UMass Sober Shuttle Scuttled

 Sober Shuttle 1:15 AM Amherst Town Center

After less than a one-year trial run the much ballyhooed Sober Shuttle is no more.

The late night program used PVTA buses that ran after the bars closed in an effort to keep drunk drivers off the road and to cut down on waves of students walking through residential neighborhoods to get back to their beds in the dead of night.

But it seemed to duplicate already existing runs of the PVTA and never seemed to gain traction.  A uniformed UMass police officer assigned to every run could also have acted as a popularity deterrent.

The $50,000 program was a Student Government Association project paid for via student fees.

UMass administrators were not overly enthusiastic in promoting the endeavor because they did not wish to be seen condoning/enabling excessive alcohol consumption.

But at the same time they used it to demonstrate the University and students were doing something about rowdy behavior.

Fear not, however, the good intentioned safety program has been replaced with a more cost effective answer.  Yeah, there's an app for that: Sobrio. 

SGA President Zac Broughton reports

Liquor License For Rent

The average person probably thinks a beer/wine permit in a college town like Amherst is a license to print money.  And to some extent that's true.  So it will be interesting to see who applies for the only open on-premise Wine & Malt license (out of eight) currently available, at the annual bargain basement price of $1,000.

The Select Board will award the golden ticket to one lucky entrepreneur at the their regular Monday night meeting March 17.  Yes, St. Patrick's Day -- not to be confused with the "Blarney Blowout" held the Saturday before the official holiday to allow the downtown bars to tap into the "college aged youth" who abandon Amherst for Spring Break just prior to March 17.

Considering the mayhem that occurred at the last two Blarney Blowouts the Select Board should probably also post a set of suggested guidelines for potential liquor permit seekers on expected business practices.

As in not hyping immature events that promote ethnic stereotyping, while encouraging bad behavior.

 

Souper Bowl went out of business in June, giving up their Wine & Malt permit

DUI Dishonor Roll

226 Children died in drunk driving accidents in 2011

The New Year started out badly for Brenda L Sanchez, age 30, and Sylwester Malejczyk, age 22, both arrested for Driving Under the Influence on January 1st (early morning hours of course).

Particularly bad for Ms. Sanchez, since the charges also include child endangerment while under the influence. 

Justin Timmons, age 23, attracted attention by speeding, 50 in a 35 MPH zone, also in the wee hours of the morning when traffic is light -- probably made even lighter by the "polar vortex."

 

Welcome 2014: Three DUIs down, another 125 or so to go.

Torpedo Tintin?

Jones Library:  The people's living room

I guess Bill Clinton would say it depends on how you define "censorship".

Clearly Jones Library Director Sharon Sharry subscribes to the American Library Association's definition:  "A change in the access status of material, based on the content of the work and made by a governing authority or its representatives. Such changes include exclusion, restriction, removal, or age/grade level changes.

The group of concerned parents who want to relocate the "Tintin" series of colorful comics believe there's a "principled middle ground" that would allow for "placing material that uses derisive portrayals of a racial group that has been historically discriminated against purely to entertain the reader, as is the case in the comics, to areas for older readers."

 But clearly, that would be a "Change in the access status of the material, based on content ..." Or in the eyes of the ALA, censorship.

And of course the concerned parents "drive this point home" using the racially offensive book "Simple Additions by a Little Nigger," as an example of a historically dated work targeted at children they would expect not to find in the Jones Library.

And last I looked (this morning),  the book "Simple Additions by a Little Nigger" was NOT available at the Jones.

But I'll let the two opposing sides speak for themselves:

Request for Reconsideration 

Jones Library Director's response presented to Trustees 

Gazette Internet Poll

 

Busy As Ever

If only your personal investment portfolio went up like this

Last year call volume handled by the Amherst Fire Department went up 3.64% ... which may not sound like a lot, but when you are already running beyond capacity it becomes a bigger burden.  Like adding a few teaspoons of water to a glass already filled to the brim.  

A patchwork measure of adding extra staffing on weekends paid for by UMass/Amherst -- AFD's number one client (after the town itself) certainly helped, but even then a mutual aid ambulance had to be called 49 times --almost once per week.

Meaning if you or your loved one had an emergency requiring quick transport to a hospital, you would have to wait until an ambulance from a surrounding community managed to find you.

And yes the new contract just signed by the town and Union 1764 allows for a minimum staffing of 8 on duty personnel when the schools are in session; but a ten year old town study recommended 9 minimum on duty by Fiscal Year 2005.  And just look at the lead graph above to see how call volumes have increased since then.

Total calls (medical and fire): 5,690, or an average of 16 per day

Sure "substance abuse" (drunk) runs to our Colleges and UMass get a lot of press -- as well they should, since it is 100% preventable -- but they only make up 10% of total medical emergencies.  The top two are still classic emergencies that you expect trained professionals to handle, "general medical" (for an aging population) and "trauma."

The town has been negligent with public safety departments for a generation now. 

Central Station is long past due for replacement (that too from another town study done in 2006) and the current staffing problem is a disaster waiting to happen.  As in a major structure fire in one part of town while four ambulances are tied up over the far flung five towns the AFD serves. 

Help delayed is help denied.

Tu Parle Francais?

Well worn copies of Tintin at the Jones Library

So it turns out the only Jones Library copy of the most offensive entry in the "Tintin" series -- "Tintin In The Congo" -- is in french, so it is located in the foreign language section, and not with the other ones (pictured above) at the higher profile entryway to the Children's Room.

Of course when I asked to peruse "Tintin in the Congo, "  err, I mean "Tintin au Congo" it was, naturally, already taken out.  Not that I parle francais.

A really long-time Jones Library employee confirms the Tintin series has been available since she first arrived at the Jones back in 1972, and replacement copies have been ordered over the years (English versions of course) because they have worn out from avid readership.

Library Director Sharon Sharry also confirmed that the most recent written “request for reconsideration of library materials” filed by the concerned parents over Tintin was the first such formal request she has had in her 17-month tenure thus far at the Jones.

Back in 1996 a traveling photo exhibit "Love Makes A Family:  Living in Lesbian and Gay Families" sparked controversy in Amherst because some parents did not want their elementary school aged children exposed to it.

Although they were a tad vague as to what "it" was that children needed to be protected from.

The schools stood firm, the photo exhibit went on (probably to a much wider audience because of all the controversy) and our local civilization did not fall.  

Censorship is censorship. A doomsday device -- no matter which political persuasion employs it.

Higher Ed & Alcohol Info Graphic

 
AFD loading intoxicated student at the Umass Visitors Center early November

For my regular readers this is a kind of a "Well, duh" dog-bites-man story, but the charts graphically illustrate the sad, dangerous trend of alcohol abuse at our institutes of higher education -- the town's number one industry.

 Overall substance abuse calls:

Overall substance abuse calls make up 10% of AFD medical emergency responses

However, looking at the College and University of Massachusetts at Amherst our flagship of higher education and number one employer in town:

 Over one quarter of all emergency responses to UMass are for drugs/alcohol abuse

 

Amherst College kids are no better behaved when it comes to drugs/alcohol

Hampshire College comes in last for alcohol/drug abuse

Even worse, the numbers clearly indicate the problem is getting worse. 

Comparison of last two fall semesters (Tom Valle graph)

What say you UMass, Hampshire College and Amherst College?