Select Board Just Said NO

Not

The Amherst Select Board voted unanimously 4-0 (1 absent) NOT to a invoke a $6.5 million "Right Of First Refusal" for 154 acres of run-of-the-mill woodland in northeast Amherst to stop "The Retreat", a controversial 700 bed upscale student housing development proposed by a private, taxpaying, enterprise.
 
In June Amherst Town Meeting voted 98-90 to dismiss a warrant article calling for a $1.2 million appropriation to take by eminent domain only the "development rights" of the parcel.  And over the past two weeks the Planning Board voted 8-1 against the purchase while the Conservation Commission opposition was unanimous.

 

Crowd of 80-85 pack the meeting

The Select Board meeting was one of the best attended in recent memory with over a dozen project opponents voicing their concerns about noise, traffic, vandalism, and -- what they greatly fear --  the destruction of Cushman, a quaint historic village.

Speakers questioned the transparency of process since the town took a long period of time to acknowledge the 2nd $6.5 million offer between Cowls and Landmark Properties was indeed "bona fide", which started the 120-day clock ticking for the Right Of First Refusal.   

Project proponents have repeatedly cited the desperate need in this "college town" for more student housing, with current make shift solutions -- the conversion of single family homes to rooming houses -- being far more destructive to quality of life in neighborhoods town wide.

John Musante (center) Any change in contract would bring on new 120 day Right of 1st Refusal

"The Retreat" would also generate $400,000 per year in property taxes in a town where half the property is tax exempt.  In 1987 the town took by eminent domain the Cherry Hill Golf Course to stop a 134 unit high end housing project, squandering a historic $2.2 million ($4.4 million in today's dollars).

 Cowls also owns 150 acres near Cherry Hill Golf Course (in gold) that could also be developed on the same scale as The Retreat

Tonight by NOT taking this exceedingly expensive 154 acres of woodland, town officials demonstrated they have learned from history.   Finally. 

The Republican reports

Amherst Being Amherst

Noon protest @ TD Bank, Amherst town center:  Pipelines, climate change, the usual

Fast Track Slowed

 Regional School District Planning Board  June 15

One of the stories that will get lost in the wake of the contentious Select Board decision tonight not to squander $6.5 million tax dollars for an "unremarkable" forest is the (formerly) head long rush to regionalize our pre-Kindergarten through 6th grade with partners Leverett and Pelham will now be delayed for a full year.

We of course already have a 50+ year old Region at the 7th through 12th grade level with Leverett, Pelham and Shutesbury, so the mission creep to the lower grades is seen as a natural way to standardize education throughout the entire system.

But Shutesbury upset the apple cart by withdrawing from the about-to-be-proposed Region, although representative Michael DeChiara continues to attend and participate in meetings of the Regional School District Planning Board. 

One of the problems to overcome is the lopsided make up of the proposed Region -- at least as far as governance is concerned.  Even if all four towns agree to rationalize the way they do now for Middle and High School, Amherst still makes up 88% of the region for population.

Currently the Regional School Committee is governed by 9 members: five from Amherst, 2 from Pelham and one each from Leverett and Shutesbury.  Thus Amherst has 55% of the voting power to represent 88% of the people, and little old Pelham has 22% of the voting power while representing only 3% of the population. 

Daniel Shays would be so proud.

The problem (worth fighting over) is the RSDPB doesn't seem concerned about rectifying a balance of power that significantly shortchanges Amherst.

6/24 update to Amherst Select Board:  "Ugh!"

Car vs Bus Stop

East Pleasant Street PVTA bus stop torpedoed by car around noon today

Three weeks from now this minor accident could be a major catastrophe as the bus stop (almost in front of The Sub & Pizza, 33 East Pleasant Street) would be relatively packed with people -- especially since it is on a direct route to UMass/Amherst, our number one everything.

An elderly woman had a (bad) reaction to taking medication on an empty stomach and lost control of her car while driving north towards UMass.  An ambulance was called, but she refused transport.  

Only an hour later PVTA bus picked up a couple customers

Bike seems to have been there a while.  Town owns bike racks and will replace them. PVTA owns shelter

Fire & Brimstone

The vitriol over stopping the "The Retreat," a housing development targeting Amherst's #1 demographic who patronize our #1 industry, is reaching a fever pitch. NIMBYs are starting to get a tad, err, twitchy.

As usual, the call has gone out to pack the Select Board public meeting Monday night to try to intimidate them into spending $6.5 million tax dollars to "protect" a quaint neighborhood.  

After all, somewhere in an alternate universe "The needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many." 

Let's hope they leave the torches and pitchforks (or phasers) at home.

 ##### 

From: llan starkweather 
Sent: Friday, July 26, 2013 2:58 PM
Subject: Fwd: Reality of the Cushman Retreat


To the GALACTIC LOG mailing list, 

On July 21st I sent my umpteenth not to be printed letter to the editor
of the Amherst Bulletin, Reality of the Cushman Retreat, enmeshed below.
It was not printed, as most of mine the last decade have been rejected
as threatening to the media establishment that controls the Valley, so I
responded this morning with the long piece also below starting with
To the local so-called Editors of the Illuminati controlled dark media
cabal, the last obstacle to true reality for valleykind:


The immediate reply from the news department was

On Jul 26, 2013, at 10:46 AM, DHG News Dept. wrote:

 Llan Starkweather: 

 If you send another vaguely threatening email (to wit, You have a short time
left to understand what your soul's mission was) I will notify the police. 

Larry Parnass 

##### 

 I could not help but respond in this fashion:

From: llan starkweather <llan3@hughes.net>

Date: July 26, 2013 2:26:06 PM EDT

To: "DHG News Dept." 

Subject: Reality of the Cushman Retreat

You have a short time before god puts you out of your nasty lying business
in allegiance with evil against humanity. Your soul's mission is your
mismanaged affair and it is more than vaguely threatened. What a poor
substitute for a being of any good will you are, little soul-shrunk Parnass.
How many lines of god's truth did you read before you started shaking your
fists at any attempt to awaken in you your real purpose in incarnation. 

I am done with you, but like Zimmerman, god isn't. And that doesn't change the
fact that you have been intentionally using your elite power to fuck me over
for a decade and would 'notify the police' for my rocking your cradle of the
dark hegemonic forces' dominant protection. Or that this valley has for very
long been denied truth and reality out of the fear in those who have usurped
all power-over through control of the fucking media. I speak for those who
cannot, or do not even know they are targeted and are being disposed of as
useless eaters by the hegemony that is now currently and finally being
revealed and dis-mantled. 

You are a loving god too. Know that. 

##### 

The Republican reports 

A Stream Runs Through It

 Intermittent stream at bottom of steep hill

The Amherst Conservation Commission (town) hit the Massachusetts Department Of Transportation (state) with an "Enforcement Order" demanding they quickly rectify sloppy mitigation measures designed to protect an "intermittent stream" -- i.e. wetland -- at the South Amherst Rt116 construction site otherwise known as "The Notch."

Ignoring such an order can result in a fine of up to $25,000 per day and/or two years in jail.

 

Wall of protective hay bales now installed just above the stream

According to Beth Willson, Wetlands Administrator:  "MassDOT has responded to the Enforcement Order by installing matting on all the slopes, constructing paved swales and opening up drainage inlets so the water can drain appropriately from the site."

   ConCom Enforcement Order vs State

Into The Drink

 

Undergrowth slowed vehicle's approach to water

Around 10:15 PM Tuesday night 911 Dispatch received a cell phone call from an anxious driver who reported having gone off Station Road into a stream (Hop Brook).  Ominously, his car was quickly taking on water.

Both AFD and APD  responded swiftly:  the driver was safely rescued, and transported to Cooley Dickinson Hospital.

The weather was hospitable and the road at that point is fairly straight (although the bridge is narrow) so naturally I thought alcohol may have played a role.   Apparently it did not.  Although the driver was cited for speed. 

At the scene of an accident the medical needs of a driver always take precedence.  An officer can't very well perform a Field Sobriety Test on an injured driver.  If alcohol is suspected to have contributed to the crash, APD can charge the driver with DUI and then subpoena the medical records.

Of course if the driver dies, authorities automatically screen for drugs or alcohol and usually release that as public information. 

Alcohol is involved in a little over one-third of Massachusetts road fatalities.  This incident could easily have represented the other side of that equation.

Conservation Department measuring device only a few yards from where the car entered Hop Brook (depth = 3.3 feet)