Sign, Sign, Everywhere A Sign

Da da da da double vision

No you're not seeing double when ambling thru the heart of downtown.

That really is a double banner hanging over South Pleasant street, and yes it is even rarer than a double rainbow.  The DPW accidentally double booked the popular marketing service (for non-profits only), so this was the Yankee farmer solution.  

And hey, since the town charges $80/week per banner, it's a quick way to double revenues.  At least Miss Emily gets top billing.

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Young'uns on Heatherstone Road have taken matters into their own artistic hands to decry dangerous speeders.  

Apparently APD got the message, as I heard a traffic enforcement operation last weekend over the scanner that slowed down or stopped cars the guaranteed way, via blue lights flashing.

My personal favorite:

 

 At least they said "Thanks"

Who Ya Gonna Call?

AFD Central Station, town center

The staffing problem at Amherst Fire Department -- or more precisely the lack of staffing -- has been well known for a v-e-r-y long time now.

Actually the problem is much bigger than that, including as well police, who often work shoulder to shoulder with firefighter/EMTs at the scene of an emergency.

The Town Manager acknowledges that (sort of) in his FY15 budget submitted to the Select Board last January:

But in his more recent memo (July 7) to the Select Board on "Long Term Staffing Plan Recommendations," there's not even a spark of hope for hiring more firefighters or increasing the minimum on-duty staffing.

One police officer is mentioned as a possible addition -- but only if the proposed regionalization of Emergency Dispatch saves $62,908 to fund that position.  An unlikely scenario. 

   

In 1992 AFD had a minimum of 7 on-duty personnel.  Today, after a doubling of call volume, the department has that same 7 on-duty minimum.

Yes, UMass/Amherst has kicked in an extra $80,000 to fund 4 extra firefighters (2 ambulances) Thursday night thru Sunday morning during the academic year, but even then, with weekend partying, they are still overwhelmed.

A 2003 study done by the town recommended a minimum staffing of ten.  Previously, the Fire Protection Needs Committee issued a report in 1966 recommending minimum staffing of fifteen. 

Back in 2005 the department received a $500,000 SAFER (Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Act) grant to hire five firefighter/EMTs.  The federal grant program went into effect after 9/11 in an effort to bolster fire departments nationwide to at least minimum standards of protection.

The program has grown from $65 million awarded in 2005 to  $340 million awarded last Fiscal Year. AFD was one of only two departments in Massachusetts to win the grant back in the program's inaugural year, when far less funding was available. 

It's time to think about another SAFER grant application.

The terms have even changed to potentially being less costly to cities and towns, with the main difference being a municipality can lay off the employees at the end of the three years.  Previously a full year (in year 5) of locally funded employment was part of the contract.

Sure it may seem unfair to hire folks for only the duration of a grant, in this case three years.  But as long as you are up front about that during the hiring process, prospective first responders can decide for themselves if it's worth the risk.

The Amherst  Police Department, for instance, just had to lay off a "crime analyst" after two years of state grant funding.  But the department is better for having had her.

Considering interns often work for just for resume enhancement, at least these first responders would be fully paid while gaining valuable experience with one of the best departments (and certainly busiest per capita) in the state. 

In building his FY14 budget the Town Manager relied upon ambulance revenues of $2,195,723.   But because our department is so exceedingly busy (ambulance runs account for about 70% of all FD responses) actual revenues last fiscal year were a whopping $2,533,728 -- an additional, unexpected $338,000.

Or enough to fully fund five new firefighters, grant or no grant.

Tell Me What I Don't Know

 Left 3: Consultants for Town Gown Steering Committee ($60,000 worth)

Consultants hired by the Town Gown Steering Committee made their second public presentation this evening to a less than packed audience.  In fact only a couple dozen concerned citizens showed up, barely outnumbering the 18 committee members and 3 consultants sitting in front of the Town Room.

 Town Gown Committee (right table)

The presentation was pretty much a detail oriented rehash of what we already know:  UMass Amherst is the economic driving force in town, with half our population consisting of students, faculty, and staff.

But housing has not kept pace with demand fueled by our #1 employer, causing high prices ($1078 median rent vs $872 in nearby communities) and an exodus (34% decrease) of post college worker bees aged 25-44.

The flip side to that equation is the problem:  The 22% increase in "college aged" youth swarming the town since 2000.  And in our antiquated system of government where NIMBYs rule, large scale housing projects have little to no chance of ever breaking ground.

 Amherst housing units have grown only 3% over 14 years

Some recent positive news, however

Much of Amherst is built out, leaving little land left for commercial and residential development.  But UMass is also the #2 landowner in town, and the consultants did identify tracts of their land suitable for mixed use development (student housing and retail).

Parking lots off Mass Ave

The undeveloped but "shovel ready" former Frat Row, once proposed as the Gateway Corridor project:

The parking lots off University Drive adjacent to Southwest Towers could also be developed.

Ideally any of these projects would be the result of a public/private partnership whereby the development would be taxable.  A sound visionary project, approved by the Chancellor, would stand a good chance of getting the necessary legislative approval. 

The consultants also pointed out the importance of cooperation between the two superpowers and a need for continuous oversight.

They suggested the Town Gown Steering Committee become a permanent entity and -- calling it "extremely important" -- advocated the town hire an "Economic Development Director," a pet project of Town Manager Musante for the past few years.

The consultants will submit their final report later in the Fall.

 

 Co-Chairs Dave Ziomek and Nancy Buffone (right)

Come Together, Right Now

 

Maria Geryk, Calvin Terrell, Aaron Hayden, John Musante, Connie Kruger

Amherst Regional School Superintendent Maria Geryk hosted a meet and greet in her office this afternoon between Amherst town officials and chief warrior in the war on racism, Calvin Terrell.An outgrowth of a joint partnership between the schools and town dubbed "Amherst Together".

Amherst College has agreed to underwrite (at a cost of $38,000) ten visits to Amherst over the next year by Mr Terrell to work with elementary, Middle School, High School and Amherst College students.

Adults too must be involved, like all those in the room this afternoon, which included Town Manager John Musante, Assistant Town Manager Dave Ziomek, Select Board Chair Aaron Hayden and rookie SB member Connie Kruger.

Only two of five Select Board members attended (the other three were on vacation) but since this was a public meeting with no actionable motions on the agenda, not having a quorum was inconsequential.

The group discussed race, equity and power for just over an hour with the stated goal of constructing a path towards what in Amherst has been an illusive search for the Holy Grail since the the 1970s:  Racial harmony.

According to Terrell, "Youth are the tip of the spear."  

 

Media & Climate Communications specialist Carol Ross (left)  Maria Geryk, Calvin Terrell

Acknowledging the difficult, unending work that lay ahead, Terrell told the group, "You're always going to have naysayers.  But they should serve to keep you focused, to make you strive even harder."

Parking Payout

Machines for multi-space parking downtown Amherst

If you hate the downtown multi-space parking meter machines, you are probably out of luck hoping the town adopts more user friendly devices, unless of course a tornado takes all 12 of them out.  

The three year old machines had a plethora of glitches when first installed, but some of the problems have been addressed.  And like most heavy duty commercial machines, they have a 15 year projected lifespan, so they are currently only 20% of the way dead.

New shelters with large print directions and extra lighting seemed to have helped, but the machines' programming is still not as user friendly as an apple iPad.  And these days pretty much any machine programming is measured against that ubiquitous fruit.

Credit card processing is indeed a major convenience of the machines but it comes at great cost, since all the transactions are small in nature.  Amherst Treasurer/Collector Claire McGinnis confirms that "the processing fees cost us 26%-28% of the revenue per card each month."

On top of that the company we purchased the machines from, Duncan Solutions, charges $630/machine annually or $7,560 total, another loss of 7.5% of total revenues.  

Thus in FY14 (just ended June 30th) the multi-space machines in town center generated a total of $100,630 in credit card payments (up from FY13's $86,069) but when you factor in the total processing fees, we kept only about $65,000 of that. 

Ouch!

Coins, on the other hand, still seem to be in general use as the multi-space machines generated $168,120 in FY14, or 60% of the machines total revenues.

But, the town kept all of it.  

Amherst's Donald Trump?

Cinda Jones, W.D. Cowls, Inc President testifies before Historical Commission 7/22

Leaving aside for the moment the dramatic difference in age, gender and, well, overall looks (especially hair), will The Retreat -- after it finally happens -- make Cinda Jones the "Donald Trump of Amherst?"

Umm, no.

Cinda Jones is the President of W.D. Cowls, Inc, admittedly the largest private landowner the entire state of Massachusetts -- but most of it is undeveloped woodlands.    The Cowls family kind of put the C in Conservation.

Her company has a purchase and sale agreement with Landmark Properties for $6.5 million to acquire 140+ acres in northeast Amherst, a small piece of their overall holdings.

Yes, if Landmark is successfully stopped by a swarm of angry NIMBYs chances are all but guaranteed the $6.5 million deal goes away.

But if The Retreat is built, it will have nothing to do with Cinda Jones.  Landmark, or one of their subsidiaries, will do the actual development (using local goods and labor when possible).

Yes, she -- or I should say her company -- is indeed a, gasp, developer:  The Mill District is an ambitious project that happens to include land the Cowls company already owns and wishes to recycle.

Ironically some of the same folks who packed the Town Room Wednesday night for the Planning Board hearing on The Retreat were also instrumental in the Historical Commission ordering a one year demolition delay on the Cowls barn at 134 Montague Road, at the gateway to the proposed "Mill District."

Resolving the "historic" barn issue is going to be an expensive proposition, and without that $6.5 million from The Retreat property, harder still. 

Nancy Gittleman at Planning Board hearing 7/30

Interestingly Ms. Gittleman posts her property on the UMass Off Campus Housing and Community web page but told the Planning Board, "I don't rent to anybody under 30."

North Amherst rental property (don't apply if under age 30)

MCAD Complaint Filed Against ARPS

ARHS: at peace on a summer day

So yes the NY Times probably would not use that headline without "on the record" corroboration from at least two reliable sources.

My two reliable sources divulged the information "off the record".  And if that was all I had, you would not now be reading this.

But ARPS did react to my public documents request in such a way as to confirm (sort of) that a "complaint" has been filed. 

Now if the Schools had a clever PR flack they would have responded, "We can neither confirm nor deny the existence of such a document, but feel free to take it up with Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination directly.  Good luck with that!" 

Naturally MCAD public documents folks are right up there with the Registry of Motor Vehicles when it comes to responsive service.  As of today I have not heard back from my 7/15 written request or numerous phone messages. 

Yes, Massachusetts Public Documents Law does require some sort of official response within 10 days, not that the Attorney General is going to want to mess with MCAD.

I have confirmed that the suit is not from the Akalis family seeking retribution over the terrible treatment of their son Dylan or the absurd firing of his dad, Steve.

Could be the family of the white youth who was "aggressively and seriously assaulted" by black students sometime last spring, but since they did not want APD to know about or investigate the assault, not overly likely.

Let the speculation begin ...

 

The Amherst Pelham Regional School Committee went into Executive Session at their circus-like  6/24 meeting to discuss strategy to deal with MCAD complaint