A PC Dilemma

Middle tree (pin oak) standing in the way of solar

When two admirable goals collide -- especially when they concern anything "green" -- how do you decide which worthy option prevails?

In this case reducing carbon footprint by going solar vs killing a tree that provides shade in the summer, absorbs evil carbon dioxide and helps to prevent storm water run off. 

For the Amherst Public Shade Tree Committee, having to decide whether a homeowner should be allowed to remove a stately old pin oak tree to allow the sun better access to solar panels going up on his house and garage, the decision was an easy one.  Let the tree live.

Although the Committee did vote during a site visit last month to allow the one next to it to go, which tree warden Alan Snow confirmed was in bad shape.  APSTC has no control over trees on private property. 

The homeowner is going to remove additional trees on his property but plans to replant smaller ones in their place to "offset the carbon footprint."

 Adjacent pin oak (resembling a y) will be removed

At the public hearing yesterday the homeowner did not help his case all that much.  He cited a contractors estimate of only a 15% loss of solar efficiency caused by the tree and suggested if the Shade Tree Committee prevented him from neutralizing this tree on town property he would be forced to take out a much larger pin oak further back on his property.

To which member Nonny Burack responded, "That sounds like a threat to me."  The homeowner snapped back, "No, it's a plan."

The Shade Tree Committee unanimously reaffirmed their vote from the previous site visit to stay the execution of the 19" diameter tree.

Tree Warden Alan Snow, who has final authority, said although the oak was "beat up" by the 2011 October Halloween storm it was still "healthy" and he thought it would be "nice to give it a shot."

The Tree Warden quickly ruled  to "deny removal of the tree."  But he did say he would meet with the contractors to decide how best to prune the tree to allow better sun exposure on the solar panels.

Amherst Public Shade Tree Committee (currently looking for one new member)

Still Work To Be Done

AFD on scene UMass Mullins Center for ETOH concert goer

The war on rowdy student behavior seems to have taken a major positive turn with UMass student off campus code of conduct violations down 63% from last year, and Amherst Police Department noise/nuisance tickets down 66%. 

Great news for sure, but the war on stupid behavior still has a ways to go.

The other equally important part of the equation is the drain on Emergency Medical Services brought on by "substance abuse" calls that needlessly tie up ambulances, and on occasion fire trucks that have to act as medical first responders.

A little over 9% of AFD's 4,478 emergency medical runs (410)  in 2014 were because of substance abuse, down ever so slightly from 2013 when almost 10% of 4,328 EMT runs (422) were due to drugs and/or alcohol abuse.

Naturally our institutes of higher education are outliers.   In 2013 UMass substance abuse runs came in at 27% of total (219 out of 848), Amherst College at 26% (39 out of 152) and Hampshire College at 24% (17 out of 71).

In 2014 UMass was down ever so slightly with substance abuse runs at 25% (202 of 808), Amherst College up a little at 27% (50 out of 184) and Hampshire College also up ever so slightly at 25% (19 out of 77).

In other words no improvement whatsoever. 

The problem with these preventable substance abuse cases is they all seem to come around the same time (late night/early morning on weekends) severely straining staffing levels at AFD.

Yes, even with additional money from UMass to put two extra ambulances in service (making 5 total) on weekends there were a few times in September when that was not enough.

The day will soon come when someone's life slips away while awaiting an out-of-town mutual aid ambulance to arrive.  That cost is incalculable.

Our Flag Was Still There?

Town Hall Turret Saturday morning

You sagacious local types may have noticed the official town flag disappeared sometime on Friday afternoon, and as of this morning was not yet back in its perch.  As usual the wind was to blame.

Of course this past weekend was peak time for all the returning clients to our lifeblood, our salvation, our reasons for being: UMass/Amherst, Amherst College and yes, even Hampshire College.

 Amherst Town Flag

Although Amherst is 256 years old the official town flag only became a reality two years ago, but don't ask why wheat plays a major design role since it was never an Amherst thing even back in the good old pre higher education agrarian days.

The Chamber of Commerce picked up the tab for six of the flags ($88.48 each), with one going to hang in the Boston Statehouse Hall of Flags.

One of the many reasons I fight so hard for the 29 commemorative American flags to fly every 9/11 rather than every five years (on "milestone anniversaries"), is precisely because of our returning students.

To those of us who were old enough to drive on that stunning day no symbolic reminders are necessary.

But if you were age six and under -- as many thousands of incoming college freshman were -- nothing adequately captures the misery of those moments forever frozen in time, when those majestic towers of glass and steel vaporizing before your eyes.

While some in Amherst -- okay, maybe only one -- view the American flag as a symbol of "terrorism and death and fear and destruction and oppression," to the vast majority of us it represents hope.

An ideal worth trumpeting -- especially on the saddest anniversary in our recent history. 

Higher Ed Mooch?

As I mentioned a few days ago, unlike UMass/Amherst or Amherst College, Hampshire (our little "alternative" college in South Amherst) pays nothing for emergency services provided by Amherst Fire Department even though it is the third largest property owner in town.

Click to enlarge

Hampshire College also has the larges number of  "still alarms" which are automated fire alarms typically answered by at least one, and sometimes two, fire engines.   These responses are not paid for by insurance as the ambulance runs are.

 AFD raw number breakdown of 5,914 total responses (2nd highest in history)

In 2014 AFD had 188 total responses to Hampshire College with 106 -- 56% of them -- for false fire alarms, usually "cooking smoke."

In 2014 AFD had 1127 total responses to UMass/Amherst with 208 -- 18.5% of them -- for false fire alarms.

In 2014 AFD had 251 total responses to Amherst College with 55 -- 22% of them -- for false fire alarms.

In 2014 AFD had 5914 total responses within the five communities they serve (Amherst, Leverett, Pelham, Shutesbury, Hadley) with 1,436 of them for fire related emergencies, or 24%.   So the response profile of both UMass (18.5%) and Amherst College (22%) for medical vs fire comes in around average.

Unlike Hampshire College.

 Hampshire College from on high

If Hampshire simply paid the town the same amount annually as Amherst College ($90,000) we could afford to add two firefighters to bolster our dangerously low staffing levels.

Last year AFD had to rely on out-of-town "mutual aid" ambulances 44 times.  That too is insurance money that could have gone to increase staff, thus providing better, faster service to all.

Hey Hampshire: time to pony up!  (And you may want to start teaching students how to cook.)

Not Inclusive Enough?

The Vagina Monologues 1996 (left) vs later edition

Well I guess I don't have to worry about Amherst Regional High School ever doing another sanctioned performance of the Vagina Monologues on public school property now that the bastion of PC feminism Mount Holyoke College has mothballed VM because it's not "inclusive" enough to include transsexuals.

As some of you may sadly remember ARHS was the only high school in the nation to allow VM back in 2004, only five years after being the only entity in history to ban a performance of West Side Story.

After Principal Mark Jackson was soooooo impressed with an off campus production put on by the kids in 2007 he allowed VM back at the ARHS in 2008, but not since then. 

My main complaint with the work of "art" is the repeated use of the C-word (rhymes with bunt).

Ensler claims she wanted to "reclaim" the word.  And we see how well that has worked out over the past two decades.  Right up there with reclaiming the N-word, although the hipper 5-letter version does actually gets used way more often than it should these days.

And the monologue, ‘The Little Coochie Snorcher That Could’ glories sex between an adult and underage girl after the minor had consumed vodka.

In the original version published, in 1998, the girl is only 13 and the monologue closes with her gushing:

“Now people thought that it was a kind of rape. I was only thirteen and she was twenty-four. Well, I say, if it was a rape, it was a good rape then, a rape that turned my sorry-ass coochi snorcher into a kind of heaven.”

Yikes! Can you imagine if a white, middle aged, Republican had authored that?

Yes I did attend the 2004 showing at the high school because Fox News paid for my ticket and requested I attend.  And no, I did not try to record it.

Obviously it's not a First Amendment violation for the public schools to ban taking pictures of minors on school property (although you have to question the wisdom of the schools allowing those minors to perform R rated material).

 Calvin Terrell, Amherst Regional Middle School last week

And the schools fulfilled the requirement of copyright law by posting public notice a week before the event that VM was off limits to recording.  Also, unlike Calvin Terrell's "performance" at the Middle School last week, a fee was charged at the door.

Maybe when Terrell returns to perform next academic year he can dress up as a vagina, just for old time sake.

Higher Education Subsidy?

Ladder 1 at UMass HVAC malfunction fire 12/2/14

Undoubtedly the presence of Amherst College (our #1 land owner), Hampshire College (#3 landowner) and UMass/Amherst (#2 landowner) provide the #1 opportunity for employment in town while also providing boatloads of "college aged youth" for our anemic business sector.

But do these tax-exempt institutions really pay their fair share, especially considering property taxes are the #1 revenue source for municipal services?

 AFD Engine 1 at Amherst College Crossett Christmas disturbance 12/7/14

A look at the cold hard facts reveals a simple answer:  Hell no!

In his budget presented yesterday to the Select Board and Finance Committee (and almost certainly to be passed this spring by Amherst Town Meeting) Town Manager John Musante allocates to the Amherst Fire Department $4,466,729.

 2014 was busiest year in history for AFD medical runs (2nd busiest overall)

In 2014 AFD had their second busiest year in history with a total of 5,914 runs with 1,566 of those going to our three institutes of higher education, or 26.5%, which works out to $1,182,789 worth.

UMass paid us $350,000 for AFD protection via a "5 Year Strategic Agreement" (that is now 2.5 years past due for renewal) and Amherst College paid $90,000.  Hampshire College paid zero. 

So total intake to the town coffers is $440,000 on a fair share of $1.2 million!  All these monies simply go into the town's General Fund, not directly to AFD.

Based on service provided, UMass (19% of AFD runs) should have paid us $848,678; Amherst College (4.25% of AFD runs) should have paid $189,835; Hampshire College (3.18% of runs) $142,041.

Amherst College is our #1 landowner and #1 taxpayer because of all the houses they own and rent to professors, and some commercial property (Amherst Golf Course and Lord Jeff Inn).

Last year Amherst College paid around  $490,000.  Hampshire College is our #3 largest landowner, but only paid $67,000 in property taxes on all their holdings last year.

 AFD on scene Hampshire College 12/9/14 for minor fire

Amherst College donated $90,000 to the town last year for AFD protection while Hampshire College -- one of the most expensive liberal arts colleges in America -- donated zero.

If the Town Manager could get our Colleges and University to pay their fair share for vital services, we could easily add a few firefighters to that overburdened public safety department.

And have money left over for a downpayment on the forever talked about, new South Amherst Fire Station.

Status Quo + Budget

Town Manager Musante (center) presented his $21.6 million budget in 40 minutes

Unlike the Amherst public schools the town side of the budget is easily living within its means.

The FY16 budget (starts July 1st)  presented today by Town Manager John Musante to the Select Board and Finance Committee is a 2.5% increase over the current year, and even allows for an increase in badly needed police personnel by two officers.

Although APD will still be down three sworn positions from where they were a decade ago, and two grant funded positions dried up over the past few months.

Musante on adding police

Of course this budget falls terribly short by not also increasing Fire Department personnel, the other -- equally important -- half of Public Safety.  

Other staff additions includes an Economic Development Director, who presumably will work hand in hand with the Chamber of Commerce and Business Improvement District to increase business activity in a town still suffering from an anti-business reputation.

The DPW department will also get an "Administrative Analyst Position" to provide better customer service by being proactive with information.  Seems any time the DPW does a major road project, like the recent Pine Street reconstruction, tempers flare over the pace of the project. 

Interestingly the Town Manager did not follow up on his memo to the Select Board last summer suggesting it was time to relook at leasing out the Cherry Hill Golf Course, which annually costs as much as hiring two new firefighters.

The public schools make up more than a majority of the overall Amherst budget and at the moment they are looking at almost a $1 million in red ink, possibly requiring the axing of 17 employees.

The schools are separate from the town budget presented today although both require Town Meeting approval in the spring.  The only direct crossover is the one-third funding the town does provide for Amherst Together

The Select Board will now work with the Town Manager's budget (hopefully finding a way to add a couple of firefighters) and the Amherst and Regional School Committees will work with School Superintendent Maria Geryk once her sure-to-be-controversial budget is finally presented later next month.