Too Many Cooks Spoil The Region?

 RAWG:  Three members per town (Amherst, Leverett, Pelham, Shutesbury)

Although they didn't click their ruby red shoes three times while chanting magic words, the 12 member Regional School District Planning Board magically became the Regional Agreement Working Group on Saturday morning, now an official sub-committee of the 9 member Regional School Committee.

The front line Dirty Dozen has been meeting for two years trying to craft a plan to expand the four town Region from grades 7-12 all the way down to kindergarten.  Both the Regional Middle School and Regional High School are physically located in Amherst, and our town makes up 88% of the region by population.

The other three towns -- Leverett, Pelham and Shutesbury -- makes up the remaining 12% of the Region.

Thus Amherst is a very large dog with a very small tail.




Proportional representation on the new Regional School Committee (if the notion of the expanded Region should receive support of three out of four Town Meetings) will be a major issue, as Amherst should have the vast majority of committee make up.

But the three Hilltowns can be a tad ethnocentric, and at least one of them points to the divisive years when Amherst School Committee member Catherine Sanderson tried to bring positive change to the sacred cow education system and was gored in the upheaval. 

Amherst Select Board member (and former long-time School Committee member) Alisa Brewer has agreed to temporarily replace Andy Steinberg as Chair of the committee so he can have more time to campaign for Select Board in the upcoming March 25 election. 

During public comment Amherst Town Meeting member Janet McGowan pointed out none of the current 12 committee members has children in the elementary schools and perhaps the committee should be expanded to include those important stakeholders. 

The group hopes to have a proposal crafted  and sent to the Regional School Committee by the end of May.  Once approved by a two-thirds vote of the Regional School Committee the new entity must then be approved by three out of four Town Meetings, optimistically speaking, in the fall.

Sharing The Burden

 John Musante bottom left, School Superintendent Maria Geryk right, Sean  Mangano standing (Rob Detweiler's, err, replacement)

Amherst Town Manager John Musante made it perfectly clear which method of financing he prefers to fund the Regional Schools next Fiscal Year at the Four Town Meeting of the Regional Schools Saturday morning.

The four member towns -- Amherst, Leverett, Pelham and Shutesbury -- use their own modified system (more complicated than the IRS tax code) based on a rolling average, called the Regional Agreement Method.

And every year -- because of a "five year rolling average" -- one of the four towns seems to pay a little more.  This year it's Shutesbury's turn.

The state recommends their own Statutory Method, also very complicated, but with less of a variation every few years.  Using the Regional Agreement Method, next year Amherst would pay $14,541,118 of the total $18,834,753 Regional budget (77%), an increase of $382,288 or 2.7% over last year.

If however the Region switches to the Statutory Method of funding, Amherst would pay $14,682,553 of the total $18,834,753 Regional Budget.   An increase of $523,723 or 4.1% over last year.  Musante pointed out the difference between those two dollar amounts is $141,435, but as a percentage is a whopping 33% increase. 

The problem is Shutesbury is complaining (as they often do) about their 6.3% increase under the usual Regional Agreement Method.  Should their Town Meeting reject the appropriation that would scuttle the entire Regional Budget.  In other words it requires a unanimous vote of all four towns.

Whereas if the four town Region uses the state approved Statutory Method one town can vote no and the budget still passes.  In other words the vote does not have to be unanimous.

Shutesbury has already played the spoiler by pulling out of the proposed expansion of the Region all the way down to kindergarten from the current 7-12 Region.  Shutesbury voted not to join the proposed expanded Region but wishes to stay in the grades 7-12 Region but possibly share the same Superintendent for their elementary school.

Although at the four town meeting yesterday one Amherst official voiced the opinion "you are either in or out" of the new Region, and no special allowances should be made for non believers.

Profit vs Image

Turning up the heat on Jamie Cherewatti on a freezing afternoon

About a dozen protesters descended on Jamie Cherewatti's 55 North Pleasant Street downtown office location, above a bar naturally, to publicly shame him for not selling Echo Village Apartments in East Amherst to a developer picked out by the town to maintain the 24-unit rental operation as "affordable."

 Echo Village Apartments yesterday (remember folks to shovel out fire hydrants)

Meanwhile, the day before, when protesters first staked out his downtown business, Mr. Cherewatti purchased the immediate neighboring house to Echo Village Apartments (also a multi-unit rental) for $360,000 cash, a little below assessed value of $377,000.

 310 Belchertown Road

 And guess who Rocky Hill Road Partners LLC is?

Amherst Fireground: Merrick Circle

A box alarm call at 8:05 PM brought a swift response from an armada of public safety vehicles to a structure fire at Merrick Circle in South Amherst in sub-freezing temperatures.

A half dozen AFD engines and almost as many police cars with mutual aid from Northampton, Hadley, South Hadley, Pelham and Belchertown combined to put down the fire in about 45 minutes.

Fortunately no one was home at the time of the blaze, although the initial report describing a kitchen fire did indicate one person may have been in the house. 

X1 (AFD Chief Tim Nelson) to Dispatch "Command terminated, Merrick Circle".  Four hours after after the box alarm first struck.
— Larry Kelley (@amherstac) March 1, 2014

AFD Ladder 1 en route to 25 Merrick Circe, scene of last night's structure fire.  One Engine already on scene.
— Larry Kelley (@amherstac) March 1, 2014

"Consistent With The Definition"

Amherst School Superintendent Maria Geryk, Thursday morning

So the long awaited official report from the Amherst Schools on the incident that closed the High School last month because of a "threat" posted to Facebook was just released, on a blog of all places.

Interestingly the report does admit "there were separate behaviors during the series of events that are consistent with the definition of both bullying and racial harassment."

And since it was the white student's family who complained repeatedly to school authorities about three black students bullying their son, it seems fair to say their charges have been confirmed.

No word on whether the father of the white student, who works in the schools, and was suspended for three days without pay for trying to stop the bullying, will be reimbursed for those days and the stain on his employment record removed.

And no mention of any discipline for school officials who failed to act on the white parents plea to help their son.

Public Safety Crackdown

11 Phillips Street

The Amherst Fire Department is getting serious about public safety.  Well actually, they've always been serious -- but now they are getting deadly serious about public safety in a pro active way.

Or as my Irish mother used to say, "A stitch in time saves nine."  And in this case it's lives that are saved.

On Monday in Eastern Hampshire District Court before Clerk Magistrate Bill Nagle,  fire safety officer Mike Roy won a $1,040 judgement against a leaseholder at 11 Phillips Street, perhaps the most notorious Party House in all of Amherst.  Owned, naturally, by the King of the Decadent Street, Stephan Gharabegian.

Party House Fire Complaint by larry_kelley_1

The house was being used as a "rooming house" with W-A-Y more than four unrelated tenants packed into the 10-bedroom abode.  Once that was exposed, resulting in a town crackdown, the landlord -- Stephan Gharabegian -- padlocked six of the rooms.

But the occupants of the four remaining rooms have removed all the furniture and use the open space as a giant party room.

11 Phillips Street, interior view

And the kids engaged in Russian roulette by covering  the windows with black plastic (which in a fire instantly gives off deadly fumes) and covering the smoke detectors with bags as well, probably so the cigarette or  pot smoke does not set them off.

The most recent major structure fire that resulted in a death  at Rolling Green Apartments last year could have been far, far worse if the smoke detectors had not done their job.

In fact, AFD responded a few days after the deadly fire for reports of an alarm sounding.   Turns out smoke detectors from the damaged building had been thrown in a dumpster and some of them were still sounding the alarm.

Previously AFD would issue a $100 civil ticket and if you ignored it, they would have to take you to Land Court in Northampton.  Now they will be issuing criminal complaints which could result in six months in jail.

Or most likely, as with this plea bargain case, the court converts it to a civil infraction with the $1,000 fine. 

Complying with these common sense safety regulations is far less a hastle than dealing with District Court ... or planning a funeral. 

"That Really Stinks"

Budget Coordinating Group this morning

Good thing about being a fly on the wall at public meetings not usually attended by reporters is town officials are a tad more forthright with their comments.

Take this morning's Budget Coordinating Group meeting for instance.  During his update on the Echo Village negotiation with mega-property owner Jamie Cherewatti, after lamenting the deal falling through at the last minute, Town Manger Musante closed with, "That really stinks".

The town had put all their eggs in one basket with a proposed Community Development Block Grant request of $800,000 because $600,000 of that would have gone towards purchasing from Cherewatti the 24 unit Echo Village Apartment complex.

James Cherewatti on left

The deadline for the grant application was February 14 (how romantic) and Cherewatti's last second rejection (by ignoring it) of a "fair market" purchase offer means the grant application is now dead.  The price offered is exempt from Open Meeting Law public disclosure, although the principal party who made the offer could probably release it.  

The Town Manager pointed out to the BCG, "That has a domino effect on three other programs:  Homeless Shelter, Food Pantry Program at the Survival Center, and $20,000 in emergency funds for the needy."

His proposal, which seemed to garner the support of the group, is to now take a $125,000 recommendation to Town Meeting using Free Cash.

He specifically wants it to be a stand alone item separate from the overall budget to telegraph that it's a "transitional" emergency appropriation, and not a return to the old days of annual town funding of Social Service programs. 

Finance Director Sandy Pooler floated the idea of having the money come out of Stabilization Fund which requires a two thirds vote to reinforce that this is a one time thing, and that Town Meeting "would really have to think about it."

BCG Chair Stephanie O'Keeffe cautioned it could send the message that town officials were setting too high a hurdle and it could be "off putting" to Town Meeting members.

Pooler responded that many things -- including bridge replacement or DPW snow and ice budget increases -- requires a  two-thirds vote, so this is not "singling out" social services.

Finance Chair and Select Board candidate Andy Steinberg thought perhaps the $125,000 should simply be in the routine general fund budget.   Stephanie O'Keeffe quickly responded the Select Board voted Monday unanimously that it be a stand alone article.  This reinforces the notion that we are simply "bridging the gap."

Select Board member Alisa Brewer (always a tad more forthright) added, "I will say it more aggressively:  NO!"

Even the Amherst Bulletin is aroused