The Electronic Age

Jim Pistrang pitches his electronic voting idea to Amherst Select Board

256-year-old Amherst Town Meeting could amble into the 21st Century if a majority of the 240+ members support the recommendation of the newly announced Amherst Town Meeting Electronic Voting Committee this coming fall.

The seven member group is the brainchild of Town Meeting Moderator Jim Pistrang, and he will be joined by Town Clerk Sandra Burgess, an IT staff person, one member of the Town Meeting Coordinating Committee and three at large members (not necessarily current Town Meeting members).

According to Mr. Pistrang electronic voting will serve to facilitate three equally important crucial things: accuracy, accountability and efficiency.

The committee will research the best system to fit the needs of Amherst, determine the total cost, and come up with wording to revise current bylaws governing Town Meeting to allow for electronic voting.

And they will draft a warrant article for the 2015 Fall Special Town Meeting to purchase the gadgets, which, if approved, would then go into full use at the 2016 Spring Annual Town Meeting.

As a sales pitch the committee will also put on a demonstration for the Fall Town Meeting showing how the system works prior to their vote (taken in the old fashioned manner -- either voice vote, standing vote, or tally vote).

 Standing vote 5/7/14 Town Meeting

The Select Board unanimously supported the idea to form the committee.

Now if we could just downsize Town Meeting by w-a-y more than half, to say 60, we could save money on the new system, increase accountability even more, and actually make members compete for their seats.

Don't Do The Crime

Thomas F. Bridges stands before Judge William O'Grady (from the lock up)

If you're going to break into the same house to commit a crime for the second time in less than a week you should think twice about wearing an item of clothing stolen in the original Breaking & Entering, as the owner may recognize it ... even something not normally all that visible:  underwear.

A neighbor on Lincoln Avenue called Amherst police early Saturday night to report a suspicious party in dark clothing "pacing and back and forth" at the rear of the house next door.  The first officer on scene noted fresh tracks in the snow leading to a basement door.

When the officer spotted a dark figure through the window he drew his service revolver and asked the person to come out, but he promptly fled deeper into the house.  Another officer ran into him trying to sneak out the back door, but he again withdrew back into the house.

Amherst police called for backup from UMass PD who arrived with two patrol officers and two detectives and Hadley PD also assisted with their K9 unit.  Officers stormed the house but the perp was nowhere to be seen, having climbed into the attic damaging the ceiling in the process (thus garnering the "destruction of property" charge).

By this time the owner of the home arrived and recognized the underwear worn by the intruder, as having been stolen on the New Year's eve break in.  Police arrested Thomas Bridges, age 25.

Thomas Bridges (mugshot)

Click to enlarge/read

In Eastern Hampshire District Court this morning the Commonwealth asked Judge William O'Grady to set cash bail at a whopping $10,000 because Mr. Bridges was on parole for two different criminal cases and the Assistant DA also pointed out he had 60 items on his criminal record.

Judge O'Grady set cash bail at $5,000 and continued the case until later this month.  Thomas Bridges was transported back to the Hampshire County Jail & House of Corrections to await trial.  

APD Statement of Facts filed in Court

APD on scene Lincoln Avenue  with Hadley and UMass PD Saturday night 8:45 PM

2015 Goal(s) #1

AFD Central Station

Once again the important issues I plan to cover with gusto in the New Year, even as it becomes an old year, will come as no surprise to my regular readers.  And once again we have a tie for #1 -- both of them related to public safety:

New South Amherst Fire Station:  Short of immolating myself on the town common I plan to do everything possible to ensure the town, finally, gets off its lazy bureaucratic ass and breaks ground on the badly needed new fire station.

Yes, maybe my major structure fire in South Amherst 27 years ago unduly influences my preoccupation with fire safety.

But I'm sure that's the same for anyone who has dealt with The Beast up close, smelled its stench, choked on acrid black smoke, and listened helplessly to the demented crackle as your home was rapidly being consumed. 

The needs of a 21st century fire department have outgrown the iconic 85 year old Central Fire Station.  Neither of the ladder trucks will even fit into the building and the electrical systems and HVAC were state of the art back when our troops were fighting in South East Asia. 

The first "study" identifying the need for a new station was issued back when President Dwight D. Eisenhower occupied the White House, while the most recent study, issued in 2006, collects dust in historic Town Hall (renovated in 1997 at a cost of $3.2 million).

 Amherst DPW, 586 South Pleasant Street

A Request For Proposals is almost ready to hire a consultant to start the process of building new DPW home, the Jones Library is on their way to a $10 million renovation/expansion project, and Town Meeting recently approved a $1 million study of Wildwood Elementary School for a mega-expensive school building project that looms in the near future.

 Last year's AFD capital request (ignored by town officials) included $8 million one year and $4 million the next for new South Fire Station

Just remember who will protect all these expensive new buildings (not counting all the new construction projects at UMass).

Maybe I'll print bumper stickers:  "Fire Safety Comes 1st, As Should a New South Fire Station!"

And of course a new building or new equipment is pretty useless unless you have an adequate number of staff to operate it.  Last year AFD Dispatch had to issue public pleas over the radio 200 times for off-duty personnel to report in for "station coverage".

Meaning not enough on-duty firefighters were available to do their job of protecting the public.  What if The Beast came calling again in deep South Amherst at any of those precise vulnerable moments?

 DHG 11/13/87 back when they had the staff to cover breaking news on page 1

The Town Manager seems to (sort of) understand the serious issue of low staffing at APD, pointing out to the Select Board last year how police staffing has decreased 10% since 2007 while UMass/Amherst has expanded student population 16% during that same time frame.

But he didn't let that motivate him enough to include any extra police (or firefighter) staffing in his budget that year.  On January 15th Town Manager Musante will present his 2016 budget to his bosses the 5-member Amherst Select Board (and the Finance Committee).

Let's hope this time his $70+ million budget includes increased public safety staffing for both police and fire.

And let's hope while we're waiting, no one dies a preventable death.

Last night APD called in "mutual aid" from UMass PD and Hadley PD K9 unit to assist bagging a perp for Breaking & Entering at at Lincoln Avenue house (which was hit by a B & E two nights ago).

AFD: A Barnburner of a Year

AFD Engine 2 on scene UMass Berkshire Dining Commons 12/11/14

My regular readers will find this a "dog bites man" story, or as we brazen Catholic kids used to say growing up, "no shit Sherlock": Amherst Fire Department had its second busiest year on record (but busiest for medical calls) with a total of 5,914 calls, an increase of 3.94% over last year's busy tally of 5,690.

First number is fire calls, second number medicals calls, third number is total

With no staff increase of course.

In fact there has not been a staff increase since 2005 when the town received a $500,000 federal SAFER grant to hire five additional firefighters.

But even with those additional five our current 1.16  ratio of firefighters per 1,000 residents is well below what the International City Managers Association considers a minimum threshold for safety of 1.65 firefighters per 1,000.

Yes the minimum on-duty shift increased to 8 from 7 (the first increase since the 1970s), and UMass kicked in $80,000 in 2014 to fund the "impact shift" where an extra four firefighters geared up for Thursday night through early Sunday morning -- the bewitching hours for the alcohol fueled zombie herds.

Tom Valle, Secretary Amherst Firefighters Local 1764

But even then (with as many as 13 on duty)  there were times last fall -- especially in September -- when we had to rely on "mutual aid" ambulances from surrounding towns for medical emergencies because all of our staff were tied up dealing with preventable substance abuse cases.

Northampton FD responding to Amherst College via mutual aid for intoxicated student, as all five AFD ambulances are now occupied.

— Larry Kelley (@amherstac) September 28, 2014

In all last year there were 46 occasions when a medical emergency had to be handled by an out-of-town ambulance, thus requiring precious extra time for a patient to be safely delivered to a hospital.

Something you probably don't think about ... until it's your spouse, or child.  

Car vs tree Potwine Lane 12/10/14

#1 Business Story of 2014

 Landmark Properties retreated from their upscale student housing project in N. Amherst

Once again we have a tie with both business related stories involving housing, the #1 "overall issue" of the year -- if not the entire decade. A serious issue we probably share with many "college towns" across the country.

After more than a year of heated packed public meetings, with hundreds of ugly lawn signs polluting the landscape for most of that time and with the developer, Landmark Properties, sinking almost $1 million in initial costs, the demise of "The Retreat" was a BIG story.

 Kendrick Place, north end of downtown

But the rise of Archipelago Investments LLC, fittingly symbolized by their five-story, mixed-use developments, was certainly an equally m-a-j-o-r story.

In fact their three projects combined that have garnered Planning Board approval -- Olympia Place with 75 units, Kendrick Place with 36 units, and One East Pleasant Street with 80 units -- almost make up for the 641 beds that The Retreat would have produced. 

 Carriage Shops:  Future home of One East Pleasant Street

One East Pleasant Street as seen from historic West Cemetery

And with the very recent legal action taken against Archipelago by a tired old-school competitor desperately trying to maintain market share, safe bet that  One East Pleasant Street project will continue to be a BIG story in the new year.

 Olympia Place site work  near UMass

#1 Unreported Story of 2014

Besides being trapped in a major structure fire or a sunken ship, or enduring every parents worst nightmare, the loss of a child, I can't think of anything worse than being physically raped.

I'm probably in good company, so maybe that's why you never seem to see routine coverage of the horrific act in our local media.

But, as a result -- the old "out of sight, out of mind" routine -- we forget that it can happen here.  Yes, even in Amherst.

In FY14 twenty two rapes were reported to the Amherst Police Department, up from seventeen in FY13.  That number is more than three times the rapes reported to them in FY2005 (seven).  The average over the past ten years is twelve.

Those numbers do not include our institutes of higher education.

In 2013 Hampshire College had twenty reported rapes, UMass had twenty two, and Amherst College had nine.  Thus adding in the seventeen reported to APD makes a total of 68 for the entire town, out of a population of 38,000 or 1.8/1,000.

Department of Justice statistics show rape reported at rate of 1.3/1,000 nationwide, so we're well over average.

Unfortunately college aged women report rape at a much higher rate than "average":  6.1 per 1,000 female students, but this is slightly lower than the rate reported for college aged females who are not students, 7.6 per 1,000 females.

Since UMass has around 13,000 female students the 22 reported rapes in 2013 are well below the 6.1/1,000 nationwide average (which would have resulted in 79 reported rapes).

This year that just ended, 2014, will be exceedingly better for the state's flagship of higher education.  The number of rapes reported to UMPD as of two weeks ago is only (and I hate to use that word) six.

But you probably will not see the UMass Office of News & Media Relations issuing a press release heralding that.  Although they probably should.

"We're # One!"

Last month I stated that unless a major catastrophe occurred which, thankfully, did not,  the March 8 Blarney Blowout would be my 2014 "story of the year" -- as it was for the year 2013.  And indeed it is.

But because the aftermath of that debacle has been so subdued, with our college aged youth falling in line through better behavior, I have great hope -- matched by confidence -- that it will not repeat in 2015.  After all, a third time is not very charming.

Thus what was to be my #2 story climbs into a tie for #1:  When Political Correctness collides with teen-aged angst under the roof of the Amherst Regional High School.

Specifically the way school officials treated Dylan Akalis, a white kid from Holyoke who dared like a lot of kids do to use the (modified rap version) N-word with an African American friend, who took no offense. 

Other African American kids did, however, and responded with bullying both online and in person that was reported to school authorities, who did nothing.  Dylan, in self defense, took matters into his own hands and made a "threat" on Facebook suggesting he came to school packing a pistol. 

In a panic, the school was closed for a day.  Dylan was summarily suspended, but his tormentors were not.  His father who worked (with his hands) for the schools was later fired for using a common electrician term in front of an African American school employee. 

Although his diploma reads Amherst Regional High School, officials would not let Dylan march in his cap and gown with fellow students and friends at the June 6 Mullins Center graduation ceremony, or attend the senior prom the week before.  Although a young woman who violated his privacy rights with a public Internet petition was allowed to march in the graduation ceremony.

Had Dylan not been white, the story would have played out in a radically different way.

From cancelling "West Side Story" because it was "racist" to allowing kids to perform the R-rated "Vagina Monologues," ARHS is a shining example of the mayhem that results from Political Correctness run amok.

As usual the response of school officials is to throw money at the problem:  They spent $38,000 enlisting smooth talking  Calvin Terrell, who terrorized 7th and 8th graders back in October and should have been instantly fired.  He returns next month.

The schools spent $48,000 hiring a "Media & Climate Communications Specialist" (fancy term for PR flack) to deal with racial issues, and the first thing she does is get into an embarrassing public fight with a long-time prominent local radio station over transparency.

And of course the  Carolyn Gardner affair was mishandled at the start when school officials kept the original graffiti incident in October a secret, something that could come back to haunt them when the Mass Commission Against Discrimination takes up their investigation. 

No, I don't have high hopes that 2015 will be any better when it comes to the race game played in our little "college town."