AFD To The Rescue

 

AFD on scene top of The Notch

Saturday, one of the most gorgeous days of the year so far, was a great day for a hike, and as it turned out for the Amherst Fire Department technical rescue team, a great day for a technical rescue.

A young woman hiking with family about two-thirds of the way to the top of Bare Mountain (the trail that leads from West Street up to the first summit) fell and  injured her ankle.

The first responder to reach her realized motorized gator units could not make it to the remote location,  so the Amherst Fire Department mobilized its "technical rescue team" which includes Northampton Fire Department personnel.

AFD packing up after successful rescue.  Chief Tim Nelson 2nd from right

With Chief Nelson directing from a makeshift command off the parking lot to the Notch visitors center, the entire rescue was successfully completed in just over two hours.

 

Chief Nelson at improvised command 

With this weekend at high risk for brush fires and the college town of Amherst  party season at peak bloom, safe bet AFD will not be able to relax for the rest of the weekend.

 

   Lots of rescue hardware on scene Notch Visitors Center

Third Watch

 AFD at Mullins Center 1:30 AM for patient with "altered mental status"

Amherst police and firefighters were kept on the go last night (Friday) into early Saturday morning instigated by warm temperatures, alcohol, and opportunity:  That brief luxurious time period just after UMass classes are complete, but finals have not yet started. 

And yes, trouble areas were mostly the usual suspects:  a few outside unpermited bonfires on Phillips Street (#45 and #51), a loud party at 15/17 Fearing Street, a passed out drunk in front of College Pizza, and of course a DUI.

Around 12:45 AM a patrol car observed a vehicle driving erratically on South Pleasant Street dead in the heart of downtown.  He took a right on Northampton Road (Rt 9) with the patrol car in close pursuit, was pulled over and descended on by a swarm of cruisers.  The college aged youth flunked his Field Sobriety Test, was arrested and his car towed.

 Ernie's Towing escorts DUI vehicle to impound 1:15 AM

I retraced the trajectory of the vehicle, a potentially deadly weapon, and could not help but notice the downtown was especially active.  How many could have been seriously injured if he lost control and plunged into the crowd in front of Antonio's?

Antonio's downtown Amherst 1:00 AM

Dispatch recieved a call from a young lady around 2:10 AM complaining about a "loud party" at 69 Meadow Street. The Anonymous caller only wanted it "quieted down, but doesn't want anyone to get in trouble."  

Party hardy types apparently were not on the same page, as APD arrested two for "disorderly conduct".

 

69 Meadow Street, Amherst 

Making The Sausage

I did an interview yesterday with a nice young man from the UMass Journo program for his final paper -- specifically involving my favorite course, Journalism Ethics.

The easy question concerned whether I ever hesitate publishing names and addresses of perps arrested for bad behavior.  Well, no. 

But as usual it's the gray area questions that make you think.  Such as: do I give unfair out-of-proportion weight to one story or series of stories?  That I get accused of all the time.  Again talking Party Houses, DUI, and in general, rowdy student behavior. 

As of this morning, over 6 years, I've published 2,539 posts.  I did not even start my popular "Party House of The Weekend" series until November, 2010 and I have published under 200 of those, or less than 10%.

Or as a professional flack would say, "90% of Larry's stories do not concern rowdy student party houses."

My DUI Dishonor Role started 18 months ago, so there have been only around 30 of those posts, and only about half the "winners" are students.  So once again a very tiny percentage of overall articles.

And the widget on my main page that calculates my most "popular posts" of all time show 6 out of 10 are not related to rowdy student behavior. Thus I never feel pressured to come up with stories to fit that preordained narrative.

These days I have three levels of response to a story:  Level one is no more than a tweet.  Something I hear on the scanner or a quick photo of something that is borderline interesting, but not worthy of much more than 140 characters (but a photo is still worth 1,000 words).

Level 2 is it's worth more than a tweet, so it gets posted to my Facebook page (always a photo) as well.

And Level 3 is something that has risen to the level of posting here on the blog with a link (and intro headline) crossposted on Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin.  But yes, I occasionally have a slow news day where something whimsical still gets Level 3 treatment.

 

"Electric Flurry" photo tweeted last night around 10:00 PM

Last night, normally a Level 2 story, is a good example.  I expected the concert at the Mullins Center to be more of a problem than it turned out to be.  At 10:00 PM I tweeted a photo of the concert in progress with the report that AFD had already transported one to the hospital.

And then, the next morning (today) I posted on Facebook another photo from later in the concert when foam was being sprayed on concertgoers with the report that the event actually went quite well and the crowd was very well behaved.

Electric Flurry follow up photo posted to Facebook this AM

So sure, if it had been the disaster like some of the previous techno concerts I would have used a heavier Level 3 response.

And railed against the Mullins Center, UMass and clueless parents over youthful patrons tying up emergency responders due to their irresponsible activity, which I find unacceptable.

Now, however, the Mullins Center "Electric Flurry" concert has just risen to a Level 3 story anyway.   

And yes, today has been a slow news day ... so far.

Ding Ding!

Amherst Trolley downtown this morning

The quaint new trolley service, where all roads lead to downtown Amherst, starts this weekend with a test run via the Amherst Invitational Ultimate Tournament on Saturday: one trolley will be running shuttle service between the field locations (ARHS & UMass) and downtown. 

According to Business Improvement Director Alex Krogh-Grabbe, "That will be the beginning of their special event shuttle service, which we plan to continue through the summer. Fixed-route loops between the UMass campus and downtown will commence in the fall, Thursday-Sunday."

No word as to whether they will be serving Rice-a-Roni.

Early Weekend

No classes and the first really hot day of the year means crowds of college aged youths at Puffer's Pond in North Amherst.  A noontime throng of 100 had grown many times over by 2:00 PM and by 4:00 PM, with assist from UMPD, Amherst police had cleared the beach.

After all, town officials did not want to see a repeat of last year.  

APD Chief Livingstone was directing Operation Break Up and when I asked him an hour later if the beach was closed he replied, "Not closed to everyone, just people with alcohol."

Around 6:00 PM one of the officers stationed at the pond arrested a college aged perp who had been skinny dipping and consuming alcohol.  He was charged with "indecent exposure" and "open container" violations.  

Friday's No More

The painful but necessary decision by The Massachusetts Daily Collegian to cease putting out a Friday print edition after almost 125 years is l-o-n-g overdue.  In fact they should cease all print editions, period.  And go all digital, all the time.

According to a Pew report less than 10% of people under the age of 30 confirmed reading a newspaper the previous day while, conversely, about half of adults over the age of 65 did read one.

But as those older readers die off they are not replaced by a younger generation of digitally native adults.

The average age of a UMass undergrad is 21, with only 7% age 25 or older.   The math is pretty simple.  Quite frankly, marketing a print newspaper on the Amherst campus is kind of like installing pay phones around the Campus Center.  Or bringing back horses as a means of transportation.

The Internet allows instantaneous, unlimited, and wicked cheap news production.  Embrace it!

30

 Happy Birthday Collective Copies

In old fashioned journo 30 means "end" of the story, but in business -- when measured in years -- it means an extraordinary accomplishment, especially when you are a niche entity to begin with.

Amherst worker owned collectives account for less than 1% of the businesses in town, but Collective Copies also stands out because they have withstood the test of time.

And they would not have lasted this long if not fulfilling job #1 for any service business:  customer service.

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Collective Copies Open House today 3pm: self-publishing workshop, and a raffle of co-operative-made merchandise. All events are free and open to the public!