Ace!

Middle School Tennis Courts

The $225,000 Amherst Regional Middle School tennis courts rehab project that started early this summer is now complete.  

 

 

Town/Schools Director of Facilities Ron Bohonowicz reports the courts have already been used by intramural tennis teams and he describes the end result of the project as "beautiful."

Housing By The Slice?

 Echo Village "Apartments", Gatehouse Road, Amherst

Obviously the profit margin on a pizza sold by the slice is a lot higher than pies sold in bulkier units measured as small, medium, or large ... but, can the same be said for rental housing?

Keep an eye on controversial Echo Village "Apartments" in East Amherst, and we will soon find out ... providing of course the Building Commissioner doesn't put the kibosh on it as a zoning violation, since selling by the bedroom kind of turns the building into a "rooming house," and currently that location is not so zoned.

At $575 per bedroom with a total of 62 bedrooms in the complex (at least officially anyway) monthly receipts would total $35,650.  And even with the mortgage payment on the $3,000,000 acquisition price, a tidy profit to be made. 

And that is of course a pernicious problem if you are on the wrong end of the supply/demand equation.  With high demand and limited supply the price of housing skyrockets, pricing out of the market low-income residents, single-parent households, veterans, and basic service industry workers trying to survive on minimum wage jobs.

Yesterday the Amherst Housing Authority shelved a controversial vote on reducing the value of individual Section 8 housing vouchers because -- according to state law -- they cannot do so without first holding a public hearing within 45 days of taking such drastic action.

Out of the 11 families who formerly called Echo Village home (with the aid of vouchers overseen by the AHA) only 3 families still remain. 

The Town Manager commissioned an infrastructure study of Echo Village Apartments as a prelude to taking it by eminent domain, a drastic solution that will never make it through Town Meeting, where it would require a two-thirds vote.

But the town should at least maintain a level playing field for all landlords/rental property owners by enforcing the zoning, even if  especially if it cuts into Mr. Cherewatti's profits.

UPDATE (4:00 PM) 

I'm now told this selling practice is probably legal as it is "common practice all over town."  But then, cramming too many students into basement rooms with inadequate fire/carbon monoxide detection systems and no second means of egress also used to be common practice all over town.

Oh Say Can You See (Or Not)

 

More like a postage stamp

UPDATE:  Two hours after publication a new -- slightly larger flag -- replaced the postage stamp one.

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Anyone remember last month when town officials were quick to use the "BIG-American-flag-on-town-common-flies-24/7" excuse to justify their inexcusable position to ban the extra commemorative flags on 9/11?

Let's hope the BIG flag is back by Saturday, for the AFD open house.  If not, how about flying the commemorative ones?

Meanwhile, last week at Fort McHenry:

"A flag so large that the British would have no difficulty seeing it from a distance."

Photo by Lauri Hittner Finch

A Cordial Affair

 Mayor Takahashi far left, Town Manager John Musante middle right, Austin Sarat far right Jones Trustee President

Jones Library Director Sharon Sharry likes to think of a public library as "the town's living room."

Tonight the Jones downstairs Woodbury Room transformed into just such a comfortable gathering place, as the Library hosted a gala reception to honor visiting dignitaries from our sister city, Kanegasaki, Japan.

  Amherst College Dining Services catered the event (yes, apple pie for desert)

Select Board and Amherst School Committee members, Jones Library Trustees, and  Town Manager John Musante represented the town, and our Japanese friends included Mayor Yoshiichi Takahashi, Akira Nitta, Superintendent of Schools and Kazumi Chiba, Vice Chair of their Town Assembly

On Monday the Amherst Select Board and Town Manager signed a renewal of the 20 year old Sister City Friendship Agreement.

A friendship that will only grow stronger over the next 20 years.

 

Flag of Japan flies on Amherst Town Hall turret

DUI Dishonor Roll

 On average, one in three people will be involved in a drunk driving crash in their lifetime

Just to show there is a cultural connection between rowdy Party Houses, Blarney Blowouts, Hobart Hoedowns and drunk drivers, I give you Joseph J. Buckley, age 23, a UMass student from Billerica, Massachusetts.

 

Joe Buckley

Now Joe was arrested by APD at 2:00 AM, early Friday morning after quenching his "Thirsty Thursday" with too much alcohol and then getting behind the wheel of a car.  He was pulled over on Lincoln Avenue, near UMass.

At the May, 2010 Hobart Hoedown Joseph Buckley was arrested for assault on an officer after throwing beer bottles at police.  Obviously UMass was pretty lenient on him as he is still a student three years later, and still being arrested by Amherst police. 

Back To Work!

Big ol' excavator operated by skilled laborer at Amherst Middle School tennis courts project this morning

The strike is over and with that 100 or so skilled laborers from the International Union of Operating Engineers Local Union 98 are back on the job.  

And while Union 98 may not have gotten everything they asked for, they did manage to get a raise in pay over the next three years and the formation of a study group to keep entry level job positions that act as a feeder system for the higher paid, more skilled, positions.

As my favorite Journo professor once said on the floor of Amherst Town Meeting.  "A good compromise is one that makes neither side perfectly happy."

Strike Heats Up

Warner Brothers Construction (non striking) crew on Triangle Street 11:30 AM

BREAKING NEWS:  Strike has been settled.  Machine operators will be back on the job tomorrow morning.  (An early Christmas present).

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"Work" resumed on the town's Triangle Street road project, albeit s-l-o-w-l-y as the International Union of Operating Engineers Local Union 98 are still on strike, and they are pretty much the skilled heavy equipment operators.

Laborers from a different union doing basic manual labor on Triangle Street

Thus Warner Bros is trying to finish this job using less than optimal work procedures .  For instance using a non-union job foreman, in this case John Baronas, to run the roller.  

 

John Baronas in white helmet (obviously not a Hollywood Western thing)

Mr Baronas was not overly happy about having his picture taken, as he came over to me and said somewhat sternly, "If any of my men come to harm, I will hold you personally responsible."  

I of course pointed out the Amherst police officer within spitting distance of the work site.  And that we are standing on a public street and he is using public tax money to break a union, um, complete the project.