United We, Sort Of, Stand

UN flag flies 24/7, 365 days a year in front of Amherst Town Hall

One of the earlier political "firsts" for the loquacious little town of Amherst, trumpeted nationwide via the Associated Press (because print media loves "firsts") a generation ago, is still visible to this very day flying only yards from Town Hall.

And still talked about by Town officials.

Last Monday, with little comment, the Amherst Select Board voted unanimously to declare October 24 "United Nations Day" in Amherst.

Just as 40 years ago Amherst went all out to celebrate the anniversary (started in 1948) by becoming the fist "town" in America to "permanently" fly the UN Flag at their seat of government.

New York City and Los Angeles also fly the UN flag but they are, um, cities.

The late 60s and early 70s was a time of nationwide political upheaval -- especially in "college towns" -- mainly focused on the Vietnam War. Thus the anti-war movement found fertile ground in Amherst, "where only the h is silent".

And to this day, in town center, the weekly vigil for peace still holds court starting at high noon.

The fly the blue flag movement started with Mrs. Robert McGarrah, "housewife" of a UMass professor (naturally), who collected over 500 signatures in November, 1972 on a petition presented to the Amherst Select Board.  The first week of December the SB voted unanimously to approve the idea.

 11/12/72

And as we know from the festering controversy over flying commemorative American flags on 9/11, which is banned four-out-of-every-five years, the Select Board alone has final say over the public way.

Ironically the petition stated:  "We can be patriotic citizens of the United States and a patriotic country in the world community."

Patriotic indeed.  

Play Ball!

 Getting down and dirty for a good cause:  youth baseball

Next season youthful Amherst baseball aficionados will have a better place to play thanks to the volunteer efforts of Amherst Baseball, Inc.,  a new name for the baseball program founded by "Mr. Baseball" Stan Ziomek w-a-y back in 1952.

Last Saturday, in less than four hours, with plenty of help from the Amherst College baseball team, a large part of the general recreation field at Kiwanis Park on Stanley Street was transformed into a regulation Little League Field. 

No one could remember the last time the town built a baseball field.

Spokesman Nate Budington reports the field's final application of a specially engineered infield mix will be applied later this month.

 Batter up!

When it comes to providing safe, healthy, character-building recreation programming the town too often strikes out.  So every now and then, it's nice to see somebody hit one out of the park.

By Any Other Name?

So you have to wonder if the Gazette or Amherst Bulletin had today's memo put out by the Amherst Schools, would they still have used the above-the-fold banner headline "Amherst Schools Ban Nuts"?

Probably not.  But my guess is originally the schools had fully intended to BAN nuts, but after the newspapers made such a BIG deal about it, and those snarky comments on Facebook and Twitter started rolling in they, um, waffled.

So now it's not a ban -- God forbid Amherst ban anything other than flying commemorative flags on 9/11 -- it's a "strongly requesting" sort of thing.

Back in 1984 Amherst Town Meeting boldly declared us a "Nuclear Free Zone" to do their part on stopping nuclear weapons proliferation.  Probably would not have worked so well if Town Meeting had only "strongly requested" it.  

Wonder if the Gazette will print a retraction?

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Breaking News Update. Stop the presses!  Superintendent Maria Geryk has sent out a follow up email saying "In response to feedback from families and community members, we will delay implementation until Monday, October 28."  Notice the word "ban" does not appear ...

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UPDATE Saturday Morning (Geeze, I guess they did stop the presses.  Yikes!)

Chop Chop

 Hills House, 38 Gray Street

An enormous dead tree in front of historic Hills House awaits a lot more whittling.  Would come in handy inside the Hills House this winter as the historic home boasts eight fireplaces.

The mansion was built in 1865 for one of Amherst's first business barons, Henry Hills, who at one time owned one of the largest hat factories in America.

The Amherst Boys and Girls Club purchased the sprawling estate back in 1976 for $83,500 after the town took their downtown building by eminent domain for the Bangs Community Center project.

Developer Barry Roberts purchased it in 2007 for $725,000 and the Boys and Girls Club moved back to town center renting space from the Knights of Columbus.  The current owners snapped it up from Mr. Roberts in 2008 for the bargain sum of $1,120,000.

Last May Amherst Town Meeting rezoned from General Residence to Neighborhood Business the sprawling front 2 parcels to allow Amherst Media to build a new building there, which of course will somewhat spoil the current majestic views.

Hills House h-u-g-e front lawn rolls down to Main St.  New home of Amherst Media?

Of course back in the day, when the Hills Hat Factory was cranking out palm leaf hats by the trainload, the big brick smokestack was hardly a thing of beauty.

Scott, Edgar T., 1858-1940, "Hills Company hat factory," in Digital Amherst, Item #40, http://www.digitalamherst.org/items/show/40 (accessed October 10, 2013).

Affordable Housing Baby Steps

Hawthorne Farm from a backyard view

The Housing & Sheltering Committee voted unanimously this morning to move forward with the plan to issue a Request For Proposal to build an affordable housing duplex at Hawthorne Farm, volunteering two of their current members -- Nancy Gregg and Denise LeDuc -- for the "selection committee" that will be appointed by Town Manager John Musante.

 

Amherst Housing & Sheltering Committee

Amherst Town Meeting approved spending $500,000 three years ago using Community Preservation Act money to purchase the farm, for "the purposes of Open Space, Recreation, and/or Community Housing" "  although many people seemed to think it was mainly for soccer fields.

 

Hawthorne Farmhouse 235 East Pleasant Street

Ideally historical preservation would also have come into play by restoring the late 1700s farmhouse for use as affordable housing, but a structural integrity analysis proved the renovation cost too prohibitive.

Thus the farmhouse and barn (circa 1890s) will be demolished in the next 8 to 10 weeks. In 2010 the Historical Commission imposed a one year demolition delay on the town but that is the maximum extent of their power when it comes to preserving structures. 

 

Hawthorne Farm Barn

The Housing & Sheltering Committee tried to be flexible in their recommendations for a potential developer by not requiring the project to acquire a Special Permit from the Zoning Board,  be owner occupied, handicapped accessible or LEED certified.   Any and all of these, however, would be considered "highly advantageous." 

In other unanimous votes the committee agreed to support Article 18 the Planning Board "tweak" of mixed-use buildings zoning in Village Centers at the upcoming Town Meeting.  Conversely, they quickly voted to oppose Article 19, the citizen petition article that reverses the spring Town Meeting passage of mixed use zoning, which encourages badly needed development.

By rolling back the minimum number of units to only six from the current 10, developers of reasonably sized projects would be forced to acquire a Special Permit, which requires a unanimous vote of the Zoning Board.

Other town officials and spectators in the audience

The Housing & Sheltering Committee also voted unanimously to support the Planning Board's Article 14, a zoning initiative that makes it easier to build a duplex as long as one unit is permanently "affordable."

All zoning articles require a two-thirds vote of Town Meeting to pass.

The Committee also placed on the agenda for their next meeting (Oct 23) a discussion of the Amherst Housing Authority cut back on the value of individual Section 8 vouchers for low-income residents, but made it clear they were not going to take an official position on it.

Select Board liaison Alisa Brewer, in a motherly sort of way, said to the Housing & Sheltering Committee:  "You have no authority over the AHA."  Although their member Denise LeDuc is the Executive Director of the AHA.

Co-Chair Nancy Gregg thought the low income voucher situation should be an item for discussion (but not an actionable vote) to send the clear message, "We care about it."

7 acre Hawthorne Farm property outlined in yellow is contiguous with Wildwood Elementary School (top center in red)

DUI Dishonor Roll

 

AFD demonstrates extrication at their recent open house

Surprisingly only two DUIs bagged over the weekend in Amherst by APD. 

I say surprising because of all the other alcohol related mayhem that occured.  But the two certainly fit the classic formula:  early in the morning incidents where the drivers impairment was fairly obvious to police.

In the case of Gjergji Progri, age 21, because he hit two other cars on the main drag through UMass/Amherst -- North Pleasant and Mass Ave -- at 3:09 AM early Saturday morning; and Michela Luchetti, age 19, driving at 2:32 AM early Sunday morning on another highly traveled road -- University Drive -- without headlights.

I heard the female officer immediately call for backup even before stopping Luchetti, because according to the officer she was "all over the road."

In Eastern Hampshire District Court on Monday both defendants pled "not guilty" and had their cases continued until next month.  Ms. Luchetti left the courtroom quickly with her exceedingly unhappy looking mother by her side.

Territorial

 290 West Street (Tuesday morning)

Those of you who drive to or by Crocker Farm school may have noticed a DPW crew doing work at the entrance to the school yesterday morning.  The town was reclaiming the public way borrowed by an absentee landlord for tenant parking.

When the Gralinski's owned 290 West Street (as they did since 1952) Esther used to operated the farm stand selling vegetables, and the public way was borrowed to create a turn out for the convenience of drive-thru customers.

When the family sold the estate in 2008 to carpetbagger, err, developer You-Pan Tzeng he immediately petitioned  the Zoning Board for a Special Permit to turn the one-family home into a two-family home with a new addition,  thus increasing the occupancy to eight unrelated individuals. 

Thus increasing the need for parking spaces.  But the tenants of Mr. Tzeng will now have to find another plot for parking.

Using town property for personal parking gain is kind of like expecting the Police or Fire Department to act as babysitters for rowdy tenants.  Yes, the town is getting territorial about that as well.

 290 West Street (this morning)