Last Chance For Foodies

Taste of Amherst Saturday 6:00 PM

Today (noon until 4:00 PM) closes out perhaps the best four-day run ever for the Taste of Amherst -- at least as measured by oftentimes finicky New England weather.

And with outdoor events like the Taste, weather alone is a make or break proposition.

In addition to the free trolley maybe the Chamber of Commerce hired a witch doctor to do a marathon sun dance. 

Farmers Market also packed them in on Saturday

Organizers were not overly pleased with the location chosen by a food cart early Saturday afternoon directly across the street.

But when APD tried to move them, turns out their town issued ($100) permit did not contain a "do not compete" with the Taste clause. 

Food Carts have never been overly popular with bricks and mortar restaurants in town

Coulda' Been a College

 

Cowls Tree Farm northeast Amherst

W-A-Y before signing a $6.5 million purchase and sale agreement with Landmark Properties for 147 acres of woodland now destined to become The Retreat, a high-end student housing development, the W.D. Cowls company offered to donate the land for a proposed new unnamed college that seven years later materialized in South Amherst as Hampshire College.

Yes even back in 1958 the property was ripe for development.  Today Hampshire College hosts 1,400 students -- or twice the number of the proposed Retreat, with 641 total tenants.

When You Build It

Excavation work for Kendrick Place @ 57 E Pleasant Street has commenced

It may not look like much at the moment but after Kendrick Place is completed it will be an unmistakable anchor for the north end of downtown Amherst.

The LEED certified mixed-use building will tower five stories (in Amherst, that's a tower) and contain 36 units of high-end apartments over four floors with the ground floor set aside for retail.
  

Archipelago Investments, LLC has already built a similar successful project dead in the center of town, Boltwood Place.

Last month Amherst Town Meeting voted down a simple easement request for the abutting intersection at Triangle and East Pleasant Street, which is required if the town chooses to install a state financed roundabout at that busy intersection.

The NO vote was a thinly disguised NIMBY payback for the Planning Board allowing Kendrick Place and Boltwood Place to be approved without requiring on site parking for tenants, and allowing the projects to go forward with no "affordable" units in the mix.

The town is currently teetering on the brink of falling below state mandated 10% threshold of Subsidized Housing Inventory thus opening up the possibility of a Ch40B mega-development coming to town. 

Mythbusters like roundabouts

A survey contractor measuring the intersection earlier this month

Can You Hear Me Now?

Jones Library this morning

After an outage of four hours and forty three minutes due to server issues the extensive downtown public wifi system is back up and running. 

This total outage was only the second time in six years the system went down, with the first time being the notorious 2011 Halloween snowstorm that knocked out power to the entire town.

Fortunately Amherst Town Hall now has a generator.   So if another major power outage should occur, the Internet around Town Hall, Police headquarters and Central Fire Station will stay up. 

No Rest For The Weary

Bangs Community Center this afternoon

So unlike the stones left atop Miss Emily's gravestone in historic West Cemetery the recent jagged rock stone installation atop a stone wall at the Bangs Community Center is not a sign of love and respect.

More like a "Keep out" sign.

Yes loitering teen-agers with time on their hands or the homeless can be a bit of a pain -- especially since the Bangs Center houses our Senior Center.

But seriously, what's next: electrified barbed wire?

When I contacted Ron Bohonowitcz, Director of Facilities for both town and schools, to inquire about the recent installation it was the first he had heard about it.  A few minutes later he emailed me back to say it would be gone soon.

Sure enough  6:00 PM Bangs Community Center

Trinkets adorn the top of Miss Emily's gravestone

The Atlantic Reports

Here Comes The Taste (du du du du)

Taste of Amherst setting up Thursday morning

Probably the only event on the Amherst town common that generates more traffic than the Extravaganja pot festival, the Taste of Amherst is a fun, family oriented festival that brings many thousands of visitors to our fair town over the next four days.

Organized by the Amherst Chamber of Commerce and Business Improvement District with iconic century old Atkins Farms Country Market as main sponsor, the taste becomes a showcase for the 21 participating restaurants who hope a taste here and there leads to a longtime customer over the rest of the year.

The food extravaganza opens tonight at 5:00 PM until 9:00 PM, Friday 5:00 PM until 10:00 PM, Saturday noon until 10:00 PM and Sunday noon until 4:00 PM.

 6:00 PM

 

Business Improvement District free trolley doing its thing

Blarney Still Blowing

March 8, 2:15 PM Fearing/North Pleasant Street intersection

As the world -- or at least our little part of it -- anxiously awaits the release of the $160,000 Davis Report to ascertain what went wrong with the Blarney Blowout (besides everything), the throng of college aged youth arrested that despicable day are still appearing in Eastern Hampshire District Court, one on Monday and another on Tuesday.

 Jared Dawson, left, expensive attorney, right

On Monday Jared Dawson, age 21, had a brief pre-trial hearing with both his dad and a fairly expensive looking lawyer present.  Probably because of the severity of his charges: disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, assault and battery on a police officer, inciting a riot.

His case will go to trial and it's been scheduled for July 30.

Page 2 continues:  tucked his arms into his chest so he could not be handcuffed.

On Tuesday Judge Payne disposed of another Blarney Blowout case, that of Samuel Douglas, age 21, in what seems to be usual plea deal:  $200 restitution to the town of Amherst, 20 hours community service, $200 probation fee and a letter of apology to APD.

 Samuel Douglass, age 21

A pretty good deal considering he was charged with failure to disperse, inciting a riot, and disorderly conduct.  But not assault and battery on an officer, which seems to make a major difference -- as well it should.