Call In The Lawyers

One East Pleasant Street (as proposed)

To no great surprise an abutter (and competitor) to the recently approved One East Pleasant Street, a 5-story mixed use project that will revitalize the north end of downtown, has filed an appeal within the 20 day deadline to overturn two Special Permits as well as the entire "site plan approval."

 Joel Greenbaum, who is also a major Amherst landlord, filed the appeal in Hampshire Superior Court naming Archipelago Investments LLC (the developer), eight members of the Amherst Planning Board, and the town of Amherst as Defendants.

The suit alleges the mostly residential project violates town zoning bylaw because it is a "large scale student housing project". Of course the developers would disagree, citing the demographic of their initial downtown 5-story mixed-use project, Boltwood Place, that attracts tenants other than just students.

Furthermore the suit alleges the project fails to comply with Amherst's zoning bylaw mandating affordable housing units in any housing project that requires a Special Permit.

The town attorney has already found that since the project is allowed "by right" and the two Special Permits are relatively minor tweaks, the affordable housing clause does not apply.

Statement from the developers:

 Click to enlarge/read

The appeal stands little chance of winning on its merits and killing the project, but will most certainly slow down the bulldozers. The tired old strategy of "death by delay".

   Appeal One East Pleasant Street

Cherry Hill: 1/2 Way To Hell (- handbasket)

In spite of being dead wrong about predicted golf revenues for his entire tenure as Town Manager, John Musante optimistically insists on predicting a higher number ($268,000), that's always presented to Town Meeting in the spring and is always proved wrong come the following July 1st end of the Fiscal Year.

 Town Manager's 2015 budget report "letter of transmittal"

 All you need is a calculator to see it did NOT cover all its costs from user fees

The beastly White Elephant of a municipal "business" continues on its losing ways with end of season revenues being well below break even levels.

And -- even worse -- expenditures at disproportionately higher than average levels as well.

Current revenues stand at $102,347 vs expenditures of $143,684.  Former long time manager of the course Dan Engstrom (who mysteriously disappeared on St Patrick's Day 2007) always used to tell town officials you could simply double revenues at season close in order to project full fiscal year (which ends June 30th) totals.

Town Manager's 2014 Budget report "letter of transmittal"

Although the real formula is closer to doubling the numbers and then increase that total by another 20%.

Either way, the ailing business will not intake $268,000 by July 1st.  This, on top of "actual" losses exceeding $100,000 last year (although, as usual, predicted to "cover its operating and employee benefits entirely from user fees").

 Town Manager's 2013 Budget report "letter of transmittal"

 Cherry Hill itsy bitsy clubhouse (note lack of solar panels)

In a July 7th memo to his bosses the venerable 5-member Amherst Select Board, Town Manager Musante did, finally, admit "This ongoing evaluation will likely include revisiting the cost-benefit of privatizing operations of the Cherry Hill Golf Course."

 Town Managers 2012 Budget report "letter of transmittal"

Let's hope that commons sense proposal is included in his FY2016 budget rather than the standard wrong headed projection about the beleaguered business covering its costs "entirely from user fees."

Without A Trace

Kendrick Park 12/26/14

Kendrick Park this morning

One of the sacred principles taught by scouting is to "leave no trace behind." Which certainly was in evidence (or lack thereof) this morning at Kendrick Park in the north end of downtown Amherst.

Yes, after a month on the municipal park selling Christmas trees (or if you prefer, "holiday trees"), a market that has zero demand from 12/25 through the following Thanksgiving, you cannot even tell they were there.

Kendrick Park is a major underutilized gem in the town's recreation and parks portfolio. Let's hope when Kendrick Place apartments opens next fall, Kendrick Park will get the attention it deserves.

 Kendrick Place

 Kendrick Park 2009 final report to Town Manager (yet another report collecting dust)

Going Green?

Puffer's Pond Conservation area, North Amherst

Pretty sure this is not what the town has in mind when touting the benefits of going green -- buzzwords we hear all too often these days. But at least the paint will wash off.

Sand Hill/State Street intersection about 75' from Puffer's sign

Thus it may not rank up there with Greenpeace leaving self-promoting graffiti at the Nazca archaeological site in Peru recently, but it certainly shows the same level of "look at me" obnoxiousness. 

Hadley Carbon Monoxide Incident

Hadley FD trucks and Amherst FD ambulances on scene Maple Farms Foods

A very large number of first responders are at the scene of a carbon monoxide incident at Maple Farms Foods on South Maple Street in Hadley.

One victim has already been transported to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, the nearest hospital with a critical care unit and at least one other has been transported to Cooley Dickinson in Northampton.

 Hadley PD and FD on scene staging behind the building

Apparently the problem was caused by use of a forklift inside the building and the person who was operating it was the one transported to Baystate Medical Center.

About a half-dozen shoppers were also being evaluated by AFD after exhibiting symptoms of possible carbon monoxide poisoning. 

Honeypotted For A Good Cause

North Korea looms in the distance

Watching "The Interview" as a means of supporting the First Amendment is a lot easier than attending a counter rally to, say, the whacked out Westboro Baptist Church, or defending the free speech rights of a convicted felon to speak about his expensive sedition trial.

But still, not exactly Academy Award material.  

Of course the delicious karma of using the Internet as a main means of distributing the comedy only ads to the payback.

After all, the first shots fired in this free speech battle occurred in cyberspace with the anonymous hacking of Sony International Entertainment which provided material to bully and threaten them over releasing the movie.

And by extension threatening the rights of all Americans to choose what to see and when to see it.

If this entire back story saga were to someday become a Hollywood movie the target work being threatened would probably not be a comedy, and would no doubt take on a high brow issue like racism, sexism or some other noble cause.

The ending of the movie tries to have it both ways.  The fluffy entertainment "journalist" exposes Kim Jong-un as a tyrant with daddy issues who can't feed his people, and then lies about it via propaganda.

Rather than letting this "truth to power" live exposé bring him down, they still feel the need to take him out via a tank round.  Killing the revered leader of a sovereign nation -- even if the reverence is built on deception and fear -- is not overly funny material. 

Neither will be their response.

Touring the DMZ

Another Good Sign

You have to wonder if the young man who wrote this -- naturally as a Cowardly Anon Nitwit -- gets up in the morning and curses the mirror when it reflects a big fat zit on his scrawny face.

Thus I have another reason to believe that indeed, the Tide is Turning:

When the hard core minority of party hardy idiots who give all students a bad name lash out in such a juvenile manner, you know the heat is getting to them.

A closer look at the tickets handed out by APD for bad behavior demonstrates there is a hard core minority who just don't seem to get it.

Noise tickets were down dramatically this semester from 91 to only 17, but the "Nuisance House" tickets -- a higher level of mayhem -- were not down all that much, going from 33 last fall to 25 this fall.

It will be interesting to see the UMass report on off campus student discipline for violation of the student code of conduct covering this fall, which of course will reflect the same dramatic drop in number of sanctions imposed (since they are based on APD arrest/ticket reports).

And the severity of the sanctions handed out will probably be pretty mild.  

What UMass really needs to do is seek out the hard core party types (reflected in Nuisance House tickets, Resisting Arrest, and Assault and Battery on a police officer charges) and be rid of them once and for all.