Aerial Heirloom

Camperdown Elm at Pratt Field briefly slips the surly bonds of earth 

After spending pretty much the whole day yesterday preparing the precious Camperdown Elm for its brief but important journey of 30 yards, but then deciding to bring in a bigger 100 ton crane, today's effort went off perfectly.

A BIGGER 100 ton crane did the trick

About a dozen workers from Bartlett Tree Experts demonstrated why "experts" are part of their name and made the successful move this morning in a little less than two hours.

Only one branch from the top of the Camperdown Elm snapped off at the initial start of the launch, bringing an audible reaction from the small crowd who gathered to watch the spectacle.

 Relocation of the Camperdown Elm completed

Handle With Care

A bevy of workers prepare the Camperdown Elm for a safe move 

A large crew from Connecticut based Bartlett Tree Experts spent pretty much the whole day trying to move the stately Camperdown Elm from the center of harm's way at Amherst College Pratt Field, but in the end gave up for the day and sent out for a bigger crane.  Yes, I said a b-i-g-g-e-r crane.

Work is expected to resume tomorrow, if the crane arrives.

Crews abandoned the effort today to await a BIGGER crane

Camperdown Elm, all wrapped up and ready to go

Our Next US Senator Comes A Calling

Curt Shumway, owner of the Marriott Hotel talking to Dan Winslow on right/center

Good crowd turned out to welcome Winslow back to the Happy Valley

Dan Winslow center:   Hard to miss in a green tie

The Republican Reports

Gray Street Command

 Three car garage behind 106 Gray Street is  a total loss

A fire broke out shortly before 4:00 PM Thursday afternoon in a garage at 106 Gray Street immediately adjacent to Amherst Regional High School, which was not in session.

Amherst Fire Department made quick work knocking down the blaze.  There were no injuries, but the garage was a total loss.

AFD Chief Tim Nelson (X1) on the scene

Video and action photo below by John Edwards with permission (unlike Gazettenet)

 

 Ladder 1 on the scene

The High Cost of Safety

Dare I even breath the word?

Dare I remind you of that stunningly sad Friday morning when our run of the mill routine was suddenly and forever broken.  By a madman ... with a gun.  Unleashing barrage after barrage of .223 caliber bullets on our most innocent, priceless possession: Children.

And the teachers and staff parents entrusted them with, who died defending their helpless young students in a heroic attempt to uphold that trust. 

Newtown.  Sandy Hook Elementary School.  A tragedy of epic proportions now forever known by either moniker.  What 9/11 did for airline security, Newton has done for school security. 

Take Amherst's three elementary schools for instance.  This morning the schools director of facilities and maintenance Ron Bohonowicz paid a visit to the Joint Capital Planning Committee to defend capital item requests for the upcoming fiscal year.

Ron Bohonowicz, Director of Facilities and Maintenance, right 

One such item is $150,000 for new "columbine" locks on all doors in the town's three elementary schools (average cost $300/lock) ) as well as panic bars for the inside of doors.  Currently the Middle School and High School have such locks. 

In addition to physical upgrades the schools have also instituted new security procedures for parent pick up, lock the main doors and use security cameras to screen visitors, plus have periodic security inspections with APD and AFD.

$150,000 for locks and panic bars is, indeed, expensive.  But so are the cost of funerals.  

A Little On The Top

Former Fiber Arts Building downtown Amherst this morning 

Work continues on the building Amherst College purchased four years ago for $2.3 Million, even though it was only assessed at $1 million.

Activist Vince O'Connor tried to get Amherst Town Meeting to take the property from Amherst College via eminent domain but like a lot of Vince's initiatives these days, the best laid plan did not go very far.

Amherst College planes to turn it into office space.

Expensive Parking

Machines are poorly lit, confusing, batteries die, and are slow to respond (uses 2g technology)

Actually the price of parking in downtown Amherst is relatively cheap, fifty cents per hour. But if you use the convenience of a credit card, which accounts for 34% of our revenues, the bank transaction fee gobbles up 27% of that, a significant portion.

And since the town is tied into the current machines, which run on proprietary software, there's no way to switch vendor's now.  So rather than raise the bridge the Select Board is thinking about lowering the water:  instituting a two hour ($1.00) minimum charge for use of credit cards.



Although, as Finance Director Sandy Pooler points out, it would almost be cheaper to make very short term parking free -- except of course the town generates significant revenues on parking tickets.

The old stuck between a car and a parking meter.

   Amherst Parking Costs: Credit Cards