Box Alarm Station Road

Chicken coop was a total loss

AFD responded to a chicken coop fire this afternoon up a very steep incline on Station Road, bordering on the town of Belchertown.

Originally the box alarm indicated the structure fully engulfed and threatening the nearly residence, but Chief Nelson arrived first on scene to report that it was relatively a safe 30 or 40 feet away.

Chief is not above helping with hose

Just as the hoses were being charged, another fire alarm came in from Amherst College and engaged Engines 2 and 4.  Thus at that moment four engines were engaged with pretty much the entire on duty staffing.

Engine 1 had primary

Engine 3 Student Call Force provided back up further down the hill

Once the water flowed the fire was quickly snuffed out

Too Secretive?

UMass Southwest Towers, built 1963

To no great surprise Chancellor Subbaswamy, head of the flagship of higher education in our education oriented state located in an education oriented town, has decided to end the "confidential informant program" overseen by UMass Police Department to get drug dealers off the streets.

Well, since UMass doesn't really have streets, off the pavement anyway.

Dumb decision.

As some of you may remember I first published the death certificate of Eric Sinacori last spring and caught a boatload of grief for doing so.

And no, I had no idea he was involved as a "witness" (according to the District Attorney's office) or "confidential informant" (according to the Boston Globe).  At the time I just thought people should know such a tragedy can happen in our little "college town."

Because when you cover up a student death by heroin here and a death where alcohol contributed  there, average people fail to get the true picture of the problem and fail to act to address it.

Now when a student dies from a drug overdose -- and they will! -- the University will have even more reason to cover it up.

Because people will rightfully say an informant may have given UMass police the vital information needed to take out the dealer prior to the victim injecting poison in their veins.

Once again UMass is putting their public image over public safety.
 

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UMass Office of News & Media Relations reports

First Amendment Warrior

Calvin Terrell, Social Justice Warrior

Yes I did feel a bit like the school kid squealing to a higher authority about an altercation on the schoolyard that left you fuming, even a couple days later.

The Chair of the Regional School Committee, Trevor Baptiste, did not seem to initially understand my complaint with School Superintendent Maria Geryk.



Obviously she did not pay the woman to snatch my iPhone (last words, "no videotaping" is Maria Geryk) but she did give verbal commands -- before and after the incident -- declaring a ban on videotaping.

And the Superintendent did not seem overly concerned about the physical nature of the altercation brought on by her edict. 

To ban journalists from recording an event should always make you wonder:  what is it they don't want you to know?

Masslive reports (as usual Comments are the best) 

Flashback

The Four Bs

The Trolley Barn, 68 Cowls Road, North Amherst

Developer Cinda Jones, never at a loss for promotion, has come up with a novel pitch to fill the last remaining floor containing two four-bedroom apartment units in the newly opened Trolly Barn in North Amherst, dubbed "Three Bettys and a Bob."

Since women outlive men by about five years, it's not overly surprising that senior women outnumber senior men so why not target this demographic more directly?

Click to enlarge/read (and put your glasses on!)

Certainly is nice to see an Amherst developer targeting a demographic other than "college aged youth."  Although us aging Wilma fans will be disappointed with the choice of Betty.
 

Worth Tweeting About?

Amherst Regional Public School Twitter account

One of the sillier ideas floated at last night's Amherst Regional School Committee meeting is to rely on Twitter as an official "repository" for questions and information dissemination concerning the controversial Regionalization effort expanding the current 7th - 12th grade four-town Region all the way down to Pre-K through 6th grade.

Yes, in this digital age two-thirds of Americans use Social Media but only about 16% are on Twitter.  Facebook is still the king, with well over half of all Americans participating.

The Amherst Regional Public School Twitter account, with 261 followers, does not have a stellar following of parents/guardians considering the total enrollment at ARPS is 1,441 students -- over five times that.  (And presumable a fair number of students have two parents or guardians.)

Maria Geryk does not have a Twitter account, but there is a parody account

And unlike Facebook, with Twitter there's a 140 character limit per tweet, which kind of limits complicated discussions.  Although Twitter is absolutely awesome for breaking news.

Interestingly, one of the many complaints the Regional School Committee heard last night during "Public Comment" came from Janet McGowan concerning transparency and public outreach over this important, expensive endeavor, which one RSC hilltown member aptly described now as a "race to Town Meetings."

Regional School Committee Embraces Digital

Amherst Regional School Committee

The Amherst Regional School Committee voted unanimously this evening for the "alternate posting" option allowed under Open Meeting Law for regional entities to post legally required meeting notices on the ARPS regional website rather than individually in all four towns that make up the region.

The RSC has run afoul of the posting requirements having to cancel  meetings at the last minute because they were not properly posted in Pelham where the Town Clerk only works one day per week.

Member Katherine Appy wanted to delay tonight's vote until their next meeting because the Attorney General letter finding the RSC in violation of Open Meeting Law was not included in the packet for tonight's meeting, even though it had been distributed at their 12/8 meeting.

The AG found found in favor of a Open Meeting Law complaint filed by a former member, Tom Flittie, over the July 14 meeting called by then Vice Chair Trevor Babtiste.  The meeting was legally posted in all four towns but then Amherst pulled down the notice at the request of then RSC Chair Lawrence O'Brien.

Other members pointed out the AG finding the committee in violation due to posting protocol was all the more reason to vote in favor of it now so that the streamlining could begin immediately.

Appy reversed course and said she would vote in favor as long as the RSC took up discussion of the Attorney General's finding at their next meeting.

The Whole Story

Emerson Auvenshine (6' 2", 190 pounds) stands before Judge Shea

So here's yet another example of the state's new domestic violence law protecting the perpetrator from public scrutiny. 

You may have read in the bricks and mortar media that Emerson Auvenshine, age 24, a UMass senior, was arrested by APD on Sunday for Breaking & Entering and Malicious Destruction of property valued over $250.

As a result he was immediately suspended from the UMass Hockey team, but he was on crutches in Eastern Hampshire District Court on Monday due to recent ACL knee surgery, so his athletic career at UMass was over anyway.

Now what the other media outlets did not tell you, because they can't afford to send reporters to District Court, is that Mr Auvenshine was also charged with Domestic Assault & Battery on his former girlfriend.

Because of the law passed back in August police departments can no longer report domestic assault cases and have to purge them from the their daily logs.  So the only way to get that information is to hear it in open Court and then request the documents. 

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