No School For You!

 Crowd of students gather ARHS front entry  12:10 PM

Adult bystanders in front of school

Encouraged by a handful of adult bystanders and more than a few members of the media, hundreds and hundreds of Amherst Regional High School students walked out of school just after noon today to protest the #Ferguson non-indictment of a police officer who used deadly force in self defense.

After 4.5 minutes of silence the crowd, lead by a student with a bullhorn, headed toward town center chanting as they went.

 APD briefly blocks town center to enable crowd to cross

The crowd snaked its way down Lessey Street and up Main Street to town center where the Amherst Police Department swooped in to block traffic for the few minutes it took to amble across the main intersection enroute to the Jones Library.

Originally a dozen students signed a statement advertising the walkout, but that was amplified prominently in this morning's Daily Hampshire Gazette, encouraging a huge response.

And, of course, the weather was hospitable. 

Event promoted on Facebook, but not all that many confirmed "going"

Not to be left out even the Middle School got involved

Click to enlarge/read

1 Is NOT The Loneliest Number

1 East Pleasant Street, a new downtown anchor on the north end of town center

5th time was the charm for the proposed mixed use five-story building with 84 residential units located on the north end of downtown, as the Planning Board last night, finally, gave Site Plan Approval with waivers for 1 East Pleasant, Archipelago Investments 4th commercial Amherst development in just the past few years.

 Kyle Wilson, Dave Williams (behind)

Determined opposition had switched tactics for this final meeting suggesting the Planning Board hold off giving final approval of the project until September of 2015. That way, they reasoned, nearby Kendrick Place with 36 rental units would be open and clientele demographics could be ascertained.

 Kendrick Place under construction next door

Only in Amherst do NIMBYs micromanage private developments right down to the target customers.

The vote to approve was 6-0 with 2 abstentions.  Since two members were not present at the original hearing that started w-a-y back on October 1st, they could not legally vote on the project.

 Building abuts sacred West Cemetery

The approval comes with a boatload of conditions but the developers thus far have been overly attentive to details so it's unlikely they will not keep up their side of the agreement.  The developers are also pursuing LEED-Gold certification, which also comes with a great number conditions.

 A couple dozen residents showed up for "public comment" period

The Planning Board showed extra concern for how the new building would be managed.  Archipelago responded that they are "developers not property managers," and they were in the final process now of picking a management company that would handle all four of their Amherst developments.

1 East Pleasant will have an on-site manager living in one of the units and a front desk will be operational during peak hours.   The lease will not allow rental by the room, only by the unit, and anyone not on the lease will be subject to sanctions.  

The specter of rowdy student behavior clung to this project like a wet blanket.  Fortunately with the town and UMass joining forces to reign in such bad behavior that concern is getting less and less valid.  Although hard to convince neighbors of that.

Wilson and Williams in the not-overly-hot seat before Planning Board last night

Kyle Wilson repeated stressed this building would be well-managed ... something to make the town proud.  The Planning Board unanimously agreed.

Remember

On 9/11, we remember the 343

Today, or more precisely tonight, marks the 15th anniversary of the Worcester Cold Storage Warehouse fire in a hulking windowless beast of a building perfectly described by District Chief McNamee as "the building from Hell."

Six firefighters perished, just doing their job.  They were searching for a homeless couple who, it turns out, started the deadly inferno. 

RIP:

Lt. Thomas E. Spencer
Lt. Timothy P. Jackson Sr.,
Lt. James F. Lyons III
Firefighter Jeremiah M. Lucey,
Firefighter Paul A. Brotherton
Firefighter Joseph T. McGuirk

See The Light

Vince O'Connor

So if grandma gets run over by a reindeer and it happens in a downtown crosswalk this holiday season, after dark, Vince O'Connor thinks the town will be liable.



Yes this is the same Grinch who brought before Amherst town meeting a "Dark Sky Initiative" back in 2007 that would have fined downtown businesses for keeping their lights on after 11:00 PM.

Town Meeting quickly said "Bah, humbug!" to that.

CVS crosswalk (on a dark and story night)

Hastings crosswalk

Post office crosswalk

Kendrick Park crosswalk

Alcohol Induced Disruption

1 of 5 cars deliberately damaged by Jason Fortin, age 41

Anytime someone asks me to remove a post or to stand down from publishing one relating to an alcohol related crime, I think about Danny -- especially now with the holidays fast approaching.

Alcohol is not the answer.  It never is.

Over the weekend public safety personnel dealt with a couple disruptive incidents -- and no, neither of them perpetrated by "college aged youth."

The only two arrests by APD to be arraigned in Eastern Hampshire District Court on Monday were both a by-product of actions taken while under the influence of alcohol, a potentially deadly OUI and a rampage on foot in town center.

 Jason Fortin appears before Judge John Payne from the "lock up"

Click to enlarge/read

Judge Payne released Mr. Fortin on his own recognizance and scheduled a pre-trial hearing for January 30. Since the Assistant District Attorney pointed out to the Judge that he "appears to have a serious alcohol problem," the Judge did require Fortin attend two Alcoholics Anonymous meeting per week.

In other more dangerous alcohol related matters Judge Payne accepted the standard 24D disposition (only available to 1st time offenders) from Kristin Hill, arrested by a Massachusetts State Trooper on November 1st.  She will lose her license for 45 days, pay $600 in fines and her DUI case is "Continued Without A Finding for one year," when it will then be dismissed providing she stays out of trouble.

More recently arrested, Kathleen Brennan, age 50, also took a standard 24D for her Saturday night ride that went wrong.

 Kathleen Brennan stands before Judge John Payne

Tech Titans

Wi-Fi emitters dangle from a streetlight in Amherst town center

The town of Amherst scored another award for being on the cutting edge of all things Internet, this time for "Improving Government Services," via the town website.  The award was presented to outgoing IT Director Kris Pacunas and his assistant director Sean Hannon on behalf of the entire department at the 20th annual Digital Government Annual Summit held at the Boston Park Plaza today.

#madgs14 Very proud to accept Improving Government Services award with Sean Hannon on behalf of #amherst first class IT team! #massit
— Kristopher Pacunas (@krispacunas) December 1, 2014

"Strong nomination" from the Big Boss

Have Drone Will Travel

Drones can quickly ascertain storm damage

The long awaited FAA rules to keep the skies safe from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles takes a scorched earth approach by requiring operators to have a pilots license, which costs many thousands of dollars, and even then restricting flights to more than 400 vertical feet during daylight hours only.

Talk about a deal killer.

Let's hope the outcry, which will mimic the sound of angry bees made by the whirring propeller blades, gets the attention of killjoy bureaucrats.

Mandating a pilots license for flying a drone is like requiring a ham radio license for operation of a smart phone, or requiring Twitter users to have a broadcast license from the FCC.

Back in the mid 1970s when CB radio interest skyrocketed and the 23 channels became swamped by avid users the FCC allowed expansion to 40 channels to deal with the rise in popularity.  And yes, a license was required but all it took was filling out a form and sending in a check for $20.

Sure, like all things in life a nitwit few can give the huge majority of responsible aficionados a bad name by doing stupid irresponsible things.  Just as a hammer can be used as a weapon, so too can a drone flying at top speed into someone's head.  Or getting too close to a commercial jet.

The recent technological improvements using GPS satellites navigation, return home failsafe features, and airport avoidance software demonstrates the industry is capable of policing itself.  DJI the industry leader, is doing for drones what AOL did for Internet usage 20 years ago -- making things simpler and less scary.

Over the past year I can think of many occasions where Amherst public safety departments could have used an eye in the sky:  The Blarney Blowout or Southpoint Apartments fire quickly spring to mind.  Or search and rescue at the top The Notch. 

A drone is fast, fearless, immune to smoke ... and the camera never blinks.  

Rather than throw a bucket of water on solid state circuitry, the FAA needs to apply simple, common sense rules to control drone usage over the land of the free. 

  

Canada keeps it simple