A Million Here & A Million There

Crocker Farm Elementary Pre-school playground will get $25K to meet ADA requirements

The Joint Capital Planning Committee voted unanimously this morning to support the $3,070,457 FY16 spending plan shepherded to them by Finance Director Sandy Pooler, representing 7.5% of the total town tax levy.

 Sources of funds:  taxation, ambulance revenues, Chapter 90 state aid, CPA, borrowing

Although the committee still pines for the day when the capital spending rises to 10% of the tax levy.

The only changes from last week were a result of push back by the JCPC on Mr. Pooler delaying $25,000 in to make playground equipment at Crocker Farm Elementary School ADA compliant and $10,000 (out of original $35K proposed) for studies and improvements to a resurging North Amherst Village center.  Both items are now back in for FY16, which starts July 1st.

North Amherst Village Center

Saying that this has "emptied the coffers" to cover all the requests from department heads, Mr. Pooler did point out that he reserved $25,000 for Fall Town Meeting to cover the cost of electronic voting devices for 256-year-old Amherst Town Meeting.

Looking down the road Mr. Pooler unveiled a graphic data base that depicts the impact of four major capital projects (South Fire Station, DPW, Wildwood Elementary and Jones Library expansion/renovation) on annual spending if all $57 million were to be covered by borrowing, although some of the projects will probably be financed via a "Debt Exclusion Override".

Since Amherst Fire Department has to protect all this future development it would make sense for the forever talked about new South Fire Station to go first.

Unfortunately, Town Meeting and making sense do not always go hand in hand.

Click to enlarge/read.  Red is new fire station

 Annual debt payments would triple, but decline over time

Current debt with a couple of small projects included (Fort River School roof, Kendrick Park renovation)

 Numbers for four major construction projects

Amherst Schools Reorganization?

Amherst School Committee (from rt): Lawrence O'Brien, Kathleen Traphagen, Rick Hood

Last night the Amherst School Committee voted unanimously (with two absent) to approve a  $21,869,835 elementary school budget, which is $100,000 below Finance Committee guidelines for the second year in a row.

With a projected population of 1,176 (including 64 preschoolers) that works out to a total cost per student of $18,597, a tad over the state per student average of about $14,000.

The "level services budget" calls for the elimination of 16.5 para educator positions (saving $343,500) but is offset by the addition of six "professional staff for co-teaching" positions (adding $360,000). 

Another $63,000 had to be added to the budget to make up for the loss of grant funding to the kindergarten program  Partial cuts to three positions in Central Office personnel also brought savings of $117,000.

During a discussion about the Owner's Project Manager for the upcoming Wildwood School renovation project Superintendent Maria Geryk floated possible reorganization scenarios if a new school should be built:  Crocker Farm Elementary School (currently 422 students pre kindergarten through 6th grade) would become a pre-K through 1st grade only, and the new building would hold 2nd grade through 6th grade.

At previous meetings school administrators also floated the idea of closing down the Middle School and moving all the 7th and 8th grade students into the High School.

As if there were not enough expensive scenarios floating around the School Committee also voted unanimously to "Authorize the Superintendent to submit to the Massachusetts School Building Authority the Statement of Interest Form for the Fort River Elementary School, located at 70 South East Street."

Yes this is in addition to the seemingly-on-the-fast-track endeavor to renovate/expand/or build a new school to replace Wildwood Elementary School on Strong Street.

Last year Town Meeting voted $1 million to study the proposal with a projected state reimbursement of 60%.  Last night school officials confirmed the reimbursement came in higher at 68% so the town's share of funding falls from $400,000 to $320,000.

The Wildwood School Building Committee interviewed ten OPM candidates for the ambitious project.  They will go before the Mass School Building Authority in Boston on April 6th seeking final approval for their unanimously chosen candidate, Joslin Lesser, the last woman standing.

 Sparsely attended meeting.  Sean Mangano, Finance Director, in front

Superintendent Maria Geryk and Finance Director Sean Mangano outlined a timeline that would have Amherst Town Meeting voting final funding in the Fall of 2016.

School administrators did take note, however, that the Wildwood School project shares a short list of expensive new building projects on the horizon including a South Fire Station,  DPW building and Jones Library expansion.

Although they forgot to include the much talked about new downtown parking garage. 

A Cry For Help

Police were involved in a frantic one-hour search late last night for an Amherst College student who had called an ex-girlfriend in Pittsfield, sounding drunk and making suicidal statements. Amherst College police confirmed he left behind a "goodbye note" in his room.

APD and Amherst College PD looking for suicidal student.  Possibly intoxicated.  On open phone line with x-girlfriend, but not talking.
— Larry Kelley (@amherstac) March 18, 2015

After "pinging" his phone it was determined he was located within a mile of Stanley Street, so Amherst police sent cruisers to strategic locations within the perimeter with their sirens blaring so see if his open phone line picked up the noise, thus giving better indication of his location.

The reporting party said she could hear running water and then, ominously, about an hour into the drama said she could hear "moaning and vomiting."

 Temperatures last night

He was located semi-conscious on the bike path about a half mile east of the Amherst College tennis courts, with no shirt on, suffering from possible hypothermia and with superficial wounds from a broken bottle.

Amherst Fire Department, with an extra firefighter on board, transported him to Cooley Dickinson Hospital.

Just another example of outstanding co-operation between Amherst College PD, Amherst and State police. 

And the urgent need for the state to upgrade the emergency 911 system for GPS location, which would have instantly provided authorities with his whereabouts within ten feet rather than a mile.

Amherst College student found on rail trial intoxicated, without shirt, possibly hypothermic. PD on scene. AFD enroute.
— Larry Kelley (@amherstac) March 18, 2015

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.