Coming & Going

Mango Mango, 61 Main Street, Amherst

While food aficionados celebrated the opening of two new restaurants in the downtown -- El Rinconsito Cuscatleco (Salvadoran) and The Taste Thai Cuisine of Amherst -- those same foodies will probably miss Mango Mango located only a mango throw away.

The eclectic cozy lunch and dinner operation opened in the former location of Fresh Side five years ago and closed rather suddenly yesterday.  The lack of a liquor license probably didn't help. 

Restaurants have one of the highest failure rates of any business, with over half failing to celebrate their fifth birthday.

But chances are that location will be up and running again this fall ... as a restaurant.

A Rising Tide?

 

The Amherst Regional Public Schools must be feeling the heat over their high average per student cost ($18,026 vs state average of $13,636) as this morning they issued a  link to a blog post rationalizing their high cost of administration, which of course contributes to the high average per pupil cost.

Interesting that they blame the evil state and all those "reports to Department of Elementary and Secondary and Education" which of course "are not optional."  Okay fair enough, the state is fairly anal with statistics and reports.

But they are probably fair-and-balanced enough to require such things from ALL public schools in the state. 

So why then is ARPS 60% over state average with "administration" costs of $789 per pupil while state average from all the other schools dealing with DESE reports is only $471 per pupil?

Either ARPS has too many administrators, or the perfect number they have are paid too much. 

Saving Energy One Building At A Time

 AFD North Station, first occupied 1975

39-year-old AFD North Station will get some cosmetic energy tweaks over the next year and a half courtesy of a $165,539 state Green Community grant, two-thirds of which goes to the funky but aging fire station and the other one-third to Town Hall.

The apparatus room, which dominates the center of the building, will switch to a more efficient infrared heating system at a cost of $20,558, and added insulation for the walls at a cost of $64,973.  

The last item, a "Demand Control Ventilation " system, will be installed at a cost of $23,977.  The system automatically adjusts the heating/cooling and ventilation to fit the changing usage of the building during the day/night, although since North Station is staffed 24/7, probably not a great money saver.

Town Hall also received $56,031 for a DCV sysstem. Since Town Hall is pretty much a 9-5 work operation with limited evening hours for meetings, the system will probably pay bigger dividends than the one at the fire station.

Amherst Town Hall,  first occupied 1890

The Joint Capital Planning Committee has been putting off for the past four years recommending the $12 million for a new South Fire Station.  And staffing levels at Central and North Station now routinely require Dispatch to issue tones for off duty personnel or the hourly Call Force (Engine 4) to report in for "station coverage."

UMass recently reiterated their pledge of $80,000 to staff two extra ambulances over the weekends while schools are in session, but there are still times when all five ambulances are swamped, and mutual aid is required.
 

How Many & What Kind of Weapons?

 

Amherst Regional High School

Obviously taxpayers who fund the very expensive overhead costs ($18,026 per pupil vs state average $13,636)  of our Amherst Regional PUBLIC School District have a right to know about weapons confiscated in the High School.
  
Parents with kids in the system, even more so. 

APD en route Amherst Regional High School to pick up and dispose of "previously confiscated weapons over the years."  Yikes.
— Larry Kelley (@amherstac) July 16, 2014

Why Do They Call It OPEN Meeting?

 Regional School Committee meeting 7/14

Temporary Chair of the Amherst Regional School Committee Lawrence O'Brien is still sputtering over the successful coup d'état orchestrated by Vice Chair Trevor Baptiste.

Five duly elected members of the committee -- a quorum -- attended a meeting that was properly posted in three of the four towns and was briefly posted properly in Amherst but cancelled when the ruling establishment felt threatened.

Did the meeting violate the Open Meeting Law?  Technically, yes.

But not because of secrecy -- which is generally what the OML targets.  Since well over 50 members of the general public showed up, along with three TV news stations and reporters from two newspapers, I would deem that a pretty OPEN meeting.

The renegade meeting was called to countermand a memo criticising Amilcar Shabazz issued by three school committee chairs with absolutely no deliberation of the three public bodies they chair.  Now that sounds to me like a violation of the Open Meeting Law.

And the irony doesn't stop there.  They were critical of Dr. Shabazz for releasing information (not entirely correct) about a violent racial school incident where three black youths ganged up on a white youth doing real physical damage in the process.

As usual the super secretive PUBLIC schools handled it "internally," not breathing a word to anyone, including the Amherst Police Department or the local District Attorney, who certainly had grounds for a "hate crime" indictment.

At the 6/24 Regional School Committee meeting where O'Brien was elected temporary Chair the committee later went into Executive Session for "litigation" discussion even though the written published agenda stated it was for  "Collective Bargaining."

A clear violation of OPM.  And these days the Attorney General wants more detail published when going into Executive Session.  If for  "Collective Bargaining" then with what unions?  Or if it's "litigation"  is it a negligence suit filed over an injury or a MCAD complaint? 

This coming August the Regional School Committee will head to an undisclosed location for a weekend "retreat".  That strikes me as a violation of Open Meeting Law.

In 2010 FIVE school committee chairs (with no deliberations of their respective committees) issued an official memo to the District Attorney asking for an investigation of Amherst School Committee member Catherine Sanderson, hoping the DA would muzzle her.

The DA ignored their whiny request.

The more voices brought into the public process the better.  That's the very heart and soul of Open Meeting.

Barn Blast

Ye old (125+ years) barn, 134 Montague Road, North Amherst

Another "historic" barn owned by W.D. Cowls, the largest private landowner in Mass, is destined for the dustbin due to age, disrepair and the arrival of Atkins Farms Country Market in a refurbished building only 35 feet away.

The Amherst Historical Commission could enact a one-year demolition delay but that's the extent of their power.

Three years ago the Commission did restrain Cowls from demolishing their trolley barn on Cowls Road,  but six weeks after the expiration of the one-year delay the barn came tumbling down after an attempt to shore it up using a backhoe. 

Rotting floorboards

The shortlist of reusing the (non rotting) barn boards include:  Donation to Emily Dickinson Homestead for a project to recreate a historically accurate barn that was once on site; donation to the Porter Phelps Huntington House in Hadley for a similar historic project; or simply reuse the materials in the upcoming development of "The Mill" all along Cowls Road. 

 

The Mill as envisioned by Kuhn Riddle Architects

Equitable Vs Fair

Officials from all 4 towns:  Amherst, Leverett, Pelham, Shutesbury

The Regional Assessment Working Group -- yet another subcommittee formed by the Amherst Pelham Regional School Committee -- met yesterday for the first time to deliberate their charge:  "Analyze historical assessments, investigate assessment alternatives, and make a recommendation of an assessment method going forward."

The "working group" is facilitated by Sean Mangano who stepped into the well worn shoes of former Finance Director Robert Detweiler after he mysteriously disappeared six months ago. 

School spending accounts for the lions share of municipal budgets in all four towns.  The current 50+ year old  Region consists of the Middle and High School but the Regional School Committee also formed a committee almost three years ago to discuss and plan for regionalization at the pre-K through six grade as well.

The criteria for the working group is to come up with a finance method that is fair, predictable, affordable, easy to explain to the voters and one that avoids budget buster spikes for individual towns.  Or what one member referred to as "No nukes."

 

Obviously the equitable thing is for all four towns to pay the same cost per student.  Currently the assessment method takes that into consideration but is also based on a "five year rolling average."  And that seems to generate "a hit" to individual towns about once every five years.

Discussion centered around what is fair vs equitable, or ... how do you provide a "circuit breaker" or "cap" to help  any one overburdened town deal with what could be a budget buster?

Amherst Finance Director Sandy Pooler, obviously a numbers guy, wondered how you define "ability to pay?"  He seemed to  approve of the common sense policy of everybody paying the same cost per student, thinking it might better "resonate" with voters.

The group will meet every other week and expect to have a recommendation for the Amherst Regional School Committee sometime in September.  

Approval will require a simple majority vote by the RSC and then all four Town Meetings must endorse the new assessment method; although after that only three-out-of-four approvals will be required to pass the  Regional Budget.

 

(left to rt) Maria Geryk, Kay Moran, Alisa Brewer, Bernie Kubiak, Andy Steinberg