Busy Fall Weekend

Saturday noon September 19

This weekend -- especially Saturday -- will be another busy one as our little college town has now fully shaken off the final remnants of a slow but all too brief summer.

The weather is expected to be borderline perfect for outdoor activities so the 28th annual Apple Harvest Crafts Fair on the town common will easily attract an overflow crowd to town center.

In addition, the always popular Amherst Farmers Market will be in the usual spot set up on the Spring Street lot between the North and South Town Common.  And Amherst Regional High School, located nearby, is having its homecoming.

 Grace Church, Boltwood Avenue, Amherst town center

And of course a somber, once in a lifetime event will also attract a standing room only crowd to Grace Episcopal Church next door to Town Hall: the funeral ceremony to remember/commemorate beloved Town Manager John Musante, who passed away suddenly on Sunday morning.

Public Safety departments will be in all-hands-on-deck mode after the sun goes down.  The Fire Department "impact shift" -- extra staffing for two ambulances funded by UMass, a deal brokered by Mr. Musante -- will bring total AFD strength up to 13.

I hope it's enough.

After all a (relatively) quiet weekend would be a fitting tribute to the memory of our Town Manager, who prioritized and helped implement the paradigm shift towards safe and healthy neighborhoods. 

DUI Dishonor Roll

Michal Wojewodzic, age 22 (photo courtesy APD)

Great weather over the weekend brought out droves of college aged youth to all the usual hot spots near UMass for foot traffic  -- Phillips, North Pleasant and Meadow Streets.  Which is what makes this drunk driving incident all that much scarier.

What if he had hit a tender body rather than a solid tree?

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 Meadow Street/Townhouse Apartments late Saturday afternoon

In Eastern Hampshire District Court on Monday Mr. Wojewodzic had his case continued until next month.

Wild Women Weekend

51 Phillips Street

Three 21-year-old women, all UMass students, became the first "Party House" arrests of the Fall  semester.  And seven of nine (one of my favorite Star Trek characters) UMass ETOH drunk runs over the weekend were women, as were both Amherst College drunk runs.

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Ain't equality great?

In Eastern Hampshire District Court on Monday none of the three women jumped at the Commonwealth's usual plea deal offer (which has about a 98% acceptance rate):  Criminal case is "diverted" to civil with payment of $300 town bylaw noise fine, and if they stay out of trouble for four months the case is dismissed.

All the young women wished to consult with a private attorney so their cases were continued until next month.

And all the ETOH women recovered and will be paying (or their parents will) around $1,000 each for their ride to Cooley Dickinson Hospital.

   AFD Runs Mid-September

Digital Age Change

 

Mandi Jo Hanneke, Sean Hannon (left) Sandra Burgess, Jim Pistrang (right)

The Town Meeting Electronic Voting Study Committee voted unanimously 4-0 with 3 absent this morning to send to Amherst Town Meeting a $26,000 warrant article that will purchase 260 hand held digital voting devices to try to speed up the snail-like pace of Amherst's 257 year old political institution.

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Warrant Article will be vetted by Joint Capital Planning Committee and then requires only a simply majority vote at Fall Town Meeting

Meanwhile the Amherst Select Board voted unanimously last night to set the annual town election for March 29, 2016, which could actually be an interesting election for a change.

Charter enthusiasts now have until December 21st to collect the 3,215 signatures required to guarantee placement of the controversial question to change our form of government on that annual ballot for voters to decide.

The main motivation for Charter enthusiasts is to abolish antiquated Town Meeting by switching to a more professional Mayor/Council form of government.

Thus this $26,000 electronic voting purchase could end up being the equivalent of buying a new saddle for a dying horse.

Remembering John Musante

Amherst Select Board met briefly this Monday morning

Scroll down for updates

In a brief sorrowful meeting this morning in the Town Manager's office the 5-member Amherst Select Board came together in an emergency meeting more for grief therapy than policy work. 

Chair Alisa Brewer, her voice cracking, thanked town employees and the general public who have stepped up in this time of sadness and grief.

The town flag was lowered to half staff yesterday at her order and will stay in that somber position of mourning until interment, which has yet to be finalized.

 AFD Central Station in mourning over the loss of John Musante

Just prior to the scheduled 8:30 AM meeting SB member Connie Kruger apologized to the press for the confusion and slightly late start of the meeting saying, "None of us have ever been here before."

During the meeting Ms. Kruger asked if other symbols like black bunting could be placed on Town Hall so people coming in today would understand the somber atmosphere or maybe even decide not to do routine business today.



The Select Board will still meet tonight at 6:30 PM and their first order of business will be to appoint Assistant Town Manager Dave Ziomek interim Town Manager.

Chair Alisa Brewer closed the meeting at 8:51 AM saying, "I hope we all can find a place and space to talk about our friend, John."

 Snow globe occupying Town Manager John Musante's office chair

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UPDATE:

 Dave Ziomek Interim Town Manager, SB Chair Alisa Brewer 

The Select Board voted unanimously at their regularly scheduled -- although far more somber than usual -- 6:30 PM meeting to make Assistant Town Manager Dave Ziomek Interim Town Manager.

Hopefully after the shock of losing John Musante somewhat subsides they will also vote unanimously to remove the term "Interim".

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Masslive/Republican remembers John

A Sad, Sad Sunday Indeed

Amherst Town Manager John Musante 1961-2015

Some days I wish I did not listen so closely to first responder radio traffic, or know the town and town officials so well.

With medical calls I try not to listen all that carefully mainly because they are, usually, private and only subject to public scrutiny if it involves a high ranking pubic official.

Well in our little town they don't come any higher ranking (or nicer) than Town Manager John Musante.  And it's my very sad duty to report he passed away in his sleep, possibly from a heart attack. 

Amherst Ambulance (A4) with four aboard (usual crew is two) responded to his home Sunday morning around 8:45 AM and had a major Amherst police escort to Cooley Dickinson Hospital.  Umass and Hadley police assisted with traffic control at intersections along the way.

As many of you may remember our Town Manager suffered a head injury four years ago after falling while out walking his dog.  And in late July he fractured his foot in another accident while walking  back to his dorm room where he was attending a professional development course at the Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge.

 John Musante was kick off speaker at town's Solar presentation last week and seemed happy with the public response to a solar array on closed landfill

But he seemed happy and healthy of late.  I would often see him walking along Main Street around the lunch hour for exercise, and he was out mingling with the general public at the Celebrate Amherst Block Party on Thursday night.

John Musante, a long time Amherst resident, replaced Larry Shaffer as Town Manager in 2010 but had served as Finance Director since 2004.

Assistant Town Manager Dave Ziomek, who is in Philadelphia at the moment, will become interim Town Manager.

 Town Manager John Musante with Amherst Select Board. Chair Alisa Brewer (center)

The Amherst Select Board has a regularly scheduled Monday meeting tomorrow night.  Open Meeting Law allows for, "Topics the Chair did not reasonable anticipate 48 hours before the meeting".

And this shocking event is something nobody could have anticipated.

Well I Hate That Dirty Water

UMass dredged the Campus Pond last month

UMass Landscape Architecture students have set up a living laboratory on North Pleasant Street near the Bertucci's parking lot directly across from Kendrick Park to demonstrate a simple solution to the storm water run off that oozes into Tan Brook and then dumps into the UMass campus pond.

Plants can provide natural water filtration

Some plants actually like yucky gray water and by planting them in the flow path of Tan Brook  they would naturally absorb some of the pollutants before they do damage to the pond.

The space required is pretty minimal, as little as five square feet.   A series of these green patches could be planted along the path of the underground brook, brightening our downtown street scape while improving the environment.

 Balloons on Kendrick Park above Tan Brook represent the Campus Pond