember the moment we first heard the chilling news that a plane just barrelling into the North Tower, or that shots had been fired on the presidential motorcade.

This morning was a compelling reminder of what my entire family enjoyed the morning of the storm last year: running in the Larch Hill Country XC Classic at Bramble Hill Farm across the street from our house.

Yes, weather reports had warned a storm arrival was imminent, underscored by coagulated clouds of gray overhead -- just like today -- but we were lost in the pleasure of seeing old friends and engaging in a fun, family, fitness oriented activity.

Until loud snapping sound from broken branches filled the air, and eerie blue lights from dying transformers illuminated the night sky.

Tonight when I flip on a light switch and the usual happens, I will also remember.  And be thankful.

Is Amherst Ready?

 Dirt spot behind Town Hall where generator will, eventually, go

Well, no.   

Communications command-and-control are vital in an emergency, which is why the military always targets it on the first strike.  Last year the freak Halloween storm dealt a devastating blow to communications capabilities by taking out the power region wide.

Since the exceedingly rare municipal downtown WiFi is centered in Town Hall and all the emitters run off the power from streetlights, the Internet died (at least our little piece of it).  The town had talked about outfitting Town Hall with a generator well before the storm struck and the 20/20 hindsight brought on by the massive power outage pushed an $85,000 appropriation through Joint Capital Planning Committee and then Town Meeting approval.

Thus the money was available to spend as of July 1st, start of the new fiscal year.  But as of this morning we have a dirt spot where the new generator is supposed to be. And high up on the top of Town Hall a new more powerful Cisco WiFi emitter has been installed, but without a generator will be useless should the power go out.

 Cisco WiFi emitter high atop Town Hall

In the immediate aftermath of the storm last year AFD Chief Nelson was charged with writing up an assessment of how well the town handled it and what steps needed to be taken to improve response for the next one. Number one on the "Action Item" list was the Town Hall generator.

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Filed under the "it could be worse" category:  AFD Central and North Stations both have generators and WiFi, the water treatment plant and major water wells,  and of course Amherst Police Department at 111 Main Street has an emergency generator so the Community Room can and will serve as an Emergency Operations Center.

Town Manager John Musante seated left, Chief Scott Livingstone standing

Last year the EOC was activated for Hurricane Irene (which became a Tropic Storm on hitting New England).

A Drastic Measure

 A mountain of beer

Everyone -- except maybe for the culprits causing the chaos -- seems to agree the rowdy behavior bringing down the quality of life in neighborhoods around Amherst is not getting any better.

Noise and nuisance beat on unabated, cars continue to be piloted by drivers under the influence even after a young man was killed by a drunk driver going the wrong way on a state highway last spring, and UMass is still reeling from an alleged gang rape.

And the common denominator is of course alcohol -- or I should say, too much of it.

In this ultra PC Happy Valley, the term "bully" is negatively applied more frequently than sunscreen on a hot summer day at Puffers Pond.  But the term "bully pulpit" is a positive one.  A politician using their office to communicate standards of behavior expected of the populace at large.

Our Select Board has used their bully pulpit all too infrequently on this matter, and even then only to applaud ineffective Public Relations -- almost comedic schemes -- promoted by UMass to address the serious problem of off campus student behavior perpetrated by a distinct minority of their clientele. 

A decade ago, after a particularly violent Hobart Hoedown caught APD off guard and resulted in injured officers and two patrol cars with over $10,000 in damages (Chief Scherpa had them parked in front of police headquarters for a week so the whole world could see), I asked Governor Romney to mobilize the national guard the following weekend.

Not that I thought state and local police could not handle things, but simply to send a message loud and clear that maintaining public order is job #1 for government, be it local state or federal.

It's time for our local Select Board to send a stern wake up call.  As liquor commissioners the Select Board can shut down all liquor sales for up to three days "in cases of riots or great public excitement."

Amherst Attorney Peter Vickery suggested it earlier this month in a letter to the Select Board requesting they invoke the measure around this coming St Patrick's Day considering the debauchery of last year's infamous Blarney Blowout.

And attorney Vickery followed it up with a letter to UMPD Chief John Horvath the day after UMass hosted a public forum on reigning in rowdy behavior (where, unknown to us all, they were in the middle of the alleged gang rape investigation).

Letter to UMass Chief Alcohol Sales

Halloween is coming up fast and is sure to be one of the top party events of the year -- probably both on Wednesday as well as the weekend(s).  If the Select  Board suspended the sale of alcohol on Tuesday and Wednesday it would have a lesser impact on law abiding mature citizens who handle alcohol with respect and as such probably do not drink heavily in the middle of a work week.

A brief 48-hour prohibition on Halloween would send a loud message to everyone, and put purveyors of alcohol on notice that the irresponsible freewheeling party days of yore are over.

Peter Clark DJ Facebook page

Smoke and Mirrors and Math

Yet another front page, above the fold puff piece 

So once again the Amherst Bulletin is acting as stenographer/cheerleader for the Amherst Regional Public School administration by failing to point out the recently released, expensive, $5,000 study on the high cost of education (irony alert!) in Amherst failed to point out a rather obvious factor:  high administration costs.

And it's not too difficult to uncover that smoking gun.  According to the Mass Department Of Education website, Amherst "administration" costs are at $735 vs state average of $447, or 60% higher than state average.  And pesky critics have been pointing that out for years.

When the Amherst School Committee first discussed the exceedingly high per-pupil cost ($17,116 vs state average $13,361) some on the committee suggested perhaps other cities and towns had different financial reporting criteria to the state DOE, so perhaps some hidden costs that are not reported could be a factor in making Amherst appear high.

The $5,000 consultant report makes no mention of that, so it sounds like an "apples to apples" comparison confirms Amherst is indeed exceedingly high compared to other cities and towns (higher than two-thirds of comparative cities and towns used by the consultant).

The consultant, however, does the next best thing:  praises the town for "A historic value for education here and that's a wonderful thing." Easy for her to say since she does not live and pay our high tax rate. 

Funny, I can't ever remember running into a taxpayer who cheers our exceedingly high cost of education, which directly leads to our exceedingly high property tax rate.

And it's not like the academic results are something to applaud either.  According to the DOE, Amherst elementary schools (currently a "level 2" category) failed to measure up in 9-out-of-10 areas targeted for improvement.  Ouch!

Yes, Amherst teachers at an average annual salary of  $66,484 are a little over the $63,000 state average and the student/teacher ratio is lower at 10-1 (not the 1-10 the Amherst Bulletin reported) vs state average of 13.9-1.

But clearly a 5% above-average salary and 39% lower student/teacher ratio does not  account for an overall 28% increase over state average in per-pupil costs. 

Rather than throw teachers under the bus, ARPS administration needs to take a lesson from AA:  first step is to admit there's a problem.  Or as Pogo would say, "We have met the enemy and he is us."

Can I bill the School Committee $5,000 for this report?

Nuisance Party Poster Boys

A proud Peter Clark

UPDATE:  Friday, Oct 25.  Peter Clark took down his Facebook business page but not personal one.

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One major reason I think UMass pampers the hard core student party culture living off-campus is the simple fact Peter Clark and Emerson Rutkowski are still students in good standing. 

The first major incident of violence towards our police department occurred at the very beginning of the semester last year.  September 9, 2011 to be exact.  Peter Clark was the party DJ.  He was proud enough to use it for a cover photo on FAH-Q Facebook page for his DJ business, even after the extensive negative press.

Currently he uses a photo from one of the three recent Townhouse (where he lives) riots.

Because of the notoriety I first bestowed upon Peter Clark, the Amherst Bulletin and Daily Hampshire Gazette gave him a front page platform to air his cocky, immature party hardy philosophy to the masses.

And that was quickly followed up by the King of Juvenile, Bar Stool Sports, making him out to be a modern day James Dean (although "without a cause" certainly fits).

When he and stooge sidekick Emerson Rutkowski were driving neighbors crazy in a residential neighborhood in South Amherst and the household garnered repeated noise/nuisance tickets as a result, they formed a Facebook page called "F_ck The Fines!"

This kid is worse than a serial repeat offender, because he's actually proud of it.  And as a "professional" DJ, he profits by it.  Fast forward to early Friday morning: Peter Clark and  Emerson Rutkowski were arrested yet again for Noise and Nuisance violations at their Meadow Street Townhouse apartment.

And it sounds like the cop could also have thrown in a charge of resisting arrest or assault on an officer.

At the very least, this makes three arrest incidents in just the past 18 months.  So if Umass really wants to show they are cracking down on the rowdy behavior terrorising our neighborhoods, then they they need to do what our military does in the "War On Terror":  take out the ringleaders.

And for the lowly likes of Peter Clark or Emerson Rutkowski, you don't need an expensive drone strike. Just expel them.  Peter Clark famously stated, "As long as I’m here, there will always be a party to go to."

Well, the flip side to that ...

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No surprise APD broke up a major party on Hobart Lane the night of 10/12/12

DUI Dishonor Role

 You drink and drive, innocent people die

Getting hard to keep up with all the Party Houses and DUI arrests when a mega story like gang rape sweeps everything aside.  Common denominator is of course alcohol.  Yes, a legal although regulated  product that produces profits like there's no tomorrow.

Of course the downside is for some people -- like a UMass student a couple of weeks away from graduation last spring -- there will never be another tomorrow.

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1:19 AM early Saturday morning police pulled over a driver in front of Presidential Apartments near UMass for a "defective license plate".  He blew a .08% BAC and was arrested for DUI:

Glenn Jacob Esienhard, 207 Roberts Road, Ardmore, MA, age 22

1:36 AM early Sunday morning police were called to the half-way point on the steep side of The Notch in deep South Amherst near the Norwottuck Gun Club entrance for a "single vehicle rollover".  After the car stopped sliding, the occupant pulled himself out and was trying to enlist bystanders (who stopped to help) into flipping the car back over on its wheels so he could flee the scene.   Arrested for DUI:

Alex Carlton Koblinski, 72 N. Main St, So. Deerfield, MA, age 22

1:18 AM early Monday police were called via cell phone over a "road rage" incident.  Arrested for DUI:

Francis Vanasse, 91 No Main St, Belchertown, MA, age 29

A Growing Spotlight

Chief John Horvath, on the job less than a month, standing in the hot seat

A grim faced line of state officials -- including Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy, UMPD Chief John Horvath and District Attorney Dave Sullivan -- entered the conference room at UMPD headquarters about 20 minutes late for the 1:00 PM news conference, if indeed a 1:00 PM event was ever officially acknowledged as actually happening.

 Chancellor Kumble R. Subbaswamy "with a heavy heart" addresses the crowd  

But obviously enough media got wind of it as two or three dozen reporters, photographers and videographers were present for the presentation.  The Chief would not discuss specifics of the gruesome case --whether alcohol was involved, who signed in the perpetrators at the dorm, how well the victim knew them, etc.

 Print, radio, TV, and web based journalists.  And it's only the begining

But he did confirm the arrest of four males, none of them UMass students, for the most heinous crime of gang rape, although nobody dared used that term.  And he praised the swift joint investigation of UMPD and State police, while DA Sullivan promised justice would be meted out.

 District Attorney Dave Sullivan

And while the Chief did acknowledge UMass reported 13 sexual assaults last year and 12 the year before, he did say firmly: "This doesn't happen on the UMass campus," referring of course to gang rape.

It did, however, (allegedly) happen.  And it's going to be a very long time before anyone forgets that.

Enku Gelaye UMASS Dean of Students



UMass official statement regarding the alleged gang rape. (update 12/6/14:  Apparently UMass doesn't want to be reminded, as they have purged the press release)

The (Springfield) Republican reports