Local Story Of The Year

Safe & Healthy Neighborhood Committee:  Rob Morra Building Commissioner, Tim Nelson AFD Chief, Stephanie O'Keeffe Select Board Chair, Rt: David Ziomek Asst Town Manager 


It all started with a mid-September brief entry in the Amherst Police Department weekend logs, a sort of administrative notation of the type rarely reported by the Daily Hampshire Gazette.  But with a highly recognizable business name combined with a palpable sense of urgency,  I found it utterly fascinating:

"Firefighter Mike Roy (Fire Prevention Officer) received information that Lincoln Realty had warned the residents that an inspection was imminent and that they needed to assist in hiding code violations. I assisted with contacting the DA's office and the Clerk of Courts seeking an administrative warrant to enter the apartment for inspection."

My reliable AFD source confirmed the existence of a revealing email to town officials sent out on the day of the September 13 fire, clearly describing an orchestrated effort by apartment complex owner and then President of the Amherst Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, Kathryn Grandonico, to cover up the existence of illegal basement bedrooms in the 14-unit  Gilreath Manor apartment complex.

Illegal for two reasons:  the space is not Health Department approved for human habitation (and contained deficiencies in fire and carbon monoxide detection); and with the two illegal basement bedrooms the total number of students occupying the single-family unit exceeded the 22-year-old town bylaw prohibiting more than four unrelated housemates per unit.

My public document request for the student's email took longer than the ten-day response time required by law, and was not fully complied with since it did not contain any of the follow up responses by town officials to Hannah, the jittery UMass student. But the document clearly illuminated a cover up ... at least on the part of the apartment complex owner.

Like that other infamous cover up from 40 years ago, it's not the original "two bit" act that sparks the blinding spotlight of exposure, but the after-the-fact attempts to cover it up.

If Ms. Grandonico had simply fessed up to an age old lucrative practice of packing more renters into a unit than allowed by law with a promise it would not happen again, the story would never have seen the light of print (not that my bricks and mortar friends have given it all that much coverage to date).

Now, however,  it has become a major test case:  Will the town be able to enforce the unrelated tenant zoning bylaw with $100/day fines, or can the landlord simply deflect responsibility by blaming the tenants?

The answer will decided the fate of Town Manager John Musante's "Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods" initiative.   The SHN committee, a who's who of heavy hitters in town government, is working on a bylaw proposal for spring Town Meeting requiring rental registration.

And this sweeping bylaw would NOT grandfather existing rentals.  This promises to be a battle as epic as the 1999 "Smoking Ban in Bars War" when Amherst, over bitter opposition of business owners, led the way on what is now common practice. 

Thus the outcome to my 2012 story of the year will be a critical component for the 2013 issue of the year.

Winter Weekend

Thistlebloom Farm, South East St, Amherst

Dean of Discipline

Hobart Lane:  A usual suspect

As Party House apologists are fond of pointing out, UMass is the largest employer in Amherst, thus making us a "company town," thus making disturbing behavior that disrupts neighborhood tranquility town wide mere collateral damage to be endured for the greater good.

Or something like that.

Last year Amherst police politely handed over to UMass the names of 652 students arrested for rowdy behavior : Noise, Nuisance House, Open Container, Unlicenses Kegs, Under aged Drinking.

Since UMass is only in session roughly seven months out of the year, that amounts to 23 arrests per week.  Just this past semester APD made 105 arrests for Nuisance House violations alone.

Since Nuisance House tickets are issued to all tenants that can be found on the premises at the time of the disturbance, it usually amounts to three per incident which works out to 35 dwellings or two per week (usually on weekends.)

All the above statistics are reactionary.  A neighbor calls 911 to complain about loud noise or other disruptive behavior and the police show up.  By then things are already out of control.

UMass, our largest employer, needs to hire an Off Campus RA to proactively patrol the usual suspect streets and enforce the student code of conduct, which UMass now claims to apply to off campus behavior.

A combination between bar bouncer and Jr High School Principal in charge of behavior.  The town recently hired a code enforcement building inspector to better police slumlords who specialize in high demand student rentals.

Since UMass provides the supply side, it's only fair they share in the oversight.

A Better Life? Nyet!

Vladimir Putin on the prowl

You would think a conservative macho dude like Vladimir Putin would respect and appreciate family values; or more specifically, the value of having a family.

By enacting a ban on United States couples adopting children from his country, the  Russian President has -- for all intents and purposes -- sentenced far too many of these children to a life without love.

If he really wanted to get back at the United States for political humiliations, he should have just challenged President Obama to a wrestling match.

There's still China

Newsmaker Of The Year

Umass Amherst founded 1863

What would Amherst be without the flagship University of Massachusetts?  A lot less newsworthy, that's for sure.

Yes, in all of the top Amherst news stories over the past 12 months -- from the alleged gang rape in a dorm, the "riot" after the Superbowl, the death of a young woman from a fall the University kept secret for ten days at family request, or the weekend in and weekend out Party House winners racking up a record breaking number of $300 nuisance house tickets -- the University of Massachusetts has played a central role. 

Of course alcohol has also played a contributing role in all those noteworthy stories as well.

On the plus side, however, Amherst has a 3.9% unemployment rate compared to the state average of 6.6% ... mainly due to our beloved economic Juggernaut, UMass. 

All in all, not a bad trade off (depending on your proximity to a Party House I suppose).

The Dr. Is, finally, In

Atkinson Building, 17 Research Drive, Amherst

I first met Katherine J Atkinson (aka Dr. Kate), at a distance anyway, when she spoke before a packed church at a memorial service eight years ago for her Dad, Dr. Rollin Johnson, an orthopedic surgeon who gave a legion of patients, including me, a second chance at enjoying life via his gifted expertise with joint replacement.

The writer in me was struck by the unfairness of his sudden passing, only a year into a well-earned retirement.  His dutiful daughter directly addressed what a lot of us mourners were thinking, saying what we didn't  know is that her dad suffered a heart attack twenty years earlier, and fully recovered.

But, if he had succumbed then -- and not been able to help us overcome our debilitating ailments or to guide his daughter along the same path to becoming a healer -- that truly would have been the definition of "unfair."

So I find it both fitting and fair that after five l-o-n-g years of work, including contentious political debates before Amherst Town Meeting and the Zoning Board of Appeals, the Atkinson Building -- providing a new home to the Atkinson Family Practice --  would open for business less than a week before Christmas.

Amherst's very own, "Miracle On Research Drive."

The new building harnesses sustainable energy via solar panels on roof

Ginger, the color coordinated therapy dog

With 3,500  patients, having ten examining rooms cuts down on waiting

A "Project of the Month"

Assistance At The Top

 DPW Director Guilford Mooring (left), Dave Ziomek (Rt) @ War Memorial Pool

Town Manager John Musante gave Dave Ziomek an early Christmas present with the announcement today that Mr. Ziomek will assume the role of Assistant Town Manager starting January 1, with a raise in pay from his current $89,126 up to $97,904, an increase of $8,778 or 9%.

Of course rank and file unions have settled for around 2%, and even the Town Manager only received a 1.5% raise back in October.   Although his current pay at $142,100 will be 40% higher than his new assistant and $25,000 higher than next highest paid department heads, police and fire chiefs.

The position of Assistant Town Manager is not a new one. Michael Letcher was Assistant Town Manager from 1983 until leaving in 1991. Then Town Manager Barry Del Castilho left the position vacant for budgetary reasons, and it stayed unfilled until Musante assumed the position under Town Manager Larry Shaffer.

When Town Manager John Musante was seriously injured in a fall last year, Dave Ziomek was appointed acting Town Manager by the Select Board in an emergency meeting, and served in that role for six weeks.