Walk out? What Walk Out?

Thursday 12:20 PM Amherst Regional High School

Apparently Amherst School Superintendent Maria Geryk is too young to have learned the valuable lesson from that iconic Paul Newman movie concerning a, "failure to communicate."  

Her email blast update on Friday, the day after the BIG walkout, talks about all sorts of somewhat mundane -- but certainly interesting to parents -- in house school matters, but carefully avoids mentioning the walkout, err,  I mean, "Walk-out Dialogue". 

Hmm ... So an event occurs during the school day that impacts upwards of half the High School and according to Middle School principal Marisa Mendonsa 90% of those younger students participating via a "sit in" (APD also responded to to a 911 call from the MS and stayed on site until school ended) and it's gets no mention?

Certainly one dot in her email that could have been connected to the walkout was the HR report about "Staff of Color" and progress towards getting it to be "reflective of the community".   

The Regional School District definitely has a long way to go, with staff of color now standing at 18% while student enrollment of color is 43.5%.

But still, the Amherst Regional School District is in the top ten percent statewide for highest proportion of employees of color in a public school system. 

It would be interesting to see the percentage of employees of color in highly-paid administrative positions (both in the schools and the town).

The Amherst School Committee has a 20% minority make up.  And Amherst Town Meeting is probably in the 1% or 2% range.

Now that's worthy of a walkout.

Amherst Town Meeting last May

Just So You Know

 Tow truck used same route through Amherst College to get to wrecked truck

Three weeks after a vegetable truck downsized the hard way while trying to negotiate under the railroad bridge on South East Street, the town has put up a couple of signs warning about the stingy clearance.

Sign on rt faces the dirt road that comes down Fort Hill

Apparently the new Book & Plow farm on Amherst College property has increased traffic from the dirt road that connects from their the tennis courts to South East Street coming out very near the bridge.



The other equally low bike path bridge up by Mill Lane, a half mile away, is clearly marked on both sides so the theory used to be you would never make it under that bridge to get to this one.

Not any more.

DUI Dishonor Roll

APD attempting to perform FSTs on Deborah Mercier, age 21, Wednesday 7:35 PM

If you were out and about early Wednesday night Christmas shopping, attending an Amherst Planning Board meeting, or heading to your local health club, consider yourself lucky you did not run into Deborah Mercier, age 21.   Or more precisely, she did not run into you.

 Click to enlarge/read

An off-duty Amherst Fire Department Captain called Dispatch to report a beyond erratic driver on Snell Street, a heavily traveled cut through to busy Rt 116 and even busier Rt 9.  Amherst police handled it from there.

 Deborah Mercier, all 90 pounds of her, stands before Judge Payne

In Eastern Hampshire District Court yesterday morning Judge Payne entered a plea of "not guilty" and continued her case until December 29th, when she will appear with her private attorney.

Not a great way to start the New Year.  But at least she's alive.

Amherst Town Gown: Moving Forward

Town Gown Steering Committee co-Chairs Nancy Buffone, David Ziomek

In its final public meeting 13 months after formation the Town Gown Steering Committee discussed and then voted unanimously to support the final letter of conveyance drafted by member Stephanie O'Keeffe that will accompany the $60,000 U3 Advisers final report -- both narrative and Powerpoint overheads. 

   Amherst Town Gown Letter

The entire package will be sent to UMass Chancellor Subbaswamy and Amherst Town Manager John Musante, and committee co-chairs David Ziomek and Nancy Buffone will also meet with them in person to go over "next steps."

One additional amendment was added by member Ken Rosenthal to the bullet point about creating an "Economic Development Director".  Forming a new committee charged with economic development to work hand-in-hand with the town hired Director and potential developers.

Even though the town already has an Amherst Redevelopment Authority, Town Commercial Relations Committee, Chamber of Commerce and Business Improvement District.

  Roughly half the Town Gown Steering Committee

Not a single member out of the 18 who showed up for this final meeting spoke against the formation of University Town of Amherst Collaborative (UTAC) an outgrowth of -- but downsized from --  the Town Gown Steering Committee.

 Or the recommendation the town (unfortunately not half subsidized by the University) should hire a "Economic Development Director."

 Other half of the Town Gown Steering Committee

The meeting as usual, was not completely free of dissent:  Rolf Karlstrom reiterated he would be issuing a "minority report" outlining key points of disagreement or "lost opportunities" with the U3 final report.  So far two other members have signed on.  Co-chair David Ziomek agreed to include it in the final package.

Now the key question is will the committee report became a vital road map to the future for two super powers, or just another dead end waste of time, money, paper and bandwidth?

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