Free $ No More

 Pine Street, North Amherst center

The town seems to have hit a dry spell acquiring Other People's Money for expensive infrastructure improvements.

First it was Community Development Block Grant funds from the federal government, a cool million no longer coming our way; and now the state has passed over a $4 million MassWorks Project proposal to upgrade North Amherst's Pine Street roadway, including water/sewer and sidewalks.

"Economic development" is one of the main criteria for MassWorks approval. Last spring, fearing more student party houses, Amherst Town Meeting vetoed the smart growth rezoning proposal for North Amherst.  Only months later, the town applied for the ill fated MassWorks construction grant. 

Now just another concrete casualty of rowdy student behavior.

Party House of the long Weekend

 233 East Pleasant Street, Amherst

Unseasonably warm weather and a long holiday weekend (at least for UMass students) combined to keep the party level high enough to attract late night police response to a number of locations around town, one of them at 4:19 AM this morning.

But only one house was bad-boy enough to garner an arrest, rather than verbal warning or civil infraction $300 ticket. Late Saturday night (11:30 PM) police were called to 233 East Pleasant Street, immediate neighbor to the town owned Hawthorne Farm, for loud music and college aged kids milling about the well-traveled road just outside town center.

Between 100 and 200 guests were cleared out by multiple responding units but party house host Michael Vuona, a UMass student, was nothing if not uncooperative, attempting to pull away from an officer. Police also confirm a "live DJ" was present contributing to the noise problem, although no word if it was former UMass student, Party Poster Boy, Peter Clark.

Michael Vuona, 233 East Pleasant Street, Amherst, MA, age 22. Arrested for Noise and Resisting arrest.

About a half-hour later police responded to 338 Pine Street called by a nearby neighbor who reported to dispatch they had just counted "11 taxis dropping off students." Upon arrival police were asked by tenants for help clearing the party explaining that a simply birthday party had suddenly grown exponentially and gotten out of their control.

Because the party hosts were proactive (albeit last minute) and cooperative, police issued a verbal warning only.

A 21-year-old resident of 260 Grantwood Drive (who actually gives his legal address as so), however, garnered a $300 noise ticket after police found him and some friends loudly playing "beer pong" on the screened in porch at 4:19 this morning.

Police also paid multiple visits to houses tucked along South Prospect Street as they have done on previous weekends. In fact, an officer, as part of "community policing" visited a neighbor earlier in the day to hear her complaints about noise coming from #37. She has a small child and the late night decibels are playing havoc with sleep patterns. Sure enough, late Saturday (11:24 PM) police issued a warning to #37 South Prospect for loud noise.

The previous night police issued three residents of #55 South Prospect Street $300 noise tickets.

Killer on the road

Roadside memorial for Daniel Haley., Rt 116 northbound Hadley/Amherst line, parallel to UMass football stadium

Since his assailant was going the wrong way on a state highway and he was only a few miles from his Amherst apartment after a long late-night motorcycle trip from Pittsfield, it's safe to assume they were both going at least the 55 mph speed limit.

When he initially spotted her bearing down he may have assumed it was just an optical illusion -- that she was actually in the southbound lane where she belonged.  After all, who would anticipate a car going the wrong way on such a well marked, well maintained divided roadway, on such a clear night?

And in that split-second realization a high-speed missile was indeed locked on him, maybe he thought the UMass exit -- only a few hundred yards ahead -- could provide safe haven.  But two objects hurtling towards one another leaves little time to carry out a deliberative decision.

Whatever desperate evasive maneuver taken by Daniel Haley, age 24, it was not enough.  He was killed instantly, only a month before his scheduled UMass graduation.  By a drunk driver.  Worse, and all too typical, a repeat offender:  Brittini Benton, age 23, of Sunderland.

In a judicial review of 57,000 DUI cases spanning four years, sparked by a Boston Globe Spotlight team expose on leniency towards drunk drivers in Massachusetts, an independent special counsel found juries acquit drunken driving cases over half the time (58%).   But judges in similar situations (where a defense attorney has waived the right to jury trial) acquit a whopping 86% of the time!

In Massachusetts a driver can refuse a breathalyzer test without penalty of a license suspension, if they are later acquitted of the drunk driving charge.  And in the absence of concrete scientific evidence provided by a breathalyzer, that acquittal, sadly, is more likely to happen.

Allowing careless potential killers back on the road. So once again, sweet family will die.

Thank You!

These colors require constant vigilance.  Our Veterans make it so

Coming Home

 Amherst College Homecoming this weekend

I was meaning to write one of those milestone remembrances last week as I hit one million page views -- the highs and lows over six years of blogging -- but then Frankenstorm came calling and I had to live in the moment for a few days.

One very low story that haunts me to this day was the sudden death of promising young Amherst College student Jenny Kim; "sudden" being a euphemism for suicide. I still get a few web searchers coming here every week as a constant reminder.

Now I have another name that will haunt me for a very long time, probably forever: Trey Malone.

Trey too was a promising student attending Amherst College -- and like Ms. Kim he took his own life.  Unlike Jenny Kim, we now know why he took his own life.  I'll let him speak (for the final time) but provide no follow up.

I'm left speechless.

(read at your own risk)

Trey Malone's final dispatch

A Matter of Discipline

Pike Party just (barely) off campus

UMass certainly cannot complain about the high number of noise, nuisance, open container and underage drinking citations handed out by the Amherst Police Department in their ongoing war against rowdy behavior.

Although I think our flagship institute of higher education was a tad lenient on some of the 652 students who garnered the attention of our police department last year for their obnoxious off campus behavior (only 5 were expelled).

But it seems to be a different matter altogether when infractions takes place on campus.  According to head disciplinarian Enku Gelaye (more formerly known as Dean of Students), a total of 2,818 students recieved sanction last year with 2,342 of them on campus (83%) vs 476 off campus (17%). 

Now yes, UMass houses 12,400 students on campus (45% of total) but that leaves 14,869 (55%) -- the majority  of the 27,269 total students -- to find housing elsewhere.

Simply put, less than half of UMass students (those who live on campus) garnered 83% of official sanctions handed out by our flagship of higher education last year.

Considering Amherst police cited or arrested 652 students during that same time frame for bad behavior off campus, it certainly seems the town pays more attention to these students than does UMass.

Not exactly what Fox News would describe as "Fair and balanced."

Back story

 

DUI Dishonor Roll

This past weekend was a relatively safe one on our roads compared to most as APD made only two arrests for Driving Under the Influence.  Lucky for us.

I'm reminded of the chilling message the IRA sent to Maggie Thatcher after a lucky last minute change in plans saved her from being blown to bits by one of their more sophisticated time bombs:  "You have to be lucky all the time. We only have to be lucky once."

Pleasant thought as we head towards another weekend ...

Early Saturday morning 1:42 AM.  Failure to stop/yield in town center tripped up a drunk driver.
Andrew Salvio, 55 Hazelmere Rd, New Britain, CT, age 22

Also early Saturday morning 2:35 AM.  At Ground Zero for all things alcohol related: Phillips Street and North Pleasant, police arrested Britney Porcino, 120 Pulpit Hill Rd, Amherst, MA, age 19 for OUI, Marked Lanes Violation, Speeding, Possession of Marijuana.

 Note ETOH (alcohol poisoning)

AFD 1st weekend November