Vital Communications

One of four Dispatch workstations

If all goes as expected this Thursday morning the Joint Capital Planning Committee will approve about $3 million in spending for equipment replacement and building repairs that will still require Town Meeting approval, but is usually 100% ratified.

With it's annual budget of $650,000 a capital request of $110,000 for equipment replacement may sound like a lot but without the Communication Center working properly our $9 million Police and Fire departments would be flying blind.

Currently Station Officer can't interact as well with officers in the field or trace their location

The four dispatch workstations and a 5th new fully functional station for the downstairs "Station Officer" will replace an outdated system using Windows XP installed in 2006. The town purchased the system from Motorola for $200,000.

 HP computers are left on 24/7 now for fear of not rebooting

Radio console system being replaced at 5 workstations

The current system has internal clocks that do not always sync properly to the actual time, does not always record incoming calls for instant playback (although a redundant back up system does) and is not compatible for two-way conversation with UMass dispatch. 

In addition to fixing those problems the new system will have digital capabilities and allow for additional channels should the need arise.  

 911 system:  screen on left gives name and address of caller, screen on right maps location

Communication Center Director Mike Curtin tells me at some point over the past three years every one of the five stations targeted for replacement has failed.  And sometimes it can take up to two weeks to get a station properly repaired.  

 Separate station monitors town buildings via automated alarms

The Dispatch center is nothing if not busy, handling 80,000 phone calls on the business line and 7,000 on the 911 emergency line last year with a total staff of only 12.

Left screen CAD narratives/records, middle screen keeps track of on duty first responders, right screen shows license plate info, wants and warrants

The two new dispatchers hired recently had to undergo 60 hours of training, but overall 70% of staff are at the top step for pay scale, meaning they are well experienced.  Typically the center has two dispatchers on duty, one for police and the other for fire.

This much needed overhaul would also be beneficial should Amherst ever regionalize dispatch operations, although that is not looking as promising as it once did.

At a recent Finance Committee meeting Chief Livingstone said, "I don't see it happening soon.  It's not dead yet, but we have to convince Hadley."

3rd floor, APD headquarters, 111 Main Street.  The eyes and ears of first reponders

Remembering The Revolution

Angela Davis, March 30, UMass Fine Arts Center

As both the town's token conservative and proud UMass/Amherst graduate I'm comfortable saying I support my alma mater bringing in Angela Davis as a speaker to finish off Black History Month with a bang (although a month late).

Even as a fiscal conservative, I do not have a problem with her $16,000 appearance fee.  After all Angela Davis is a historically significant figure, albeit a niche time period:  The counter culture, anti-war, when-hippies-were-in-full-bloom chapter in American history.

The best advice for aspiring writers is to "write what you know," so what better way to learn about that interesting time period than to hear it first hand from a noted participant? 

I suppose if she had been convicted for the murder of four individuals I might think differently.   Although, our justice system is built on the premise that if you do your time -- aka "pay your debt to society" -- then you have earned a fresh start.

Even if you did make the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" list.

A University is supposed to be an open market for the free exchange of ideas -- even those we find repugnant.  Popular speech doesn't need protection.

It's the voices from the margin that require the First Amendment to prevent their soap box from being pulled out from under them.   

Although at UMass, it seems the more conservative speakers are the ones who get bullied and shouted down. 

Flag Kerfuffle

Seems like Facebook, being such a visual medium, is good for a daily dose of outrage (or two).

When you use an image as powerful as the American flag it's easy to get noticed ... sometimes more so than you bargained for.

My initial reaction to a "flag flap" is always that of a police detective working a crime scene:  what's the motivation and intent of the perpetrator?

As long as no disrespect is intended and no gross liberties are taken with the (unenforced) Flag Code, I'm quick to declare innocence.

So if a man who serves this great country of ours wants to wrap his newborn babe in an American flag, that works for me.  Especially if the photographer is also a proud veteran.

I would much rather see him doing it than a two-bit politician wrapping himself in the flag as part of an orchestrated election campaign.

The all too typical Ivory Tower induced flag controversy in California, where students at UC Irvine voted to ban the American flag from their government offices, did bring on the shiver of deja vu.

Their left wing 20 point manifesto brands the American flag as representing "colonialism and imperialism" only to "serve as symbols of patriotism or weapons for nationalism."

Kind of like the UMass professor who strongly criticized the 29 commemorative American flags hanging in downtown Amherst on the night of September 10, 2001: "Actually, what the flag stands for is a symbol of terrorism and death and fear and destruction and repression."

Even without social media that quote, dubbed "The ill timed quote of the century" in a front page Wall Street Journal article, still managed to reverberate from sea to shining sea -- almost instantly.

29 commemorative flags are allowed to remember 9/11 once every 5 years on "milestone anniversaries."  Next time up is 2016 -- the 15th anniversary

The irony of course is flag detractors oftentimes do their symbolic bid for attention at some obscure governmental meeting.  But when the Chinese curse kicks in ("Be careful what you wish for") they dive under their desks and complain about all the negative feedback.

Lesson #1 about a most precious freedom our flag represents:  The First Amendment is a two-way street.

Powdered Problems

Don't snort this at home kids

As if alcohol isn't a BIG enough problem nationwide, now it's only going to get worse with the recent Federal approval of easily transported and even easier to conceal powdered alcohol.

This will of course be even more problematic in "college towns" where binge drinking is considered a rite of passage. 

How many rapes -- reported and unreported -- involved alcohol?  How many violent domestic assaults?  Or deaths by drunk drivers, or falls, or even suicides?

Fortunately our progressive state of Massachusetts, according to a legal interpretation by the Alcohol Beverage Control Commission, will prohibit the sale of powdered alcohol because it does not meet the definition of an alcoholic beverage.

Probably hinges on the word "beverage," which is pretty much synonymous with wet. 

But if nearby states don't move to ban it you can bet it's the kind of thing that will find its way into our town, UMass dorm rooms and the Mullins Center when hosting an EDM concert.

Rather than approving it for nationwide use the Feds should have told Palcohol to take a powder.  

Protecting History

 Current protective cover is getting a tad tired

The 100 year old historic downtown fountain at Sweetser Park will get a protective make over in the near future if Town Meeting approves the Community Preservation Act Committee package of 9 proposals this Spring.

The town Planning Department submitted a $20,000 proposal to the CPA Committee for a consultant to "perform an assessment and engineering study of the Enos Cook Memorial Fountain ... prepare bid specifications for its restoration ... and design and construct a cover to preserve and protect the Fountain during the winter."

The fountain anchors the western end of Sweetser Park closest to the heart of downtown.  In the spring and summer it is a magnet for families out to enjoy New England weather -- especially after a hard winter.

The Fountain underwent a $50,000 renovation 20 years ago after remaining dry for many years. 

The Sweetser Park Gift Account received $20,000 from the Rotary Club and Friends of Sweetser Park two years ago after the fountain was shut down in 2013 due to plumbing problems, which were temporarily addressed by the DPW.

The gift account money should be enough to cover renovations, but if not town officials will return to the Community Preservation Act Committee for additional funds. 

Ah, Spring

A Different Approach

Amherst Police Department, 111 Main Street

The Amherst Police Department was recently awarded a $33,615 state grant for the next two years by the Department of Mental Health to train officers in a "team approach" for dealing with behavior health problems rather than the standard cycle of arrest, District Court hearing, release, back on the streets.  Repeat.

Chief Livingstone was "pretty excited about receiving the grant".  According to the Chief, "This team approach model has had successes in many other police agencies across the country.  This is a nationwide problem that cannot be solved by police and court systems alone."

Department wide training will begin in June and after officers have been selected to form a "Crisis Intervention Team" they will receive additional higher level training.

Downtown businesses have been complaining for the past few years about the increasing number of homeless in the downtown, some of them under the influence of drugs or alcohol, getting out of control.

Downtown will also see addition police presence during business hours if the Town Manger's FY16 budget is approved by Town Meeting this spring.  After years of calling for increased police staffing the Town Manager, finally, added one sworn officer to his budget proposal.

Who Guards The Guardians?

Mary Streeter (right) presents to Joint Capital Planning Committee this morning

The Joint Capital Planning Committee, made up of major players from the Town, Schools and Library, heard a courtesy presentation this morning from Mary Streeter, Chair of the Community Preservation Act Committee.

The JCPC uses regular tax money (7.5% of the total tax levy) to fund equipment and building needs for the town of Amherst, with a total operational budget now breaking the $70 million mark.

Department heads must first get JCPC approval for capital items, but then Town Meeting has the final say, which is almost always 100% in agreement with the JCPC recommendations.
 
The Community Preservation Act surcharge (not to be confused with a tax he said sarcastically) will generate $920,000 this year from properties on the tax roll,  combined with the state match of $239,200 (a lousy 26%), combined with $955,930 in leftover money from last year, giving them a total of $2,115,130 in their pot.

Or as Chair Mary Streeter said to the JCPC, "We're flush with money right now."

The CPA Committee is a separate legal entity and only they can bring proposals to Town Meeting, but they must be related to Open Space/Conservation, Historical Preservation, and Recreation.

Town Meeting can vote down an individual item, but cannot reuse that appropriation amount for anything else. 

All nine proposals brought before the CPA committee earned their recommending for a total of $523,346 ; plus the debt service on previous projects of $321,527; plus the $1,750 annual dues for CPA lobbying group; bringing the total appropriation to $846,633.

That then leaves a balance of $1,268,497 or, still "flush with money."

 CPA Committee may consider another round of funding for Fall Town Meeting

Jewish Community Synagogue steeple repair, a significant project ($175,000), did not make it to final approval because it was withdrawn by the petitioners before the final committee vote was taken, although Ms. Streeter suggested it probably would not have been approved.

The JCPC then moved on to an overall discussion of all the presentations they have heard over the past two months.  Finance Director Sandy Pooler told the committee that pretty much everything was funded except he pushed off until next year $25,000 for Crocker Farm School playground repairs and $35,000 for North Amherst Center Studies and Improvements.

Both of which generated push back.

Select Board member Connie Kruger pointed out things are happening in North Amherst now and pushing that money back sends the wrong message.  School Committee Chair Katherine Appy suggested parents would be unhappy with the delay of the Crocker Farm playground upgrade, which is both a safety and aesthetic quality of life issue.

Mr. Pooler (metaphorically removing his Grinch hat) promised to rework the overall proposal one more time.

The $145,116 gap was filled by using unspent leftover money from previous capital appropriations