Stop! In The Name of NIMBY

Only eastbound traffic has a stop sign at Pine/Henry Street intersection

The same folks who cost Amherst taxpayers $32,000 in land court legal fees to protect their "historic" North Amherst neighborhood from a housing development that would have generated $400,000 in annual taxes, now wants to turn their little slice of paradise into a slow go zone for evil automobiles.

A three-way stop, speed bumps, and the closing off of the most northern end of Henry where it intersects with Market Hill Road would definitely scare off traffic.  But both the DPW and Public Works Committee gave the self-serving idea a resounding "NO".

The Select Board has final authority.  They are, however, awaiting a major transportation study report coming out soon from Nelson/Nygaard Consulting Associates and may use this as a test case for how to handle traffic mitigation requests town wide.

For the time being they accepted the recommendation of the DPW and Public Works Committee.

Let's hope the petitioners don't file suit against the town.  Again.  

 Pine/Henry Street intersection looking east

Gaming The System

Conditions for "Failure to Disperse" charge being dropped

If Thomas C. Donovan, age 22, was so confident Amherst Police infringed on his First Amendment rights at last year's Blarney Blowout then why did his lawyer sign a Tender of Plea or Admission & Waiver of Rights" back on May 15th, 2014?

As we all know from the O.J. Simpson case a criminal jury must find guilt "beyond a reasonable doubt," whereas a civil jury is bound by a lesser threshold: "preponderance of the evidence."

Had Mr. Donovan not taken the "diversion" from criminal to civil plea deal with the dropping of "disorderly conduct" charge, he could have had his "trail by jury."

The Assistant District Attorney would then have to convince a jury "beyond a reasonable doubt" to acquire a unanimous decision of guilty.

But Donovan took the easy way out, and now wants to cash in big time by filing a federal civil rights lawsuit. 

DUI Dishonor Roll

Austin Hiller stands before Judge John Payne

In Eastern Hampshire District Court yesterday Austin Hiller, age 19, had a plea of "not guilty" entered in his behalf by Judge John Payne and his DUI case was continued until April  2 so he could hire a private attorney.

Considering he took the legally admissible in Court breath test back at APD headquarters, he should probably save himself the attorney fees and simply take the Chapter 24D deal that state always offers for 1st time offenders:  $600 in fines, alcohol education program, probation for one year and loss of license for 45 days.

Proven Track Record?

McMurphy's Uptown Tavern 9:45 AM

Well at least the Gazette did not put this front page story about bars opening late on Blarney Blowout above the fold.  Although they still forget to mention how important weather will be on Saturday.

Since Amherst Select Board members are the town Liquor Commissioners they can do pretty much anything they wish with a liquor license.

So you have to wonder how hard it was for the Town Manager to "negotiate" a later bar opening on Saturday when the town could simply have said, "Okay fine, we're suspending all alcohol sales on Saturday in the name of public safety."

After the disaster unleashed in town center in 2012 the Select Board should have suspended McMurphy's and Stacker's liquor license for a few days to send a message, which would have gone a long way towards avoiding the riots in 2013 and 2014.

Now they are giving them a medal for "working toward the common good."  Better late than never I suppose.

Make My Day

I have to admit disappointment that Turtle Boy Sports had never heard of me.  After all, I've been doing this -- whatever this is  -- for almost eight years now, and some folks still think my sole reason for being is to hassle kids having fun.

The digital equivalent of "get off my lawn."

But I don't really live all that close to UMass/Amherst and I can honestly say I have never lost a night's sleep due to a party house next door.

Although I do lose a fair amount of sleep on warm weather weekends cruising around neighborhoods that do have problems with party houses.

Over the past 8 years I've published 3,474 posts, 161 of them "Nuisance House" posts (mainly involving male UMass students) and another 135 "War on Rowdyism" posts pushing Town & UMass officials in the right direction to deal with it.  So all in all, less than 10% of what I do.

I've probably published as many if not more posts championing Amherst public safety departments and my neighbors at the DPW, or respect for country, aka my 9/11 commemorative flag odyssey -- something patriotic Turtle Boy would probably support.

So other than the grumpy-old-man-with-too-much-time-on-his-hands jokes, it will be interesting to see what Turtle Boy comes up with to "bury" me.  Although he may be wondering how I managed to acquire his Twitter Direct Messages.

And if he is a high school history teacher he should know rule number #1 in war:  "Never underestimate your opponent."

No Abatement For You!

Colonial Village South East St (foreground) Belchertown Road to the rear

Last week in Executive Session the Board of Assessors unanimously sided with town Principal Assessor David Burgess and upheld his significant increase in valuation from FY14 to FY15 for four Apartment complexes in town: Presidential Apartments, Brandywine (both in North Amherst) and the two Colonial Village complexes in East Amherst off South East Street and Belchertown Road.

 Presidential Apartments

Click to enlarge/read

The total increase came to almost $7 million in valuation, or with a tax rate of $20.97/$1,000, almost $150,000 in property tax revenue to the town.  Enough to add a couple of firefighters or police officers to our desperately anemic public safety departments.

 Branywine Apartments

Although had they won the appeal it's no skin off the town's nose, because the tax base would remain the same (allowed by law to increase 2.5% per year) and other property owners would simply pick up the tab by having their valuations, or the tax rate, go up ever so slightly.

The apartment complexes can appeal the decision to the Appellate Tax Board in Boston or the Hampshire Council of Governments in Northampton, although since it's a complicated case it would probably have to be the former.

Either way, costly from a legal perspective.

Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road?

The Hangar (right), Amherst Brewing Company (left)

UPDATE: Monday morning

So I had a very nice conversation with The Hangar Pub and Grill owner Harold Tramazzo and he said the "hybrid" model -- where he does food service and Amherst Brewing Company maintains liquor service -- was the original plan he approached ABC owner John Korpita with about 6 months ago.

But now it's morphed into a outright sale of Amherst Brewing Company (not yet completed) because Mr. Tramazzo "doesn't want the name Amherst Brewing Company to go away."  At the moment he has "management and financial responsibility."

He also wants it known that if the numbers work there's no reason he can't run two businesses almost directly across the street from each other, as well as the Wings Over Amherst just down the road near Big Y.

He also denies The Hangar Pub and Grill is a college bar (which I don't think I called it) and pointed out that he interacted with lots of older patrons over the weekend.  

Mr. Tramazzo does own buildings that house his food service business in Westfield and Greenfield but has no plans for buying Newmarket Center, which has a  town valuation of $3,145, 300.

The "kids menu" has not disappeared, he just weeded out the offerings that were not working and simply serves smaller portions of regular items still on the menu. 

Lots of details still need to be worked out (including paperwork with the town), so at the moment you can consider the operation in soft opening/launch mode. 

#####

Original Report: 
The super popular chicken wings at The Hangar Pub and Grill will get even more room for distribution -- not to mention parking -- as the formerly competing business has taken over food service at the expansive Amherst Brewing Company just across the street on University Drive.

Although one of my Facebook buddies was not overly happy that they immediately cut the kids menu at ABC, making it a tad less family friendly.

The demographic for The Hangar is younger than ABC, to quote that often heard line in a college town:  "College aged youth."  While the Amherst Brewing Company seemed to attract an older crowd, as well as families.

So it will be interesting to see how this clash of cultures works out.

 Charles Lane, a neighborhood immediately behind ABC

Neighbors who live on Charles Lane immediately behind Newmarket Center probably will not be pleased, since this will undoubtedly increase the potentially nosier demographic to their side of the street.

About 15 years ago the Zoning Board of Appeals denied a Special Permit to H2O, a sports bar that wished to open in the space occupied by ABC, because of the potential for noise and nuisance.

A Gold's Gym opened a couple years later, changed their name to The Leading Edge to save franchise fees and then went belly up for good.

Former members tried to form a co-op and revive the fitness operation at that site, but like most things born of Internet petitions, never managed to break a sweat.