Amherst Flag Raising

374 North Pleasant Street, Pike Frat

We did it

Gimme Shelter

 AHSC co-Chair Nancy Gregg (front row ctr) Greg Stutsman (right) Denise LeDuc (left)

The Amherst Housing & Sheltering Committee heard plenty of news this morning, mostly bad.

Amherst Housing Authority Executive Director Denise LeDuc described the Section 8 program she oversees as a "no win situation" due to a cut in Housing and Urban Development funds as a result of "sequestration."

A double barrel hit for affordable housing in Amherst as the number of vouchers are likely to be cut 11%, from 413 down to 368 ... meaning 45 families are out of luck.

Additionally the AHA will discuss at their next meeting reducing the amount of value each voucher represents.  Currently, because of the high cost of housing in Amherst, the vouchers are valued at a "fair market rate" of 120% (compared to Springfield) but will be reduced to 105%.

Rising  rent costs at both Rolling Green Apartments and Echo Village Apartments located next door also came up for discussion, led by assistant Town Manager Dave Ziomek standing in for Town Manager John Musante.

The town commissioned the Massachusetts Housing Partnership to do an extensive inventory and structural analysis of Echo Village as due diligence for possible purchase.  Although Ziomek was quick to point out the "Town is not in business of buying housing to keep it affordable.  We are trying to act as catalyst to make it happen."

The report cost $9,000 but MHP absorbed half and the town paid the other half using Community Preservation Funds.  Town Manager Musante has also commissioned MHP to do the same type of analysis for Rolling Green Apartments, a more expensive project as Rolling Green (204 units) is far larger than Echo Village (24 units).

Rolling Green is higher on the priority list because the 204 units are all counted towards the town Subsidized Housing Inventory (currently at 10.8%) and the loss of those units will drop us well below the magic 10% threshold (8.5%), allowing a developer to run roughshod over local zoning as long as their mega-project includes 25% affordable units.

The recent "Housing Production Plan" was accepted by the state last month so it buys the town a one year reprieve from a hostile Ch40B development, but the housing market needs to see 48 units of affordable housing added per year.

Olympia Oaks on East Pleasant Street is breaking ground any day now and will provide 42 units of affordable housing but the project has been in the works for many years, way prior to the Housing Production Plan,  so the state could rule it does not count towards the 48 units.

According to Ziomek "the town is reaching out to Department of Housing and Community Development" to  clarify the Olympia Oaks situation and to ascertain when the one year clock actually started ticking toward the end goal of 48 units. 

In other bad news staff liaison Nate Malloy informed the committee that the Planning Board's "inclusionary zoning" article -- a tightening up of the currents regulations -- will not be ready for the fall town meeting.

The zoning bylaw would force developers (with projects greater than 10 units) in projects that are allowed "by right" to have a certain percentage be affordable, or a fine would be paid into an "affordable housing trust fund."

If for instance a developer builds 200 market rate units the minimum state standard requiring the town to stay above 10% threshold for affordability means that developer is creating a deficit of 20 units in the SHI index.

Inclusionary zoning would require them to cover the deficit either by including that minimum number of affordable units in the actual construction project or paying into a fund the purchase price of a three bedroom home.

At the August 21 Planning Board meeting "The Retreat," a 191 cottage style student housing  project in northeast Amherst was used as an example, with a projection of up to 40 units of affordable housing being created if the new bylaw was in effect.  

But since that will take a two-thirds vote of Amherst Town Meeting to pass, a B-I-G "if" indeed.

Assistant Town Manager Dave Ziomek (left) Select Board member Alisa Brewer (right)

Meanwhile, UMass Prof gets $3.2 million federal grant to prevent pregnant Hispanic women from, umm, getting fat.

DUI Dishonor Roll

 In Massachusetts, driving fatalities for those under 21 rose 7.1% in 2011

Unfortunately things -- at least all thing things concerning alcohol -- returned to "normal" over the weekend with a high volume of AFD transports to the Cooley Dickinson Hospital for ETOH and three APD arrests for drunk driving.

Scary thing is in two of these cases the perps (Katelyn Pascale, age 21 and Colin Hurd, age 22) drew police attention by crashing their vehicles, and in both instances the mishap areas were active party house scenes with a decent volume of foot traffic within close proximity.

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For Phaly Lach , age 49, a second offense.  Three strikes and you're out.

Awash in ETOH

AFD loading up drunk Amherst College student

This Amherst Fire Department weekend run report is beyond the pale:

   AFD Weekend Drunks by larry_kelley_1

In spite of having five ambulances staffed -- two of them courtesy of UMass -- and the recent certification for Engine 1 to perform emergency medical responses we still had to rely on mutual aid via Northampton FD for an emergency call at Hampshire College (2:13 AM) for, naturally, an ETOH female.

And yes, I realize ETOH is only one small step away from death and therefore are a legitimate "emergency" that requires the highly trained services of Amherst Fire Department.

But there's still a B-I-G difference between somebody who voluntarily drinks themself to a point beyond oblivion and someone else who has a car accident or attack of appendicitis through no fault of their own.

This over indulgance in alcohol is sickening -- on a number of levels!  

Amherst Firefighters Local 1764 take on the matter

Party House of the Weekend

 196 Triangle Street, Amherst

Another usual suspect in the ongoing battle against rowdy behavior.  No not this particular house,  but the management company who owns and, err, manages it:  Eagle Crest Property Management, conveniently located at 55 North Pleasant Street above Stackers, a downtown bar. 

Early Sunday morning (1:13 AM) a noise complaint brought police to 196 Triangle Street one of the oldest streets in Amherst, thus making it one of the town's oldest neighborhoods (as in predating the existence of UMass/Amherst).

Notice that both apartments were engaged in rowdy behavior.  Gotta wonder how selective Eagle Crest is with their tenants. 

Maybe the $1,200 in fines will dissuade the bad boys in apartment #1 from becoming repeat offenders.  Maybe.

Weekends were made for ...

 Phillips Street (or maybe a zombie movie) just after midnight

So as weekends in a "college town" go -- especially this being the last one of summer -- things went relatively smoothly.  Of course APD, UMPD and AFD were busy as could be, but not to the breaking point.

Cooperation between the town first responders has always been outstanding, but the integration between town police-and-fire and UMass police and Environmental Health & Safety has gotten much better over the past year or so. 

This weekend UMPD was very visible at Party House responses -- even a few miles from campus.

The magic hours seem to start just after midnight through about 2:00 AM as both Friday-into-Saturday and last night into-this-morning there were times when APD was backed up on noise complaints, some of them being held for upwards of a half-hour before units could respond.

AFD, even with a shift of thirteen on (4 extra paid for by UMass) each night there were times when all five ambulances were on the road -- with many of those calls ETOH (alcohol OD) students.

The roving herds of students were not as much in evidence Friday but w-a-y more so last night into this morning.  No signs of the "Walk This Way" crew either night trying to redirect traffic off Fearing Street, which was the usual Grand Central Station last night.

Although late Friday night there were times when Sunset Avenue, contiguous with Southwest towers, was almost impassible by car due to foot traffic.  Not so much because the students were in overwhelming numbers, but simply because the groups of a dozen or so decided to walk in the middle of the road.

Considering that is also the time drunk drivers are out it's only a matter of time before a bad interaction between car and pedestrian occurs.  Early this morning for example APD  bagged a drunk driver at the still busy with foot traffic Fearing/Allen Street location around 1:30 AM.

When calling for back up the officer on scene told dispatch the vehicle had "clipped the curb pretty good." 

About That Explosion ...

 UMPD closed off Cold Storage Drive during the incident keeping folks away from lot 12

So for those of you wondering what that loud explosion was Friday night around 10:00 PM emanating from near UMass Graduate Research Center and reverberating to surrounding towns, fear not:  nothing exotic like a terrorist attack or meth lab gone awry.

Although, it was lab related:  an old, possibly unstable, container with less than 16 ounces of tetrahydrofuran turned up during a lab clean out and the normally clear liquid had started forming crystals, which are potentially explosive.   Local authorities took no chances.

AFD Chief Tim Nelson, who is a district team leader for regional HazMat response, took command at the scene.  The container was escorted to an out-of-the-way location near parking lot 12 and then detonated by Mass State Police bomb squad experts.

All in all, a seamless team effort by AFD, UMPD, UMass Environmental Health & Safety and Mass State Police.

 AFD Central Station 4/12/13.  DPW truck (rear) was used to transport chemicals out of town center

Back on April 12 AFD had a similar experience, only the potentially dangerous materials were brought directly to them.  An Amherst resident cleaning out his dad's basement (dad was a former chemist) brought a cardboard box full of old unmarked chemicals to Central Station on a busy Friday afternoon.

The items were placed in the back of a very large DPW truck and quickly but gently escorted to the top of the Notch where they were destroyed in a controlled demolition. 

AFD has four members on the Western Mass Regional Hazardous Materials Team and they drill on a monthly basis.  Last night the training came in handy.