Lucky 13?

 

Amherst Fire Department A1 at The Pub late Friday night

The town was lucky Amherst Fire Department had four extra staff to operate two ambulances over the weekend, although I'm sure the thirteen first responders did not feel overly lucky during that bewitching hour (or two) when the gates of Hell creak open, and the all-alcohol-zombie-apocalypse is fully unleashed. 

It started routinely enough at 10:37 PM Friday with an ETOH "college aged" female at Van Meter Dorm UMass.  Then nothing until 11:15 PM, with another ETOH at Pierpont Dorm UMass -- although Dispatch later radioed to the responders she was now "conscious and alert" and the call would probably end up "a refusal."

When UMPD horse patrol told their Dispatch they were "securing their mounts" for the night (around 11:30 PM) because of the rain, I thought maybe that was a good omen -- bad weather cutting down on foot traffic. 

Wrong.

The ambulance that ended up not being needed for an ETOH female was rerouted to another nearby need of a student having a bad reaction to hallucinogenics.  Within minutes that ambulance called for a second ambulance "this location" for a second patient, also overdosing on a hallucinogenic drug.

A fire alarm from the same Van Meter Dorm at 11:53 PM then tied up Engine 1 and Engine 3 just as ETOH calls started pouring in: "A severely ETOH young male at The Pub in downtown Amherst, five minutes later an ETOH young male out on Montague Road in North Amherst, five minutes after that UMPD reports another a student had "consumed 15 shots, was breathing, but unresponsive."

 NFD ambulance, AFD Engine 3 Pierpont Dorm UMass for ETOH student 

At this point fire engines are being dispatched to medical calls to stabilize patients while waiting for an ambulance to arrive and cart them over to Cooley Dickinson Hospital.

Northampton FD and Belchertown FD both respond via mutual aid for ETOH students on the UMass campus.

Dispatch has tried to mobilize reinforcements by sending out a tone requesting the Call Force to report in for "station coverage".

213 Sunset Avenue 12:40 AM

At 12:35 AM a beleaguered ambulance responds to  213 Sunset Avenue, where a large party is taking place, for an ETOH female.

A5 responds directly to the scene after dropping off an ETOH patient at the hospital without the usual "return to quarters" to restock supplies or clean up the ambulance, or do the paperwork associated with the previous call.

 AFD Engine 3 Mass Ave  1:00 AM near Southwest heading to ETOH patient

At 1:00 AM UMPD requests an ambulance for an ETOH student at the bus stop on the corner of Sunset and Mass Avenue.  Engine 3  arrives to render assistance until an ambulance can respond.
The final substance abuse run occurs at 4:23 AM.

And thus ends just another binge "night" in the little college town of Amherst.

Thirteen AFD full-time professional emergency responders, 5 ambulances and 3 fire engines and we still required 2 ambulances from our friends in Northampton and one from Belchertown.

It's all fun and games until desperately waiting -- waiting -- for an ambulance to arrive ... someone dies.

   AFD Oct ETOH Wknd

To be continued ...

AFD On Display

 AFD Central heart of downtown Amherst

After the deluge of emergency responses last night into early this morning today's Open House at AFD Central must have seemed like the calm after the storm.

Although I'm sure the coffee and cider donuts came in handy.

Smokey Bear and Jada the Jr. Firefighter

Smokey Bear and Kira

In spite of sequestration, a Federal Government shut down and state budget cuts, Smokey Bear managed to make the event, and throughout the morning maintained a happy face.  Considering he was a magnet for children -- mine included -- probably not too hard a feat.

Firefighter 75' over town center courtesy of the quint

Unlike climbing to the top of the quint, Engine 2.  Although Smoky Bear did keep both feet firmly on the ground.   Probably an insurance thing.

911 Dispatch (& the 729): Unsung heroes

A little history:

Human drawn pumper circa 1850s

 

The infamous Amherst College Alumni Gym fire 1985

And a scary future:

A Tree Grows ...

 

Tree Warden Alan Snow preparing to plant

Actually more like ten trees will be growing soon all along Blue Hills Road, as about a dozen neighbors, tree warden Alan Snow and Town Manager John Musante showed up this morning for a good old fashioned tree planting.  

 Princeton Elm (resistant to Dutch Elm disease) will grace the Schmidt family  front yard

Coordinated by Amherst Shade Tree Committee member Nancy Higgins, the neighborhood won out in a contest with two other streets for the planting services.  Last year Town Meeting approved spending $612,000 to purchase 2,000 trees for municipal tree canopy enhancement.

Somewhere in the distance, the Lorax smiled.

 

Town Manager John Musante center Nancy Higgins Tree Committee rtght

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.

#####

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