The Prosecution Rests

 Safe & Healthy Neighborhoods meeting 3/19

At their lucky 13th and final meeting, the Safe & Healthy Neighborhoods Working Group voted 12-1-1 to specifically add "bad behavior" as a legitimate reason for enforcement action under the proposed bylaw, which in the most egregious of cases can result in the revoking of a rental permit.

Obnoxiously loud disruptive party houses that erode the quality of life in Amherst neighborhoods far and wide are the main reason the Safe & Healthy Neighborhood Working Group came into being.

Although vociferous neighbors are still concerned the new General Bylaw -- if endorsed by the Town Manager and then Town Meeting -- will not be ironclad enough to solve their problems with unruliness.

 

Assistant Town Manager David Ziomek Chaired SHNWG

The Select Board will decide, obviously yes, at their April 8 meeting whether to place the new General Bylaw on the warrant for the Spring Town Meeting, where it will require a simply majority vote.  Over the years Amherst has flirted with rent control and rental registration, neither of which proved effective.

Although this time around, the seriousness of purpose is almost palpable.

Maurianne Adams still has reservations

Development Delayed

Map of proposed development (click to enlarge)


Due to a trivial paperwork error neighbors in North Amherst will get an extra couple weeks to raise the $6.6 million required to match the developer's offer via the town's "right of first refusal" that goes hand in hand with property protected by the state's Chapter 61A conservation law.

Last night the Select Board voted to send a letter to W.D. Cowls, Inc informing them of the bureaucratic boo boo and advising company president Cinda Jones that the 120 day clock has not started ticking.

NIMBYs have filed a petition article with Amherst Town Meeting calling for the use of eminent domain to take the property from Cowls to sabotage the land sale/development deal that will bring desperately needed, taxable student housing to Amherst with convenient access to UMass.

Proponents request Town Meeting appropriate only $1.2 million for the hostile taking, and it's unclear how the other $5.4 million would suddenly materialize.

Rising Sun Over Amherst

To commemorate the arrival tomorrow of middle school students from Kanegasaki, our Sister City for past twenty years, the flag of Japan now shares a town hall turret with Old Glory and the Massachusetts state flag.

Not far from Amherst Town Hall the weathered United Nations flag flies from a dedicated pole, and underneath the flag of Tibet recently flew freely to symbolize a yearning to be free.

But of course this coming 9/11, the commemorative American flags will not be allowed to fly in the downtown.

Blarney Blowout Fallout Continues

 Did the "Blarney Blowout" downtown cause riot in North Amherst?

The normally staid Amherst Select Board became uncharacteristically animated this evening when discussing the events of last weekend where riotous behavior on the day of the now infamous "Blarney Blowout" pushed our first responders to the breaking point.

And with all our ambulances and police patrol personnel tied up dealing with drunken college aged youths, average citizens who fund both departments with their tax dollars would have been left waiting if an emergency had occurred.   

 

Vice Chancellor for University Relations John Kennedy

Select Board member Jim Wald seemed to think UMass was trying to blame the town for the riotous event at Townhouse apartments simply because the "Barney Blowout" bar promotion was allowed to occur downtown this year.  SB member Alisa Brewer went so far as to say it was "flat out ludicrous"  and she was "ashamed" of the Letter to the Editor penned by administrator John Kennedy making that association.



The always sedate town manager announced a set of initiatives to address the problem as we head into peak springtime weather:  Musante has asked UMass to keep Health Services open later on weekends to help deal with drunken students, and to provide two staffed ambulances.

He has also requested increased joint patrols between APD and UMPD around the problem areas such as Townhouse Apartments and has authorized AFD Chief Nelson to use overtime to add staffing during the problems weekends coming up.

Select Board Chair Stephanie O'Keeffe pointed out that even after her strong lobbying effort prior to the Blarney Blowout, the University did not send out a mass email to all students warning about bad behavior.  She said they were afraid it would serve to "advertise" the event.  

O'Keeffe said the charges and counter charges now ricocheting between the University and the Town demonstrate a "sign of frustration."

Well at least they are not throwing cans and bottles at each other ... yet.

The Republican Reports/Suggests

Fireground: East Hadley Road Command

 The Boulders, South Amherst

A fire broke out on the upper floor apartment of the The Boulders Apartment complex in South Amherst around 1:30 this afternoon.  The complex has been undergoing exterior renovations over the past few months but the apartment that caught fire was occupied.

Fortunately no injuries to tenants or firefighters.

AFD Chief Tim Nelson in command

AFD equipment on scene

 

 Muddy conditions and a construction container inhibited access

Firefighter mopping up

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A couple hours later AFD responds to a brush fire on Bay Road in deeper South Amherst. Careless disposal of ashes

DUI Dishonor Roll

U Drink, U Drive, U Need A Lawyer (or a Mortician)

While Mr. Sermeno was not charged with driving under the influence, he was arrested for driving in the heart of downtown Amherst after his license had been suspended for refusing to take a chemical test only the week before.  Yes, APD is sagacious when it comes to potentially impaired drivers.

Amherst police seized the license plates, had the vehicle towed, and escorted Eneida Aracelli Sermeno to jail.

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On March 13 at 1:00 a.m. Mr. Pavlenkov made a right turn on red where he should not have, and that turned up all sorts of other problems:

 

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And run of the mill speeding by Joshue Baldwin early on the morning of 3/14 led to a bevy of charges, including DUI:

On March 15 around 1:35 a.m. a lights violation brought added attention to Rob Orlando on South Pleasant Street, not far from town center. He was arrested for DUI:

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And at almost the exact same time in the heart of the North Amherst commercial center, a failure to stop/yield led to a bevy of more serious charges for Matthew Caliri:


 

There's A Place For Us

"Most Fabulous Story Ever Told"  has certainly stimulated "discussion"

A High School announces a play, adults are insulted, controversy rages: letters to the editor, editorials, the ACLU -- via Bill Newman -- enters the fray, and before the curtain rises folks form picket lines holding signs championing both side of the issue.

Sound familiar?

Well if you're from Amherst, the PC capital of the Happy Valley, all too familiar.  But what I find fascinating is the Amherst Regional High School principal in 1999, Scott Goldman, allowed "West Side Story" to be cancelled because of "racial stereotyping."   Really.

Yes, for the first and only time in history a production of "West Side Story" was censored.  In overly enlightened Amherst, of all places.  Although a few years later it went on without controversy at a high school in nearby Holyoke, which has a much higher Hispanic population.  

Whereas only five years later Amherst became the only high school in the nation to allow teenaged girls to perform "The Vagina Monologues."

But now 14 years later Mr. Goldman, principal of Pioneer Valley Performing Arts charter school, stands firm defending "The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told."  I wish he had shown that kind of backbone 14 years ago.

Why is it okay to censor art as "sensitivity" to perceived racism but not to protect against perceived blasphemy?

What high school kid does not like to tweak adults, create controversy, and garner their 15 minutes of fame early in life?  

Of course "art" should stimulate discussion and challenge the status quo, but sometimes it seems high schools pick their plays simply for the side benefit of free advertising brought on by all the controversy.

A generation from now "The Vagina Monologues" and "The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told" will be long forgotten.  "West Side Story" however, will still be dancing up a storm.