The Boulders, circa 1975 when it was known as "Brittany Manor", one of the original large professionally managed apartment complexes in town, is getting a major exterior renovation, shedding the quaint but dated looking wood shingles in favor of a cleaner, tighter vinyl siding and new energy efficient windows.
The project is estimated to cost $849,996 and has generated $8,700 to the town in building permit fees. Although town assessor David Burgess confirms that current assessed value of $11,651,200 ($240,000 in property tax payment) will not go up as the renovation is "considered a reasonable expense to maintain the property."
Not a bad idea, as it gives landlords an incentive to do basic maintenance. Although we have a few in town that consider basic maintenance above and beyond their call of duty.
If ever a term described Amherst Police Department's capital equipment requests for next year it would be "the usual". Well, almost. (No drones however).
Three front line cruisers, AKA patrol cars, i.e. "black-and-whites," at a total cost of $105,000. These vital vehicles are on the go 24 hours a day, seven days a week and as a result only last two or three years. The department is currently on a four year replacement cycle: replace three cruisers annually for three consecutive years and then four in the fourth year.
Since the iconic Crown Vics are no longer manufactured, the replacement vehicles will all be Ford Taurus Police Interceptors, which are crash rated to 75 MPH. Thus the vehicles are safer, as well as roomier for extra comfort, and fiscally sound via better gas mileage.
A reliable response vehicle is required for first responders
Last year was a replace-four year but there is still money left over from that appropriation, so the department is putting $45,000 of it towards a new Personal Transport Vehicle or PTV.
Not to be confused with the racially insensitive term "paddy wagon." Although I heard a number of college aged youth use that term as they were being loaded into the vehicle last fall. The current van has over 136,000 miles on it.
Left over FY13 money ($12,000) will also be used to purchase a Harley Davidson motorcycle
coming off lease (with only 1,492 miles on it). A few years ago APD had
a mounted horse division but that was put out to pasture due to budget
constraints.
No horse patrol but we have (2) Harleys
Also requested is an in-cruiser wireless camera system for two cars ($10,500) that shoots digital audio and video and immediately downloads as the patrol car pulls into the station parking lot. The raw video protects officers from liability (false claims of inappropriate conduct) and can be used in a court of law for evidence in drunk driving arrests.
The department requested these two camera systems last year but was delayed to save money. That year the department had to upgrade its communication system at a cost of $125,000 to come into compliance with FCC "narrow band" regulations.
Captain Pronovost left, Chief Livingstone left center Kay Moran JCPC Chair right
Joint Capital Planning Committee's target goal is to spend 7% of total budget for capital items.
While a total police request of $172,500 ($57,000 already
appropriated) may sound like a lot, considering the FY14 APD operation
budget is, like the Amherst Fire Department, just over $4 million, a 7% slice for capital should come to $280,000.
About the only thing worse than losing all your possessions in a structure fire (besides your life of course) is to later have a lawyer publicly brand you as the culprit who caused the conflagration.
As another lawyer so famously asked of a bully on network TV, "Have you no sense of decency, sir?"
According to the Amherst Fire Department the cause of the 9/13/12 blaze at #28 Hobart Lane was "accidental" and "undetermined".
But according to Attorney Farber, hired gun for property owner Grandonico Properties, LLC, the blaze was caused by an occupant of a (illegal) basement bedroom.
Oddly, he puts forth a scenario that is remarkably close to an another fire that occurred in South Amherst over a year before due to the Halloween Snowmageddon storm. A young lady was drying her hair when the power went out, so she dropped the hairdryer on the bed and a few days later when the power finally returned, puff.
The fire department report clearly traces the fire origin to a bedside table, not the bed itself. Miss X also reports she does not own a "curling iron."
Yes the Hobart Lane basement area had one smoke detector but it was too badly damaged in the fire to determine if it was in proper working order. Either way, with a basement illegally subdivided into two bedrooms, three smoke detectors are required and they need to be hardwired rather than battery operated.
Plus the entire basement area has only one window as a second means of egress, so the person with the bedroom that did not have a window could easily be trapped and turned into toast.
#28 Hobart Lane: One basement window, two bedrooms
The other vital safety equipment missing that day was a carbon monoxide detector. Attorney Farber even admits there were none, and that the Gilreath Manor complex uses gas water heaters located in -- you guessed it -- the basement.
In fact, a safety inspection immediately after the fire discovered one of the water heaters was not operating properly because it was covered by a blanket, a potential two-way death sentence by carbon monoxide poisoning, or a gas explosion.
Attorney Farber also admitted Miss X had concerns over unlabeled fire extinguishers. Since there were no labels on them she would not have known they only contained water and therefore, should NOT be used on an electrical fire, which would have only made things worse.
Miss X also confirms she never tested any smoke detectors in the basement, only on the first floor, as she was unaware there was even one there. The fire department inspector found one on the second floor was not working on the day of the fire and issued the Grandonicos a $100 fine.
ZBA Chair Eric Beal (also an attorney) was obviously upset by the written testimony put before his board, and he spent a fair amount of time "reading it into the public record".
Just as obvious on display -- via attorney Farber -- was the Grandonicos wish to place blame anywhere but where it belongs: on them.
As a result, a hard working young woman who -- through no fault of her own -- suffered the trauma of losing possessions to fire, gets thrown under a burning bus.
To quote that iconic theme song of the 60s, "What do you do when you're branded, will you fight for your name?"
Attorney Larry I've-got-a-secret Farber 1/31/13 ZBA Meeting
So yes, I was tempted to scream at this point in the meeting (or assume a lotus position and self immolate). But I figured the sparsely attended meeting was being recorded by Amherst Media, so at some point the whole world could see -- and hear.
Of course one thing the Grandonicos wish to keep secret is the provision that ties students into a 15 month lease (June 1 through August 31 the following year) that spans two summers.
Thus the average UMass student, who does not live in Amherst year round, pays for 15 months but only gets 9 months worth of use.
Or they could spend $450 each to get out of the last three months.
About 15 minutes before the new UMass "Sober Shuttle" picked up its first passenger in the heart of the downtown, Amherst Police took a potential killer off the road ... Belchertown Road (Rt 9) to be exact.
Stopped for "marked lanes violations" (i.e. all over the road) at 1:00 AM early Friday morning and then failing a Field Sobriety Test, police arrested Joshua D. Frank, 2 Birchwood Ave, Peabody, MA, age 23 for Marked Lanes Violation and Driving Under the Influence.
From now on let's hope Mr. Frank takes the Sober Shuttle.
#####
From the Salem News 2/5/11:
Police responded to an accident, with injuries,
at Gardner Street at Seneca Road at midnight. A car driven by Joshua D.
Frank of Peabody collided with a car driven by Jeana L. Bottari of
Salem. Bottari was transported to the hospital.
Representative Dan Winslow R-Norfolk (an Amherst native)
So if ever there was a compassionate conservative in the state of Massachusetts who could take the baton hand off from Scott Brown and set his own blistering pace it would be Dan Winslow.
Yes, amazingly enough, someone born in Amherst that's fiscally conservative, with a profound respect for bedrock family values -- including the American flag.
Back in the dark days of 2001 Dan, as council to Governor Romney, was sympathetically helpful to me in my crusade to get Amherst to allow the 29 commemorative flags to fly in the downtown; and just the past September Dan pushed in the state legislature for a bill that would require the state to fly the American flag at half staff to commemorate the in-the-line-of-duty death of a fire fighter or police officer.
And to further align him with ultra-liberal Amherst voters Dan supported the recently passed medical marijuana bill that Amherst overwhelmingly supported in November by 83%. Of course Amherst also supported President Obama by the same 83% margin. Hmm ...
With Stan Rosenberg (D-Amherst) now State Senate Majority Leader, a win by Winslow for Senate will really put Amherst on a map no longer ignored by the Powers That Be in Boston.
####
Statement posted at 10:30 AM on his website:
“Today I’m taking the necessary steps to form an exploratory committee
to test the waters for the U.S. Senate. We need to fix a broken
Washington where progress is being hampered by partisan gridlock. If we
continue to elect the same Washington politicians, we can not expect
different results.”
“The people of Massachusetts and all Americans deserve solutions from
their elected officials. Washington needs to focus on problem solving
and implement ideas that will create jobs and grow our economy,” said
Winslow
The war against rowdy rental units disturbing the peace and quiet of residential neighborhoods dates back a generation. In fact, some of today's violators could very well be offspring of students who attended the University way back when it carried the ignoble moniker "ZooMass."
A recent major skirmish, relatively short by municipal standards, came to a (sort of) successful close this past Thursday. The Amherst Zoning Board of Appeals allowed prominent local landord Grandonico Properties, LLC to withdraw their appeal of Building Commissioner Rob Morra's $100/day fine for violating the town bylaw forbidding more than four unrelated tenants per single-family household.
But not before paying $2,400 in fines and -- most important -- agreeing to change their lease language to clearly demonstrate they will abide by the town's zoning ordinance.
