Church Renewal

Jewish Community Synagogue, Main Street, East Amherst

Two long established Amherst houses of worship are requesting money from the Community Preservation Act pot which recently doubled in size due to the local ballot initiative passed last November.

The question of separation of church and state or using public money for private endeavors hinges on the public purpose of a project.  The Mass Dept of Revenue ruled in 2007 that the preservation of historic structures has a legitimate public purpose.

As a result the CPA committee requires a historic preservation restriction on any funded project so it will stay open to the public in perpetuity.

Angel of the Lilies 

For instance, two years ago the town gave the Unitarian Church in town center over $100,000 to help restore their stained glass window "Angel of the Lilies."

Although, back in 2009 Town Meeting rejected spending $7,000 in CPA funds to fix the roof of North Church in North Amherst center (now a Korean Church).

North Church, North Amherst

The Goodwin Memorial Zion Church adjacent to Amherst College is the oldest black church in Amherst, founded in 1910. Although Hope Church, the only other black church in town. is not far behind, having been established in 1912.

 Goodwin Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church

They are requesting $25,000 to fund a "Capital Needs Assessment & Archaeological Study" for a major overhaul of the entire building (including handicapped accessibility) but in keeping with its sacred historical  significance.

The Church is one of only six buildings in Amherst to make the National Register of Historic Places.

As such, state money via Massachusetts Preservation Project Fund for the actual renovation project would probably be forthcoming in the future, but would of course require the archaeological study and renovation assessment first.   

At the January 20 meeting the CPA committee seemed receptive to the half-dozen parishioners who showed up to support their Church project.

 Steeple lightening damage bottom right

Another historic former Congregational Church in East Amherst, which became the Jewish Community gathering place back in 1976, is requesting $175,000 to right a lean in their steeple.  Last summer it was hit by lightening.

The insurance company will pay to fix the holes but not the 3% lean, which could date back as far as 1927 when a couple of supporting columns were removed to make more room.

Thus the primary purpose of the  project is aesthetic, rather than a necessary measure to keep the building from falling down.

The CPA committee seemed a bit skeptical and their questions to the petitioners bordered on a grilling.

A positive recommendation from the CPA committee is mandatory for a project to come before Amherst Town Meeting for approval, so a rejection from them is a death sentence, which even God cannot change.

The committee will take a final up-or-down vote on the 11 projects before them at their March 3rd meeting.

The North Shall Rise Again

Pine & Meadow Streets (east/west) and North Pleasant (north/south)

In addition to $100,000 in proposed capital appropriations to significantly improve the north end of Amherst town center, town officials are also asking Town Meeting to finance "North Amherst Center Studies & Improvement".

The $35,000 will go towards a study to redo the intersection of Pine/Meadow/North Pleasant streets as well as the adjacent weird junction of Montague and Sunderland Road.

During the 2011 "Form Based Zoning" effort, which garnered more than a majority of Town Meeting approval but came up shy of the two-thirds required,  the road alignment in the heart of the North Amherst commercial village center was an often heard complaint.

Sunderland Road (left), Montague Road (right).  North Amherst Library (center)

Urban Renewal

North end of town center looking towards ever present UMass.  Kendrick Place back right

The long neglected north end of Amherst town center is making up for lost time. 

 Governor Patrick, Kendrick Park 10/21/14 (Kendrick Place developers behind him)

Back on October 21st new Senate President Stan Rosenberg and the outgoing Governor Patrick came calling to announce a $1.5 million MassWorks grant to bury unsightly utilities lines along East Pleasant/Triangle Street corridor.  Now town officials are requesting Town Meeting approve $100,000 for additional "streetscape improvements."

Jonathan Tucker bottom right presents to the JCPC

Planning Director Jonathan Tucker told the Joint Capital Planning Committee this morning the MassWorks grant did nothing for street level improvements, so this $100K request would add  lighting, trash receptacles, benches, bike racks, trees, etc.

The impacted area includes Kendrick Park which has been awaiting a multi-million dollar renovation for a few years now. 

This request is sure to fire up NIMBYs who are still peeved about the Kendrick Place development (rear of top photo slightly to right) and the recently approved One East Pleasant Street mixed use project, both of which will bring significant numbers of residents to live in the downtown. 

Hence the need for basic window dressing. 

Troll Food

Although I'm sure my Cowardly Anon Nitwit does not wear a suit and tie

As of this moment I have published 44,842 comments spread out over 3,417 published posts over the past (almost) eight years.  I'm guessing that represents about a 99% publish rate even though I would also guess I disagreed with over 50% of those published.

The 1% I did not publish were beyond nasty, potentially libelous, or threatening to my family.

The first three years of operation I did not "moderate" comments so anyone could publish anything at anytime.  I could of course delete them if needed and can only remember maybe one or two times doing that.

But I can tell you I would lose sleep worrying someone would publish something wildly inappropriate moments after I went to bed, so the comment would stay up until the next morning. 

When someone hits the publish button on a comment I instantly get an email at my main AOL account showing the comment, and from within that email I can either publish, delete, or mark it as spam (which sends it to a folder for posterity sake).

So it takes only seconds per comment.  Yes I do (sort of) try to read comments -- unless I'm driving -- to make sure they are not libelous or threatening, but do so v-e-r-y quickly. 

I would like to think my readers come here for the main articles but I will also admit the ones that attract the highest page views are also the ones that generate the most comments.  So I'm sure people do come back just to read or make follow up comments, thus increasing overall page views.

Trolls are the bane of any Internet community.  The best way to deal with them is to simply ignore them and hope they go away.

Like this guy:

   Hot Dog Troll

Now I will go back to ignoring him.  Well, after the 2 or 3 seconds it takes to dispose of each comment

Hold Your Horses

First laid out in 1912, Shumway Street is going to have to wait another year for a total renovation -- including water/sewer, sidewalk and of course the main road itself.

The entire street is only 940 feet long, connecting Main Street to College Street/Rt 9 with a neighborhood consisting of eight single family homes and one two-family home.

Like many streets in Amherst that 50 years ago would have been exclusively "owner occupied" Shumway Street has changed by the presence of UMass/Amherst.  Now 4 of the 9 dwellings are rentals.

Perhaps one reason why Shumway Street is eligible for Community Development Block Grant funding which has income eligibility (middle-to-lower income) restrictions.  

The town is going to receive $825,000 in CDBG funds this year and 65% of it must be spent on "non social service" items.

The DPW put in for $727,000 to cover the entire cost of renovating Shumway street but the committee who oversees the distribution of the funds is only recommending $233,742 be allocated.

And since the federal money does not become available until this coming October, the neighborhood improvement project will probably have to wait until next year. 

The town will likely dip into Ch. 90 road funds to cover the other two-thirds funding.

Fortunately our new Republican Governor released an extra $100 million in "roads and bridges repair" funds (Ch. 90), which will result in a $400,000 bonus for Amherst.  

No Guests, No Riot?

UMass Southwest Towers house 5,500 students

Red Sox World Series win "celebration" 10/30//13

Apparently UMass is heeding advice from the $160,000 Davis Report, a postmortem of the Blarney Blowout, by trying to limit the number of guests UMass students can have on campus for Superbowl Sunday.

On the eve of Blarney Blowout the visitors reached 7,000, which should have been a clue that the stage was set for an epic event.  Kind of like radar picking up a sky full of planes closing in your sleeping fleet moored in paradise.

Will it work?  Probably not.  Even without "guests" UMass Southwest area has a h-u-g-e population density with 5,500 college aged youth packed into a quarter mile square area.

And come this Sunday, all too many of them will be under the duel influence of alcohol combined with all those endorphins released by watching large men thump each other on a field of battle. 

Damn Developers!

Kendrick Place, north town center (before the snowstorm)

The backlash over Planning Board approval of Kendrick Place, a 5-story "mixed use" commercial building with 36 units of rental apartments, and the much l-a-r-g-e-r One East Pleasant Street (80 rental units), which is already delayed by a nuisance lawsuit filed by a disgruntled competitor, has now taken a more ominous form:

Two poison pill zoning articles filed yesterday by Mary Wentworth designed to prevent any such projects from being approved in the future.

 Proposed One East Pleasant Street (also north town center)

Since both projects are located in the downtown "Municipal Parking District" they are not required to provide any parking, although the proposed One East Pleasant will have 36 onsite spaces available.

 Article #1 strike "residential" from parking exemptions in downtown

Under Ms. Wentworth's zoning article #1 developers would be required to provide parking for every single resident, and zoning article #2 gives a higher threshold of commercial space required (thus dramatically reducing rental housing units) for a "mixed use" designation and would require a harder to get "Special Permit".

 Article #2: increase % of commercial, require Special Permit from ZBA

Since these two Archipelago Investments, LLC projects are already approved, they would of course be grandfathered. 

A zoning article requires a two-thirds vote of Town Meeting, so the chances of these articles passing this coming spring are not all that good.

Most of the rational pro-development zoning measures that have come before Town Meeting have failed because of the high hurdle of a two-thirds super majority, but they almost always attracted a majority vote.

Now at least, the shoe is on the other foot.