Going, Going ...

 

608 South Pleasant (Rt 116)

This big old sugar maple at 608 South Pleasant street is coming down after perhaps 75 years of service to my neighborhood providing shade, drinking up water run off, absorbing carbon dioxide while infusing the area with good clean oxygen.

And in it's time,  quite the beauty.

 

Tree required a large crane

 Tree Warden Alan Snow reports the tree was dying in the wrong spot and could not be saved, but in its place the town will plant four more. 

Such is the cycle of life.  And death.

 All that remains

Taking It All Off (for a good cause)

Tony Maroulis Amherst Chamber of Commerce Director (after shot)

It was actually nice to go to an Amherst party scene with loud music, alcohol and lots of good friends all having a great time, without worrying about a police response ... or more precisely, the crowd responding to the police response.

Live (above ground) band

And even though there was not a cover charge at the door (for an all-you-can-drink red plastic cup) the St Baldrick's shave your head to help children with cancer event at Rafter's Sports Bar has thus far raised almost $50,000.

 Heck, I'll drink to that!  (NA of course).

 

Large crowd under the bigtop

Ryan Willey before

Ryan Willey soon after

Who ya gonna call?

Large crowd starting to form Townhouse Apartments around noon

A huge contingent of UMass police helped APD prevent another "Blarney Blowout" yesterday with a great number of officers patrolling in a highly visibility manner the usual hotspots, especially in North Amherst:  Meadow Street, scene of the "Blarney Blowout riot" and Hobart Lane, home of the infamous "Hobart Hoedown," and all along North Pleasant Street which cuts through the heart of UMass, our omnipresent neighbor for 150 years.

Townhouse Apartments main entry

At one point around 4:00 PM Hadley Police called for UMPD's special tactical unit (a four person rapid response team stationed at AFD North Station) to assist with an out of control party, but had to fend on their own as the unit was busy dealing with problems in North Amherst.

But the problems in Amherst never reached the level of a month ago when a great number of State Police were required to quell the rowdy throng at Townhouse Apartments.

Let's hope our local PDs can maintain this level of vigilance over the next five weeks.

UMPD officers help disperse large crowd starting to gather Townhouse Apartments

Townhouse Apartments West entrance

Bumper to bumper Meadow Street traffic early afternoon

Rooftop party Meadow Street, North Amherst center

Joint APD UMPD checkpoint Hobart Lane

Party House North Pleasant Street

Another Frisky Friday?

 

UMPD hands out ticket this morning on Fearing Street (town property)

UPDATE Midnight:

 Baby Berk

The Baby Berk, a large UMass food truck, was not doing a whole lot of business around 11:30 PM, parked alongside Mass Ave in a parking lot near Lincoln Avenue.  The food truck was supposed to draw students away from migrating down Fearing Streets and Lincoln Avenue by giving kids an incentive to walk through campus.

A large group of perhaps a dozen volunteers were stationed at the corner of Lincoln Avenue and Fearing Street attempting to redirect students away from the residential neighborhoods, but they were gone by midnight (although advertised to be out until 2:00 AM).

APD has been busy all night doing "liquor violations" and they have made many arrests.  The Personal Transport Vehicle was activated at 11:00 PM to efficiently cart the perps to APD headquarters.  

UPDATE 10:15 PM

I can almost guarantee there will be no problems on Phillips Street this evening as the APD/UMPD joint patrol includes UMPD's mounted patrol unit. Unlike last September.

UPDATE: 9:00 PM 

Fire at Mill Valley Estates 7:30 PM

A "box alarm" at Mill Valley Estates apartments in South Amherst around 7:30 PM brought a massive and swift response from both APD and AFD.  The stove fire was quickly put down by an officer first on the scene with a portable extinguisher carried in the trunk of his cruiser.

UPDATE 3:15 PM

Hadley police just chased a motorcycle into Amherst on Rt 9 at speeds over 100 mph, sometimes on the wrong side of the road.

The errant bike took a right in town center and headed south on Rt 116.

And no, he did not slow down two miles down the road for Crocker Farm Elementary school, which was just getting ready to let out for the day.  Grrrr.

The perp abandoned his bike, and APD now has it tagged as evidence.

Original Post 1:00 PM

Amherst Police patrols have been doing CP (Community Policing) activity all morning with the usual suspects: rental properties along Fearing, Phillips, Meadow streets, and the infamous Hobart Lane.

Thus, if after knocking on doors and politely informing residents to be on civilized behavior over the weekend and then later having to respond to said location for bad behavior, let's just say a stern response is more easily justified.

Amherst PD and UMPD joint patrols start in earnest this weekend, AFD will have two extra ambulances staffed and ready to go -- paid for by UMass -- and State Police are but a phone call away. Yes, the little college town of Amherst is ready.  For anything.

Stan Rosenberg reports on his Facebook page (and Twitter) that he met this morning with Amherst and UMass officials to discuss student off campus bad behavior.

Let's hope he champions the idea of an off campus RA bouncer to nip problems in the bud, as done at Boston College.

Wow, I'm somebody now.  A discussion topic at Reddit.

Show Me The Money!

So unlike Northampton, our real Sister City to the west, Amherst will not be voting on a Proposition 2.5 Override to balance the FY14 budget which starts July 1, 2013.  Although in Hamp's defense, it should be noted their property tax rate is only $13.35 compared to Amherst's $19.74 per $1,000 of valuation.

In addition to $6.2 million in reserves (plus the Regional Schools $1 million) Amherst also has unspent monies stashed in capital accounts previously appropriated by Town Meeting.  For instance the $200,000 for War Memorial Pool reconstruction.

After Town Meeting appropriated funds the state came through with a grant obviating the need for town money, so that's $200K sitting in an account without a mission.

   Amherst Capital Spending Report

Since it was appropriated for a recreational item at the town's oldest and largest playing field, why not use it to replace the aging wading pool with a spray park?

Spray parks are cheap to operate, easy to maintain, safe for our youngsters and not overly labor intensive.  After all, our kids grow up to be taxpayers.  And in this town, that's a heck of a burden.

Transparency Takes A Back Seat

About 80 people were invited to the B-I-G meeting between state and town officials and private landlords at UMPD headquarters this afternoon, and at least half that showed up.  Since AFD Chief Nelson and Assistant Chief Stromgren were present, I guess it's safe to assume the room was not overcrowded.

 UMPD Chief Horvath politely blocked my entrance

What did they discuss?  We will never know ... for sure.

Click white highlighted links:

 

 My friends at Masslive cover it (sort of) 

The Official UMass Spin (no wonder they did not let me in)

 Amherst Select Board Chair Stephanie O'Keeffe arrives with UMPD escort

Dean of Student Enku Galaye arrived 1st and stayed in the shadows

 

Agenda for today's meeting (courtesy of my mole)

Right side of the room

Left side of the room 1:00 PM

 

Town Manager John Musante, before the door closed

It's My Party

Townhouse riot 2012

UMass will host a B-I-G meeting this afternoon at 1:00 PM between Amherst landlords, town officials and of course UMass mid-to-upper -level bureaucrats to discuss strategies to deal with rowdy off campus student behavior over the next six weeks.  No the Chancellor probably will not bother to show up.

It's at the spiffy (somewhat) new UMass Police Station, built with $12 million of our tax dollars,  and starts at 1:00 PM.  The press is not invited.

Also not invited are the stakeholders most impacted by the University's failure to control its students:  Neighbors.

A couple decades ago UMass owed the town $200,000 in traffic citations that the courts had mistakenly sent them instead of the town.  Naturally UMass did not want to repay it.  I of course made a major fuss.  A meeting was held at Hill Boss's house between the Chancellor and town officials to discuss the matter.  The press was not invited.

The District Attorney found the meeting to "violate the spirit of the Open Meeting Law."

The problem with a state institution holding these secret meetings and then issuing a well scripted press release is The People do not get a true picture of what goes on.

And since The People pay all these folks salaries and operations costs, they have a right to hear the whole story.

The back story in emails