DUI Dishonor Roll

Only two Amherst DUI arrests last week.  I say "only" because that number will start to go up to the usual four or five as our sleepy little college town awakens to a massive population bulge brought on by returning staff and students to our #1 employer, UMass/Amherst. 

In this particular batch -- Nicholas Coelho, age 22 and Christopher R Getchell, age 30 -- only one of the two arrested is UMass associated; let's hope he doesn't actually drive a bus. 

Drive Hammered, Get Slammered
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The North Will Rise Again

Trolley Barn:  12,000 square feet 3 floors, mixed use (Kuhn Riddle Architects)

North Amherst is on economic roll these days with The Retreat a high end 190 or so unit student housing enclave finally starting to move forward, and last night's unveiling before the Conservation Commission of the new-and-improved Trolley Barn, a three story, 12,000 square foot, mixed use commercial building set where a trolley barn once stood.

Original Trolley Barn Cowles Road North Amherst, built 1897

And yes, a trolley barn is where you store a trolley (or two), long since vanished from the Amherst landscape. Well, except for those imitation ones in the downtown.

The 4,000 square foot first floor will be commercial/retail, and management is hoping to sign up a breakfast or coffee shop,  or Atkins Farm type operation -- something that helps to build community.

The other two floors will be residential although since Town Meeting shot down a zoning density tweak, the individual units will each be 2,000 square feet, fit for a Donald Trump.

Location, location, location

Since Town Meeting did pass zoning allowing for greater height the building was redesigned, removing dormers along the roof thus saving costs and providing more usable space.

North Amherst, because of its industrial past, was once dubbed the "Dirty hands district."

Cleaning up quite well in the modern era.  

 

Previous design with stricter height limits (Kuhn Riddle Architects)

 New banner Rt. 116 North Amherst

All In A Name (Or Place)

Google just announced the top 50 "digital capitals" of all 50 states, and by gosh Amherst is #1 in the state!  Well, not our Amherst ... the one in New Hampshire.

Except Google sort of confused them with us via the Emily Dickinson hometown reference.  Umm ... and you guys made fun of Apple Maps?

But you're right about one thing:  Amherst, Massachusetts, Miss Emily's hometown, is indeed a gem.

MassLive reports

Homeland Security Returns

APD briefly assisted with 2 cruisers, but then left

Six cars, a pick up truck and a heck of a lot of officers -- local, state and federal --  are currently on site at #632 South Pleasant Street, presumably looking for bad guys.

Since we ruled out terrorism a couple days ago I would assume that somewhat narrows it down to drugs.

UPDATE:

Northwestern District Attorney's office confirms yesterday's Federal & State PD raid on #AmherstMA rental house was "drug related."
— Larry Kelley (@amherstac) August 15, 2013

 

Gotta love Twitter

Can You See Me Now?

Amherst Town Website

Amherst's award winning town website had some technical difficulties this morning leaving us addicts to suffer withdrawal symptoms.  Turns out if was a firewall issue, but only for folks using Comcast.  Of course in Amherst, that's nearly 10,000 people.   

Tennis Anyone?

 Amherst Regional Middle School tennis courts

The tennis courts adjacent to the Amherst Regional Middle School, like a lot of construction projects around town, is expected to be completed by October 1st.  The $225,000 capital improvement project was approved by Joint Capital Planning Committee and Town Meeting last spring.

DPW Chief Guilford Mooring says there's still a lot of work to be done, including "Fence post sleeves, top course of asphalt, painting, new fence and nets."

The Amherst DPW did the site work, Warner Brothers is doing the paving and Vermont Recreational Surface and Fencing handles the final detail work.

When Religion & Beer Compete

Triangle Street, Amherst

The current reconstruction of Triangle Street at the gateway to UMass is expected to be completed mid-to-late September.

But if the process followed the pattern of the original construction of the road back in 1820, it would take a l-o-t longer.  Amherst had its very own Civil War over the roadwork,  dubbed "The Triangle Street Fight" by Morehouse and Carpenter in their definitive "History of the town of Amherst, Massachusetts."

 

Amherst town center BoA: former home of "Boltwood Tavern"

Back then town center was known as the "West Village," and a prominent business -- the "Boltwood Tavern" --  was located where the ugly Bank of America now sits; while the "East Village" had a competing operation -- "Dickinson/Bagg's Tavern" -- located at the intersection of South East and Main Streets.

Since the Calvin Coolidge Bridge in Northampton was not yet built, travelers from the west had to cross over the Connecticut River in Sunderland and make their way south to Amherst where they would first encounter the tavern in town center, giving it a distinct advantage over  the one located a mile or so to the east.

 First Congregational Church, Main Street, Amherst

The First Congregational Church, founded 1739,  is also located on Main Street between the Dickinson Homestead and town center ("West Village") and it was in competition with the more recent 1782 break away Second Congregational Church.

The First Congregational Church was also more loyal to the British during the Revolutionary War, motivating the more patriotic parishioners to seek God elsewhere, as in the "East Village."  

East Village:  Former 2nd Congregational Church, now Jewish Community of Amherst

Thus Triangle Street became a more efficient route to points east but in so doing bypassed town center ... and the Boltwood Tavern and the First Congregational Church.  Town Meeting approved the road on December 4, 1820 but then ten days later that approval was overturned.

Main and Triangle Street intersection

Well the citizens of "East Village" did not take kindly to that and simply decided to build the road themselves.  The citizens in and around town center ("West Village") decided to enforce Town Meeting's vote to "discontinue" the road by sabotaging construction after workers went home for the night.

 

East Village: Dickinson-Bagg's Tavern South East/Main Street intersect, now legal offices

Former Dickinson-Bagg's Tavern

Road builders started stationing guards all along the new construction to keep watch overnight.  Frustrated workers on both sides would then come to blows.  Spectators from surrounding towns started showing up just to watch the nightly tussle.  

Anti-road activists took to building a fence across the road to block transit.  The pro-road builders destroyed the fence as quickly as it could be constructed. 

Finally, on May 17, 1821 Town Meeting voted to advise the Selectmen to "clear the encumbrances from the road and keep it clear."  The Selectmen, keepers of the public ways, dutifully agreed and the "Triangle Street Fight" concluded.

A clear victory for capitalism, God and country. 

 

Boltwood Tavern in town center became Amherst House in 1838, burned to the ground July 4, 1879

Lovell, John L., 1825-1903, "Amherst House before 1879," in Digital Amherst, Item #467, http://www.digitalamherst.org/items/show/467 (accessed August 13, 2013).