Welcome Back!

Ladder 1, "back in service". North Station.

Tighter Housing Market

Amherst College (named after the town, not the General)

So the already squeaky tight rental housing market in Amherst, everybody's  favorite college town, will get a little tighter this upcoming school year as the construction projects at Amherst College, our #1 landowner and property taxpayer, displaces 60 students from on-campus housing.

Sure, losing 15 apartment units out of total rental stock of 5,000 doesn't sound like much, and since the apartments normally rent for $2,540 + utilities, not overly affordable for families.

But in a town with a vacancy rate of only 3.5%, described by the Housing and Sheltering Committee as "well below state and national levels and representative of extremely tight market conditions," every unit matters.

At least the neighborhood will not have to worry about rowdyism. 

Setting A (bad) Example

Katherine Appy, Amherst School Committee Chair

So it will be interesting to see if the venerable Daily Hampshire Gazette follows up on the recent expose published by my friends at the Republican, although they did not connect an important dot concerning Ms. Appy's role as a member of the Amherst School Committee.

You know, the elected folks who should be setting a good, positive example for the kids in a town where education is King (or Queen, as the case may be).

And of course the other consideration is how quickly would the Gazette have jumped on this if it had involved the school committee member Katherine Appy replaced?

Or what would have been the response on the Internet from Cowardly Anon Nitwits?  Ms. Sanderson would have been tarred-and-feathered, and then crucified with dull, extra long, rusty nails.

Just a tad out of date

A Positive Spin

 Mullins Center Thursday night (be afraid of the dark)

If you threw a UMass News and Media Relations PR flack off the top of one of the Southwest Towers, about half way down he would tweet how refreshing is the air flow.  Another one stationed on the 3rd floor would announce how well he is doing ... so far.

So I guess it is not surprising that, according to UMass spokesperson Daniel J. Fitzgibbons, our higher education officials were "satisfied" with the response to the Tiesto concert, despite  the swamping of Emergency Medical Services on Thursday night for alcohol related calls.

In other words, get used to it!

So anytime the Mullins Center schedules a techno dubstep "artist" we can just write off emergency first responder service to the rest of Amherst and four other nearby towns that rely on AFD for ambulance serivces for three or four hours.

Yeah, that's a (pernicious) plan.

Amherst Firefighters respond

Tax Exempt Entity Taxes EMS

 AFD on scene Mullins Center

Just as "party houses" should not disrupt the tranquility of a neighborhood so taxpayers have to deal with the mitigation mess, neither should UMass allow the Mullins Center to host concerts that swamp our emergency medical services. 

Take last night for instance:  AFD and four other surrounding towns had to provide ambulance transport for 19 patrons of the Tiesto concert directly from the Mullins Center to Cooley Dickinson Hospital and two more from UMPD jail to CDH.

Yes, none of them were UMass students. But the Mullins Center is owned by the UMass Building Authority, sits on UMass land, cost taxpayers $50 million to build (with six digit annual operation losses), and pays no property taxes to either Hadley or Amherst.

Back in 2000 the Hadley assessor tried to partially tax the facility arguing that Ogden Entertainment was a private company and rock concerts had nothing to do with higher education. 

The Appelate Tax Board found against the town of Hadley saying Ogden was an independent contractor "merely providing contractual management services". Since certain type of concerts -- techno for one -- seem to produce a high number of ETOH (alcohol overdose) calls, Mullins Center does pay for one ambulance to stage on site.

But after the last fiasco, also a Thursday night,  Chief Nelson talked them into contracting for two ambulance crews on standby.  Last night required five. 


Dancing Peeps. Dehydration and alcohol make for a lousy mix.

When mere entertainment taxes our vital services so heavily, it's time to get serious about solutions:  Maybe the Mullins Center needs to start dancing to a different beat.

UMass will be so proud

Thumping Thursday

 All sorts of first responders on scene Mullins Center: AFD, UMPD, Environmental Health/Safety

As I write this the "Tiesto" techno concert at the Mullins Center is still going on, minus at least 13 concert goers who have been taken by ambulance to the Cooley Dickinson Hospital for alcohol related emergencies.

Ambulances have descended on the UMass campus from Belchertown, Northampton, Westfield, and South Hadley to aid the Amherst Fire Department in handling the rash of calls.

With most of our on duty firefighters dealing with drunks at the Mullins Center, it would be a lousy time for a major structure fire to occur-- like the one that took a life at Rolling Green Apartments last
month.

 
Ambulances are coming and going at the Mullins Center, UMass Amherst

Will Commemorative Flags Fly On 9/11?

9/11/11 Amherst Town Common. Photo by Greg Saulmon 

On Monday night 7:30 p.m.  the Amherst Select Board will decide if the people of Amherst can decide -- once and for all -- whether commemorative American flags can fly in the downtown on 9/11 to honor and remember the 3,000 innocent souls lost that awful morning.

By a simple majority vote the five member SB can place a question before the voters on the upcoming April 9 local election ballot.

On May 16, 2007 representative Amherst Town Meeting voted by a shameful 96-41 against allowing the flags to fly every 9/11.

Every September since the day of the attack, I have gone before the Amherst Select Board to request the 29 commemorative flags fly on 9/11.  Only twice since 2003 have they been allowed up under "compromise" proposals, first by SB Chair Gerry Weiss allowing them to fly once every three years, and most recently by Chair Stephanie O'Keeffe alowing them up once every five years, on "milestone anniversaries".

According to this schedule 2016 is the next time the flags will be allowed to fly, on the 15th anniversary.   Last summer the town received a boatload of negative press over the contentious issue.

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Kind of ironic that the Select Board will also discuss a request to raise the Tibetan flag ...

RECEIVED: 2/21/13 at 3:47 pm. MEETING TIME: 6:30 pm. LOCATION: Town Room, Town Hall. LIST OF TOPICS: Public Comment. Mt. Holyoke Range Advisory Committee Appointments. Food Truck Regulations Update. FY14 Budget Discussion. Town Manager, Select Board Member and Chair's Reports. Request to Place Question April 9, 2013 election ballot. Untimed Items: Request to raise Tibetan Flag 03-10-13; Warrants for Upcoming Elections; Select Board Meeting Schedule; Parking and Street Closure Requests; New Taxi Driver/Chauffeur Licenses; Special Liquor Licenses; Approve Minutes; and Committee Appointments as presented. Topics the Chair did not reasonably anticipate 48 hours before the meeting.