Frisky Friday (In a College Town)

APD makes alcohol related arrest after MV stop corner of Lincoln/Fearing last night 11:05 PM

Once again a major police presence and preemptive police footwork seemed to keep a lid on loud out of control parties last night as Amherst Police started the evening with courtesy calls ("community policing") to  some of the usual suspects on Alan Street, Phillips Street, and Nutting Avenue. 

Comfortable weather brings out the crowds, and it seems freshmen move in herds, but it also allows the APD bike patrol to operate at full efficiency.  They made a good number of "liquor law violation" arrests in and around the immediate neighboring streets to UMass starting at around 10:00 PM.

 APD bike patrol cruising down Fearing Street 11:45 PM

AFD was also kept busy with alcohol related runs.

A fight at the corner of Lincoln Avenue and Fearing Street around 11:00 PM resulted in a head injury for a college aged male.   And almost two hours later AFD responded to the UMass campus for an ETOH male who had fallen and hit his head.  Liquor, naturally, was involved. 

Last weekend the boisterous activity peaked on Sunday night into early Monday morning due to the Labor Day long weekend.  Tonight's weather is going to be a tad warmer than yesterday.

Neighbors are now holding their breath.

A Safer Place To Be

Gilreath Manor, Hobart Lane, Amherst

When the occupancy rate at Gilreath Manor went from zero to 100% last week, for the first time in perhaps a generation, the 14-unit apartment complex was completely up to code.  

Even the owners' expensive attorney admits to the Amherst Board of Health " ... the work was performed in the manner approved by the board and in a professional manner, leaving the units in a safer and better condition than before."

Amen.

Because on September 19th of last year, the main building pictured above could easily have become a death trap.  Too many occupants and not enough smoke detectors is bad enough, but throw in illegal basement bedrooms and a slow burning fuse to a potential powder keg has been ignited.

For a landlord in a college town like Amherst to lie to investigators and try to delay their inspections, and then try to place blame on tenants by pretending they did not know about extra roommates living in illegal basement bedrooms (when in fact they encouraged it) would be considered standard operating procedure for slumlords. 

But when it's a prominent second-generation family business empire and the individual at the helm is also the Amherst Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors President, let's just say the complicated case became a high profile affair.

And the Grandonicos lost.  No more flagrantly violating the (no more than) four unrelated housemates bylaw, having two bedrooms in the basements of Gilreath Manor (one per unit is now legal) or being less than attentive to safety codes with smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.

Thus sending a loud and clear message that the town is truly serious about cracking down on sub par rental housing -- no matter who the owners are.

The outcome of this particular case was a major reason the controversial "Rental Permit Bylaw" passed Town Meeting so overwhelmingly last May.

Although there was a brief dust up in late June when the Board of Health thought the Grandonicos were being disrespectful, which is of course not a good idea when you require an official variance.

But as you can see from the public documents back story, all's well that ends well.

Thirsty Thursday

219 East Pleasant Street

So let's hope this is not a prelude of what's to come for what most of us consider the real weekend because last night APD and AFD were kept busy enough responding to rowdy activity, starting with 219 East Pleasant Street around 10:30 p.m.  for a reported bonfire in the backyard.

About an hour later APD responded to reports of a loud party a few houses down at 227 East Pleasant Street and issued a $300 noise ticket.  Both branches of our first responders also responded to "Club Lit" in town center around midnight after a bouncer "knocked out" a patron.

Back when I was working as a bouncer at "The Pub" we were trained to try to avoid such scenarios as it tends to cut down on repeat business from that particular customer. 

Another Tradition Gone?

Amherst DPW last fall

Like frost on the pumpkins or that eye popping kaleidoscopic color change in our tree canopy, another sure sign of winter's approach is the pile of sand that takes up a parking space at the Amherst DPW every fall and winter.

But like telephone booths, the sight may soon be a thing of the past.

DPW this morning

Yesterday the Water Supply Protection Committee voted to support the elimination of sand from the DPW arsenal used to combat Mother Nature.  Last winter the town used between 4,000 and 5,000 TONS of sand mixed in with between 1,000 and 1,500 tons of salt.

The town will continue to use salt, but will do so mixed in a liquid goo of magnesium chloride which can be applied to the roads even before the first snowflakes fall.  Massachusetts Department Of Transportation switched over to this formula years ago.

As an immediate neighbor to the DPW I'm going to miss all the "sand crabs" -- those cars and trucks that flock to the pile in the hours leading up to a winter storm. 

Defending The Indefensible

 One commemorative flag in downtown today (DPW forgot to take it down after Labor Day)

In her well timed guest column in the weekly Amherst Bulletin (the last one before 9/11), Amherst's top elected town official takes me to task for essentially being stubborn in the matter of not flying the 29 commemorative flags in the downtown every 9/11 as opposed to only once every five years.

When I was growing up in  Amherst, well before Ms. O'Keeffe was born, my Irish mother attributed that streak of stubbornness to my Irish heritage.

But I also learned early on from Martin Luther King, Jr. that it's okay for an individual (of any race, creed, color or national heritage) to break a law that their conscience tells them is "unjust."

And for Amherst to disallow flying the commemorative flags four-out-of-five 9/11s is simply wrong.  (Especially since we fly them every Memorial Day -- as we should!)

When I first started this campaign twelve years ago,  some critics considered the gesture a pro-Afghanistan war statement, and then a year or two later as a pro-Iraq war statement; and perhaps now some zealots would consider it a pro-Syria war statement.

It's not about politics, period.  It's about 3,000 Americans who got up on a gorgeous Tuesday morning to go about their daily routine, and over a two-hour period were ruthlessly murdered.

Select Board Chair Stephanie O'Keeffe also fails to mention that twice now in public meetings I have offered to abide by the will of the voters.

Yes, Town Meeting turned down my advisory request by a two-thirds vote and the Select Board by a 60/40 vote.  Interestingly Ms. O'Keeffe voted in the majority.

However back in May, 2007 after she voted YES as a Town Meeting member to flying the flags annually on 9/11 she wrote on her blog:

"I don’t need to have commemorative flags at half-staff downtown to mark my 9/11 remembrance, but it doesn’t hurt.

If you strip away all the overwrought Amherst stuff that becomes part and parcel of this article, it is really saying, “Should we fly flags downtown every year on 9/11?”

And to that, I say – “Sure! Why not?” To me, answers to “why not” were not compelling, but of course, I was in the minority." 

#####

"The People" have not been allowed to weigh in on this important matter, and the Select Board --who has twice now refused to place the item on the annual town election ballot -- seems to want to keep it that way.

What are they afraid of?

#AmherstMA Select Board @StephanieOK http://t.co/coHB16m8A5 vs citizen-journalist @amherstac http://t.co/JpsEZvyTdX on 9-11 flag display
— CitizenWald (@CitizenWald) September 6, 2013

Citizen Wald is Select Board member Jim Wald

Water, Water, Everywhere

UMass Water Tower, Orchard Hill, E. Pleasant Street, Amherst

The $1 million renovation of the UMass 1.5 million gallon (less than a dollar a gallon!) water tower is complete.  The tower is now back on line helping to provide adaquate water pressure throughout Amherst's water/sewer system.

And yes, in the event of a fire, you can bet the fire hydrant in front would provide a heck of a flow. 

DUI Dishonor Roll

 

What is 3.2 deaths per 100,000?  National average for alcohol related fatal accidents

So amazingly, with as much alcohol that flowed freely over the weekend, Amherst police only made one arrest for Driving Under the Influence.

Of course maybe they were so busy doing crowd control for the THOUSANDS of migrating students in and around UMass that they did not have the time to concentrate on those potential roadway scud missiles.

Early Sunday morning (1:18 AM) police arrested UMass student Michael J. Defazio, age 21, near the VFW on Main Street, only a stone's throw from Amherst town center (and the police station).

Hopefully they still teach "learning from your mistakes" in Sport Management.

Almost exactly 12 hours later on Twitter (tweet now deleted):

In need of a road bike
— Mike DeFazio (@mikeydefaz9) September 1, 2013