#2 times 2

 Amherst College (named after the town, not the General)

Amherst College is rated #2 for top liberal arts college in American behind arch rival Williams College.  And now they are rated #2 in the state for "safest school."

One logical reason is of course Amherst, the town, is pretty safe.  And the Amherst Police Department does a great job of keeping it that way.

Amherst College also has a fine professional police department made up of 7 full-time patrol officers, 3 sergeants, a deputy chief and highly regarded Chief, John Carter.

Back in December of 2011 Amherst Police had their hands full with a student party house on College Street just off Amherst College campus (none of them AC students) that had spiraled out of control, with a major fight that resulted in a stabbing.

UMass police were too busy on their campus to provide mutual aid.   But Amherst College police were a big help, arriving quickly on the scene to help control vehicular traffic and party goers cascading out of the house.

I emailed a brief thank you note to Amherst College President Biddy Martin and received this reply:

I am glad to hear that the Amherst College police were helpful to you on Saturday. Having worked closely with university police at Cornell and at UW-Madison, I count on campus police to be well-trained and highly competent. I agree. The assumption that campus police are "mall cops" is totally misplaced. Responsibility for thousands of young people and unique facilities requires that every campus have police or safety departments that can handle any kind of emergency, often in cooperation with colleagues off campus. It is a relief to know from you that our campus police have a good relationship with your department. 

Another contributing factor keeping Amherst College safe and sound is the full time protection provided by the Amherst Fire Department. Amherst College donates $90,000 annually to the town in lieu of taxes for ambulance/fire protection.

AFD responses in 2013 thus far by location

 

Graph courtesy of Amherst Firefighters Local 1764 

A scenic campus, well maintained buildings and a low student teacher ratio are all important factors in choosing a school. But it's hard to learn if you don't feel safe.

There He Goes Again!

So everybody's favorite downtown character -- well, maybe most peoples' -- Bill Elsasser made the news for his quirky style of maintenance.  This time it was pruning the trees on the town common.

 

Town officials inspect rogue pruning last week to downtown trees 

Bill can be seen most days patrolling the downtown on foot picking up cigarett butts -- sometimes on hands and knees -- and any other litter he comes across.  He also donated some of the flowers in the downtown.

 Bill Elsassar on patrol

Just one of the many attractions of downtown Amherst (Bill and the flowers).

Bill appears before venerable Amherst Select Board

"From These Honored Dead ..."

 Area behind car will become final resting place for six Civil War tablets

The ground in front of Amherst Town Hall will go from simply historic to hallowed as a Request For Proposals has been issued to display the six "Sacred Dead" Civil War tablets commemorating all 300 or so Amherst men who served in that decimating conflict.

The Grand Army of the Republic donated the tablets to Amherst in 1893.

List of 57 Amherst men who died to preserve the Union

For many years they were displayed in Town Hall but then in the early 1960s during a renovation project they were placed in storage and forgotten until just before 9/11.

As with so many things in life it took the efforts of one concernced citizen, Dudley Bridges, a proud, black, WW2 veteran, to spark a movement to restore the tablets to a place of honor.  Unfortunatley Mr. Bridges died in 2004 at age 80 and is now buried in historic West Cemetary.

According to Planning Director Jonathan Tucker:

 "The RFP asks the Consultant chosen to work with the Town to: 1) create designs for the site, the display enclosures, signs and interpretive materials, and lighting, 2) take the designs to bid specifications, 3) develop a method for safely transporting and installing the tablets, and 4) develop cost estimates for the whole shebang." 

Town Manager John Musante had envisioned them being installed in the Town Room, our seat of government, where the Select Board and other important committees meet. But the tablets are too heavy for the floor and would require expensive reinforement.

The location outside the building gives the tablets much greater visibility at all hours of day, 365 days a year. Even more fitting, that ground was once the location of a WW2 "Roll Of Honor" structure erected during that tumultious time in our history. 

Roll of Honor outside Amherst Town Hall 1942 Lincoln Barnes photo

I'm sure Dudley James Bridges would approve.  Hoo-Ah!

A patriotic Town Hall, September 1942

Buzz Off!

The town will issue an "Eastern Equine Encephalitis" alert later today; as a result the Hot Summer Nights outdoor showing of The Muppets this evening has been cancelled.

A 2nd dead horse in Belchertown tested positive this afternoon for EEE and one died last week from the mosquito borne disease.

The Muppets are certainly awesome, but not to die for.

Accentuate The Negative

Blarney Blowout, March 9, 2013, A date which will live in infamy

According to the venerable Princeton Review, UMass/Amherst did not crack the "Top 20 Party Schools" --  the party culture gold standard.  So I was hoping that we were safe from a high profile proposal this dumb. (Update:  post has already been deleted from Craigslist)

But no, apparently not.  So hide the women and children, cue the extra ambulances and police, start soundproofing the neighborhoods ... Reality TV is coming to Amherst!

And their reality is our nightmare. 

By glorifying the Party House culture this "entertainment" show will only exacerbate the problem of rowdy off campus party behavior.  Just when things were starting to improve.

Besides the better integration between UMPD and APD on enforcement,  the number two reason things were more controlled this past spring is the "high profile" party hardy boys were taken out, kind of like those precision drone strikes in Pakistan.

Rapper wanna be Paul Markham was so spooked by pressures brought to bear he removed his "Welcome To The Zoo" idiotic ode to the party culture from Youtube, even after receiving hundreds of thousands of hits.

And Peter Clark and Emmerson Rutkowski went AWOL from the party scene, even after (or maybe especially after) a fawning self serving review in the King of Juvenile, "Bar Stool Sports."

Sure bad behavior sells.  Some of you ardent readers will note my highest monthy readership of all time (over 130,000 hits) occured in March when I covered the Blarney Blowout from the opening bell.

The Gazette of course was fiddling while Rome burned:

This year’s Blarney Blowout revelers well-behaved in #Amherst |  http://t.co/vbA6g9aKxs #westernma
— GazetteNET (@gazettenet) March 11, 2013

So I have no doubt that a "reality show" highlighting obnoxious childish student behavior will sell.  Big time.

Especially when promoted by Hollywood PR types who specialize in selling their souls.

Bostinno also gets snarky

"Jane, Stop This Crazy Thing"

Van turns onto Bay Road from S. East St, Canterbury Lane directly above

A Granby teenager picked the wrong hill to descend in South Amherst at the wrong time of day sending him and his skateboard careening into oncoming traffic on busy Bay Road around 6:30 last night.

Although seriously injured it's still pretty amazing the accident was not fatal.  To the skateboarder due to a sudden impact, or the driver suffering a heart attack due to the sudden shock. 

Amherst and Mass State Police closed off the road for a couple hours to do an accident reconstruction.  For the rest of you, all you need do is look at the photo. Yikes!

#####

Gazette coverage was timely for a change.  Probably doesn't hurt that their owner and CEO Aaron Julien lives atop Canterbury Lane (although he needs to learn how to use a camera).

Granby skateboarder hit by car in South Amherst suffers broken leg, other injuries http://t.co/B6GyVVs9Aw
— GazetteNET (@gazettenet) August 6, 2013

Double Trouble

 

621 E. Pleasant Street, Amherst

The Bad Boys at 621 East Pleasant Street, formerly known as "Babe Town", seem to be in a major renovation mode.  Well except maybe for landscaping the lawn.

Not that I want to jinx it, as neighbors hope this is an attempt to dramatically improve "curb appeal" for a sale to new owners -- the Devil you don't know.

But a couple infractions leap out of this picture, taken from a public road this morning. The van on the lawn for one.  And yes they have been cited a half-dozen times for that previously.  But hey, what's a lousy $100 fine per day?

And the dumpster (far right) also requires a $25 permit from the Amherst Fire Department since they are a well known fire hazard. That too is $100 fine ... for the first day; $500 on the second and by the third day, $1,000. 

Ouch!