"An Oasis Of Peace"

Welcome to West Cemetery an "oasis of peace in the center of the municipality"

The Amherst Public Shade Tree Committee issued a written plea to One East Pleasant Street developers David Williams and Kyle Wilson, urging them to rethink current design plans that will encroach upon Amherst's most sacred ground and final resting place for our most revered citizen, Emily Dickinson. 

A bevy of trees and a 10-year-old historic mural are endangered by development plan

And just to make sure they got the message, a committee member read it publicly to them at the Planning Board meeting last Wednesday night.

 Click to enlarge/read

Of course so much heavy fire was being directed at the developers from all sides that night, they probably have forgotten about the trees due to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

 South side of One East Pleasant mixed use project abutting West Cemetery

When the Amherst Carriage Inn hotel was first built in the early 1960s the footprint was graded to be auto friendly .

 

Amherst Carriage Inn circa 1960

The new owners want to return to the original topography and plan to fill in nearly five feet around the outermost border of their property, exactly where the 15 trees have stood for over a generation.

Kyle Wilson did tell the Planning Board they plan to, "Save what we can, and plant more."

The historic mural -- which can't be saved due to demolition --will be repainted on the southern side of the new building by the original artist, David Fichter, but even that has folks grumbling since the original work had many civic minded volunteers who helped bring it to life.

 Carriage shops bordered by West Cemetery to the south

Harris Street Horticulture

Harris Street this morning:  Whole lot of planting going on

Amherst Shade Tree Committee outreach program

About a dozen trees went into the ground today during the Amherst Public Shade Tree Committee's annual Neighborhood Tree Planting event, and this year the Harris Street neighborhood in North Amherst -- where all but one of the homes are owner occupied -- was pretty enthusiastic.

Finally some good news for the street which connects on one end with -- cough, cough -- Pine Street, the busy bombed out thoroughfare that has been under construction for a very long time.

 A Ginko tree, one of many varieties planted today

Just last week the Planning Board held a "Scenic Roads Hearing" regarding two Norway Maples located a tad too close to Pine Street, immediately adjacent to the Harris Street neighborhood.

 Marisol was very happy for her "naderhood"

The Public Shade Tree Committee had recommended against removal, but they were overruled by the Planning Board in a unanimous decision. Tree Warden Alan Snow -- who also supported removal -- reports the trees were gone the very next day.

 Tree Warden Alan Snow is always happy about planting trees (even on a Sunday)

Two years ago Amherst Town Meeting approved $612,000 to purchase 2,000 trees, so these dozen or so are but a drop in the bucket.  Any Amherst resident can apply for free trees, but the planting season is just about over.

Parity At The Top?

Coach Kellogg with a future recruit for the UMass women's team

UMass/Amherst has the distinction once again of having the highest paid employee in the entire education oriented state of Massachusetts, a man who coaches a team of college aged youth on how best to put a round ball through a slightly larger circle of metal with a net attached. 

With a 109-86 win/loss record at UMass, the state's flagship of higher education, there's no question Derek Kellogg is successful at it. And obviously his employers showed some price point sensitivity as they kept it under $1 million, but not by much.

Of course local newspapers are quick to point out that Kellogg's new $994,500 salary only places him at #38 in compensation for coaches in the 2014 NCAA tournament.

Fair enough, it's a high paying field for sure.

But still, how does UMass/Amherst justify paying the women's basketball coach one-third of the men's coach?  And since Mr. Kellogg's new raise now puts Sharon Dawley's salary at one-quarter of his, are they at least going to give her a piddly $100K raise so she stays at only one-third of his salary?

Apparently gender discrimination is par for the course in Massachusetts

You also have to wonder how the five labor unions on campus are going to take this?  They are being offered table scraps in their contracts yet the University sees fit to cook up a sumptuous raise for this one rather high profile position?

Maybe I'm just spoiled by the little host "college town" of Amherst where the highest paid person in public service is a woman, School Superintendent Maria Geryk. 

Mullins Center Mellowing?

Skrillex show was promoted on PVTA buses

Unlike the Fantazia concert last month at the UMass-owned but privately-managed Mullins Center, AFD was able to handle the alcohol induced floodgates that seem to open with certain music acts, not to single out Electronic Dance Music -- but EDM sure seems to do it.

Last night "Mullins Center Command" stationed on site (personnel, but not the ambulances) for the Skrillex show handled 22 total patients, 15 treated and released but another seven requiring ambulance transport to the Cooley Dickinson Hospital vs 11 transports to CDH for Fantazia.

 Easthampton and South Hadley FD staging at AFD North Station for Mullins Center EDM show

AFD Chief Nelson requires the venue to hire two out-of-town ambulances to supplement AFD although they were still not enough to prevent AFD ambulances from joining in the convoy to CDH.

At the Fantazia concert, however, in addition to five AFD ambulances and the two out-of-town ambulances, we still had to call in Northampton FD via mutual aid for a college aged youth with a serious head injury.

 A3 at Mullins Center last night for ETOH college aged female

So yes, last night was a LOT better.  But still unacceptable. 

UMPD was busy all night as well

"Psychological & Emotional Abuse"

 A benign Calvin Terrell appears before angry parents 10/3/14 at the Middle School

The Special Education Parent Advisory Council, a state mandated organization whose charge is to give advice to the District and advocate for children with special needs, heard members brand Calvin Terrell's 10/2 presentation at Amherst Regional Middle School "psychological and emotional abuse" at their 10/15 meeting.

The advisory group members expressed dismay with Amherst Public School officials response to the fiasco saying, "This slow and anemic response is not acceptable."  Indeed!

   Amherst SEPAC on Calvin Terrell Draft Minutes

Interestingly the schools did launch an Internet survey of Middle School parents but refuse to release the actual ANONYMOUS responses, citing privacy concerns.

But their "analysis" shows a majority (54%) had problems with the presentation and only 15.5% thought his work "should continue".

WHMP radio takes up the issue

Show Me The Money!

Aaron Gornstein announces $1.6 million tax credit to a crowd of about 50

For the second time in only two days state officials have come to Amherst bearing gifts. BIG ones:

On Tuesday the Governor announced a $1.5 million MassWorks Grant to relocate utilities underground in the north end of town center, and today Housing Undersecretary Aaron Gornstein announced a $1.6 million tax credit for Beacon Communities Development, the new owner of Rolling Green Apartments.

 Select Board, Housing Sheltering Committee, Housing Authority, Rolling Green residents and town staff on hand

The money will allow the private company that specializes in affordable housing to do much needed "deferred maintenance." Last Spring Amherst Town Meeting approved $1.25 million in Community Preservation Act money to go towards the $30 million deal.

 Representative Ellen Story "This is amazing!" (keeping the units affordable)

With the preservation in perpetuity of 41 units of affordable housing at Rolling Green (but all 204 units will count towards the SHI) the town stands a better chance of staying above the 10% Subsudized Housing Inventory, which inoculates against a developer coming into town doing a Ch40B development.

 Mark Epker President Beacon Communities Investment LLC

Happy campers

Town press release

Steady As She Goes

Budget Coordinating Group this morning

The budget season for Amherst and affiliated towns now starts to gear up, even though the Governor's budget will probably be a month late since this is an "election year".

This morning the Budget Coordinating Group, made up of members of our Public Schools, Library and Select Board, met for the first time since January.

First order of business was to elect co-Chairs.  Finance Director Sandy Pooler said the usual practice was to elect the Chairs of the Finance Committee and Select Board, but since SB Chair Aaron Hayden was Missing In Action they elected rookie SB member Andy Steinberg and FinCom Chair Kay Moran.

Although Steinberg was recently chair of the Finance Committee, so perhaps a bit of an echo chamber in the making.

Sandy Pooler said he was feeling "pretty good" about the budget process on the town side:  No cuts, employee salary budgets are settled at a rate the town can afford, health insurance will be manageable, and although no additions are expected it would be nice to make some additions, "particularly police."

Library Director Sharon Sharry extolled the benefits of "inter-library loans" which allows her to keep down the "acquisition budget" to state minimum standards, although the Jones Library still circulates more material than Springfield, the third largest city in Massachusetts.

Amherst Public Schools Finance Director Sean Mangano told the advisory group he thought the 2.2% increase allocated to the public schools "should be adequate", although he expressed concerns as to whether this took into consideration the Charter/Choice reimbursements, which Pooler confirmed it did not.

The Regional Schools lose a ton of kids (75) to Charter Schools -- particularly the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School -- and every one costs the equivalent of the high average cost per child of Amherst education, just over $18,000 (vs state average of about $14,000).

Whereas the students who come to Amherst via School Choice only generate $5,000 in revenues from the sending town.

Mangano told the BCG that in the immediate future things are only going to get worse as Smith Vocational is expanding its offerings and the Chinese Charter School is also physically expanding and adding grades 10-12.