What If They Gave An Election ...

I've been told I left out an important point in my most recent report on expanded school regionalization where I bemoan the h-u-g-e disparity between Amherst school committee members (probably 5) for a total vote strength of 55.5%, compared to Pelham and Leverett (probably two each) considering Amherst makes up 88% of the Region.

I say "probably" because the governance issue is all kinds of hypothetical at the moment and besides, Shutesbury could still come around and join the party.

If that happens, then the (proposed but never officially voted on) plan is for each of the three hilltowns to have two members and Amherst will have 7, giving Amherst 53.8% of the vote.

Now the counter to all this and what makes it legal from a Constitutional (one man -- err -- person, one vote) perspective is all 9 members of the new super committee (or 13 if Shutesbury joins the party), will be elected in a regionwide election.

In other words, Amherst voters will help choose the Leverett and Pelham representatives thus giving Amherst voters 100% say in the make up of the new super committee.  Likewise, Leverett and Pelham voters get to help choose the Amherst representatives.

Which is all well and good if you have energetically contested elections, which we rarely do.  Hard enough now to get Amherst voters excited about their own candidates; safe bet Leverett and Pelham candidates will have zero name recognition.

Besides, what if Amherst only fields 5 candidates for the five available seats and Leverett and Pelham each manage to field only two candidates for each of the two seats?  Not much "selection" going on there.

Hometown ties run deep.  Will a Leverett or Pelham representative be less likely to support closing down their elementary school for the good of the Region? 

No Public Safety Staff Increase

Town Manager John Musante right, Sandy Pooler, Finance Director, to his right

About the most interesting thing in Amherst Town Manager John Musante's  proposed FY15 Budget is what it doesn't contain -- an increase in staffing for either police or fire personnel.  Although if extra monies materialize he does support the hiring of one additional police officer for a downtown beat.

Interestingly in his Letter of Transmittal to his bosses, the Select Board, he does freely admit that UMass has increased enrollment 16% over the past ten years but town police strength has decreased by 10% (five officers) since 2007.

And while he champions the "sector based patrol system" no mention is made of joint patrols with UMass Police Department, recently jeopardized by a union grievance filed by one of their officers.

In calendar year 2013 Amherst Fire Department responded to 5,690 emergencies, a 3.6% increase over the previous year.  Because of the extra $80,000 per year kicked in by UMass for 2 extra ambulances on weekends, and an increase in ambulance rates the budget does call for an increase in minimum on duty staffing from 7 to 8 during the academic year.

But the Town Manager made it pretty clear he does not think an increase in staffing is warranted:  " ... and no increase in authorized staffing is necessary or recommended."

A picture is worth 1,000 words

 

Meanwhile Leisure Services (aka, recreation empire) is "level funded" at $529,299. But last year they were also pretty much level funded and still managed to lose over $300,000. 

The $20,947, 926 municipal budget is supported by $600,000 in "new growth" property taxes which indicates the local economy is on the move.  Amherst Town Meeting has final approval over the budget and will take up discussion in the spring. 

Expanded Amherst Regional School Update

The Amherst Pelham Regional School Committee voted on Tuesday to continue the mission of the Regional School District Planning Board by agreeing to explore amending the 50+ year old Regional Agreement to allow the current 7-12 Region to extend all the way down to pre-Kindergarten, with only three of the current four towns aboard (Amherst, Leverett and Pelham).

That new agreement, however, would leave open the possibility of Shutesbury joining at the elementary level sometime in the future.

The state recently agreed that such a "hybrid" Region would be acceptable.  

The Regional School Committee also appointed all 12 members of the RSDPB to act as their sub-committee to formulate the necessary change in the Regional Agreement.  If that draft document is then supported by a two-thirds vote of the Regional School Committee the agreement would go to all four Town Meetings in the fall for approval, but would require unanimous support of all four towns.

The major stumbling block for approval in Amherst will be the touchy "governance" issue.  Amherst makes up 88% of the Region yet the new 9 member Regional School Committee will, apparently, consist of 2 members each from Leverett and Pelham and 5 from Amherst.

That barely gives Amherst a majority stake at 55.5% of the vote.

Or what you might call, "fuzzy math."

Current Populations of Four Town Region

A Little Disruption Now And Then

Gotta Go taxi at the scene of a party house

In France the other day an angry mob of cabbie sympathizers attacked an Uber car, damaging both the car and the young businesswoman passenger.

Uber is one of a number of new companies that rely on the ubiquitous phone app to connect customer with product in real time, in this case a ride.

To protect the iconic cab industry the French government enacted a law saying Uber cars must wait 15 minutes before responding to an Internet hail from a customer. 

Which would be kind of like our government passing a law in 1908 saying automobiles cannot go any faster than a horse.

In Amherst, in spite of an extensive PVTA free bus system, the cab industry exploded over the past few years going from one or two sleepy companies to an energetic dozen two years ago. 

But once the town enacted stricter inspection process requiring each cab to have an expensive meter installed the number of companies dropped to nine and certified cabs went from a high of 61 to the current 19.

Since Amherst is a college town it should come as no surprise that this new way of doing business gained an early foothold.  Both UMass and Amherst College have embraced Zipcars which will somewhat impact the local cab industry.

But the real cab killer is  Sobrio, a ride sharing program run by the Student Government Association that connects riders with customers at the tap of a finger.  The program test run last semester was so successful (handling 350-500 rides per weekend) the SGA decided to kill the more expensive less efficient "Sober Shuttle" bus program.

For traditional cab companies doing business in Amherst the handwriting is now etched on an electronic wall. "While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping."

SGA Secretary Lindsay Vitale thoroughly explains Sobrio

Internet Marketing

The Internet has changed everything -- just ask a video store clerk or ink stained newspaper reporter -- but most would argue it has changed things for the better, especially with mass communication.

Internet petition sites make it cookie-cutter simple to promote a cause, and crowd funding sites make it simple for entrepreneurs to raise money for their projects.  The recent success of Food For Thought Books raising over $40,000 is a shining example.  Although "Homeless In A College Town" did not fare quite as well, raising only $7,511 out of a $20,000 goal.

And for a while there we had dueling petition on MoveOn.org over the controversial nut ban at Amherst Regional Public Schools.  The petition opposing the ban has since been deleted but probably had around 100 signatures prior to termination and the supporting petition now has 172 signatures but no activity since well before Christmas.

And the majority of signatures are from outside over enlightened Amherst.

Cinda Jones petition to entice South Amherst's Atkins Farms Country Market garnered over 350 signatures promising undying loyalty to a satellite operation at the new Trolley Barn in North Amherst.

 Trolley Barn, North Amherst

All to no avail as Pauline Lannon, Atkins co-owner recently responded to the public suggestion box saying "We need to put our energy and resources into this store."

 

Atkins Farms Country Market, South Amherst

Twitter is a great resource for instant news all of the time, although broadcasting is so simple it sometimes gets folks in trouble.

Last week the bricks and mortar media (who should know better) made an issue of Northampton Mayor Narkewicz tweeting positive things about potential jury duty service as he was reporting for potential jury service (but before the judge said the shut off your damn smart phones) and again after he -- like a lot of potential jurors -- was dismissed from duty.

reporting for jury duty at the Hampshire County Courthouse
— David Narkewicz (@MayorNarkewicz) January 8, 2014

Mark Whipple has yet to be introduced as the new UMass football head coach and already his Twitter account has over 650 followers, compared to Chancellor Subbaswamy, who has 938 followers, but has been on Twitter for over a year.

Folks in Amherst hope he has lots of positive things to tweet in the near future.

Update 2:40 PM.  Coach Whipple now has over 1,150 followers

A Fair Share

UMass, Amherst & Hampshire Colleges account for 27% of all AFD calls

On Thursday all the head honchos -- Select Board, Finance Committee, Town Manager John Musante and Finance Director Sandy Pooler -- will meet in Town Hall for the unveiling of the Town Manager's Fiscal 2015 budget.

Don't expect any earth shattering changes.  Although maybe, finally, a much overdue increase in staffing for our beleaguered public safety departments.

One thing that should be discussed is reimbursement monies from our three institutes of higher education.  You know, the reason why Amherst is a "college town."

The main one of course is UMass.  The original 5-year "Strategic Agreement", which pays the town $350,000 in new monies annually, expired June 30, 2012 but was extended for a year.

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

In 2013 Amherst Fire Department responded to UMass 1,162 times with 843 of those (73%) responses for medical emergencies requiring an ambulance, with 219 of those (26%) for "substance abuse."  So that means the other 319 responses required a fire engine.  Ambulance runs generate insurance revenues, fire engine runs do not.

 AFD Engine 2 on scene Crossett Dorm Amherst College

In 2013 AFD responded to Amherst College 212 times with 152 of those (72%) responses for medical emergencies requiring an ambulance, with 39 of those (26%) for "substance abuse."  The other 60 responses required a fire engine (or two).  Last year Amherst College "donated" to the town $90,000 as payment towards those emergency services.

Although after the Crossett Christmas incident last month let's hope they go back to the $120,000 they gave us in 2007.

In 2013 AFD responded to Hampshire College 184 times with 71 of those responses (only 39%) for medical emergencies requiring an ambulance, with 17 of those (24%) for "substance abuse."  The other 113 of those responses required a fire engine.

AFD crew heading toward Hampshire Dining Commons for an  ETOH female 12:20 AM

So out of the three institutes of higher education AFD protects, Hampshire College has by far the higher percentage of responses requiring expensive equipment that does not generate insurance reimbursement.

Last year Hampshire College paid the town zero, zip, nada for emergency services received by the town.  And as a tax exempt educational institute they paid almost nothing in property taxes.  Yet they are one of the most expensive colleges in America at $57,130 per year.

And last year Hampshire announced it would offer an "undocumented student" $25,000 per year to cover those high tuition expenses.  At least that student will be well protected (at local taxpayer expense).

From Green To Glass

 

Amazing maze:  Allard Farm, Amherst/Hadley border 

If you loved the view off Mill Valley Road in the summertime, a sea of green corn soaking up the sun under a radiant blue sky, you will probably not be pleased with this latest development. Yes, unlike Amherst, when Hadley announces a solar farm deal, it actually happens.

Allard Farm, yesterday

Of course it doesn't hurt that the prime instigator is the Hampshire Council of Government, a vestige of years gone by where small towns became members to use the power of co-op buying for discounts.

But now those discounts are more easily available on the Internet, without the high membership fee to HCOG. 

So the HCOG has found a new service niche by morphing into a one stop discount energy provider.

This project by Nexamp will, on days when Mother Nature cooperates, generate 3 megawatts of energy.  The deal with Hadley (besides the private deal hatched with Allard Farms) will provide a discount coupon worth 21 cents on the dollar payment towards their current electricity consumption.

In addition to this Nexamp project, BlueWave Capital has three solar arrays on the drawing board in Hadley.  BlueWave you may remember is the company Amherst aligned with to construct a 4.75 megawatt facility on the old landfill off Belchertown Road, which would be the largest in the state.

That project came under heavy fire from nearby abutters, and has since gone dark.