Another "Event" @ ARHS

APD @ Amherst Regional High School

UPDATE:  Thursday morning

According to APD Chief Scott Livingstone the individual involved is one of Amherst's homeless population that police are "familiar with," and since no criminal violations occurred, he is not in custody.

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Sweet New Location

Now open for business @ 19 North Pleasant Street

The Glazed Doughnut Shop -- literally owned by a Mom and Pop -- successfully debuted this morning in their new location almost dead center in the heart of the downtown, and they only lost one day of business during the entire transition. 

Who doesn't like doughnuts!

Owners Nick and Keren Rhodes, local Amherst Regional High School sweethearts now also married to their small business, had to move from their former location down the street at the Carriage Shops (233 North Pleasant) after only 18 months due to an impending sale of the entire complex.

 Flat panel menu signs

While they had to leave behind an expensive commercial kitchen hood, fortunately their new location had Amherst Creperie (and J. Jumbo's) as a tenant, and they left behind a bigger, better unit.

Commercial kitchen hood with built in fire suppression

A nifty new neon outdoor sign will be installed within the next week.  But for now the aroma of freshly made doughnuts will be enough to attract downtown travelers.  

 And gather they will

Clowns To The Left Of Me, Jokers ...

 

Ben Grosscup wielding a dangerous weapon

Just our luck that on 5/19 Ben Grosscup decides to show up for his only appearance thus far out of eight sessions of the 256th annual Amherst Town Meeting to sing in opposition of drones.

If You Build It

 130 Fearing Street building lot (290 Lincoln Ave house in background)

Some good news for year-round residents of Fearing Street and Lincoln Avenue living in the shadow of UMass: The lot sold by real estate speculator You-Pan Tzeng, after tearing down a "historic" barn, is going to become an owner occupied house. 

So I hope they get a warm welcome to the neighborhood that aggressively laments absentee owner student rentals. 

The new owners spent $140,000 to buy the lot and according to their approved building permit will spend an additional $250,000 on constructing a two-story, four-bedroom colonial.

With that kind of investment you probably are not going to rent it to four students. Besides, you would have to charge way more than going rate (which is already too high) in order to cover overhead -- including Amherst's high as a satellite property tax rate.

Mr. Tzeng is still trying to sell the house at 290 Lincoln Avenue from which the lot on Fearing Street was spun off.

Although he has dropped his price somewhat ($15,000), chances are anyone paying $425,000 for that grand old abode is not going to rent it out -- especially since the house is a "one family" and could be occupied by only four unrelated housemates.

Hypocrisy?

ARHS side entrance (Dylan Akalis need not apply)

The Amherst Regional High School Senior Prom is this weekend and graduation at the UMass Mullins Center the following weekend.

Dylan Akalis, although graduating from ARHS, will not be at either milestone event.

Perhaps if he invited his male, minority friend to the senior prom -- you know, the one he affectionately used the N-word with -- PC school officials would fall all over themselves to allow a same sex couple to attend.

Dylan's dad reports the family will be out of town over the next two weekends as a preemptive strike in case there's a "racial incident" at either of the school sponsored events.  Not being in the area with your entire family as witnesses makes for a pretty good alibi.

Since Dylan has not set foot on school property since the Facebook "threat" incident closed the school on  January 27th,  that has been the case for the vast majority of the racial incidents involving anonymous notes and/or graffiti left in ARHS rest rooms targeting teacher of color Carolyn Gardner. 

Yes Dylan was around for the first incident that happened in October, but since school officials purposely did not report it to Amherst police and worked diligently to cover it up, the other incidents that followed (after Dylan was long gone) were probably not the work of a copy cat.  

ARHS senior Camila Carpio was given a "social justice" award at the Sojourner Truth Memorial Celebration on Sunday.  She's the outspoken young lady who outed Dylan with a very misleading public Internet petition to ban Dylan from the senior prom and graduation.  

A petition that does not seem to be doing well, with a goal of only 100 signatures: the vast majority of the current "65 supporters" are NOT from Amherst and are not ARHS students.

When I asked the schools for a recent memo sent to them by Paula Akalis they redacted Dylan's name (and school personnel) "per confidentiality regulations."  Since Dyan was never charged with a crime and never appeared before a judge, newspapers would not be allowed to use his name either.  

Yes Ms. Carpio is a private citizen (who seems to covet the public limelight) so she is less bound by regulations than the Schools or a newspaper ... but that still does not make it okay.   

So where's the "social justice" in that?

So Future Generations Remember

Reverend John Balcom, a WW2 vet, at the podium enthralling a young listener 

While the Amherst Memorial Day parade portion of the remembrance is a brief affair, taking only 10 minutes to clear town center, the ceremony at the War Memorial Field is a lot longer and far more somber.



But the solemn event was still punctuated by unscripted reminders of what our freedom represents:  the rights of children to grow up in a land that respects individuality, allowing you -- nay, even encouraging you -- to stand out from the crowd.

 A young spectator checks the volume levels on a speaker for the Town Manager

A photogenic young lad strikes a prayerful pose

Amherst town leaders do what leaders do:  lead the parade thru Amherst Town center

Girl Scouts and a dog

 

Rounding a corner at War Memorial Field

Good sized crowd in attendance

VFW and Legion Color Guard, APD salute

Representative Ellen Story reminds the crowd that 750,000 Americans perished in the Civil War

 

Amherst Regional High School Chorale 

AFD Chaplain Bruce Arbour gives keynote address

Parade Within A Parade

 

Veterans: Why we remember at Memorial Day

The Hadley Memorial Day Parade has always been a tad more celebratory than somber -- more so this year with the additional commemoration of Hopkins Academy milestone anniversary.   And there's nothing wrong with that, as long as parents remind their children at some point what the day represents.

 With all the police units in the line of march, security is never an issue

This year's parade was the largest in years, running almost 40 minutes,  and the crowd of spectators that lined Rt 9 was also the largest in years and did not seem overly put off when a raincloud directly over Hadley town center opened up about half way through the festivities.

Hopkins Academy Marching Band

An entire division of floats, vehicles and marchers was added to commemorate Hopkins Academy 350th anniversary. Where academics has always co-existed with farming (and sports), with bountiful results on all fronts.

Mapleline Farms

Devine Farm

Wet Line Dancers

Jada on candy patrol

Ernie's Towing: Now that the students are gone, more time for parades