Remember

Big Y BIG flag in a position of mourning

In case you were wondering why the American flag is in that unmistakable position:

Please be advised that in accordance with the Presidential proclamation and as ordered by Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, the United States flag and the Commonwealth flag shall be flown at half-staff at all state buildings beginning immediately until sunset on Tuesday, October 6, 2015 in honor of the victims of the tragedy in Roseburg, Oregon on October 1, 2015. Additionally, the United States flag and the Commonwealth flag shall be flown at half-staff at all state buildings from sunrise until sunset on Tuesday, October 6, 2015 in honor of Sergeant Christopher Y. Vars, United States Army, of Reading, MA who was listed as Missing in Action while fighting the enemy in North Korea on November 29, 1950. Sgt. Vars was the recipient of many awards including the Purple Heart, the POW & Mia Medals, the Combat Infantryman Badge, the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal and several others. The Sergeants remains returned to the United States on Wednesday, September 9, 2015 and he will be buried with full military honors on October 6, 2015.

Amherst Regionalization Forum

10/1 Regional School Committee meeting started with moment of silence for John Musante

Only you overly dialed in folks probably know about the Amherst Regional Public School sponsored forum tomorrow night (6:30 PM)  at the High School Library.

With all that is going on in the schools -- merging the Middle School into the High School, renovating or replacing Wildwood Elementary -- it's hard to keep track of major issues.

This forum is regarding regionalizing the entire four town District from the current 7-12 all the way down to kindergarten through 6th grade.

The move requires ALL FOUR TOWNS to vote yes to reopening the Regional Agreement, but then a town could still vote no to actually joining the expanded Region.

One of the biggest mistakes school officials have made over the past FOUR YEARS on this particular subject is not embracing transparency and outreach on this important topic.

The Regional School Committee heard a report at their October 1 meeting from a hastily appointed sub-committee on the Public Relations efforts used to promote the forums, which will be held in all four towns:  Amherst goes first tomorrow, Leverett on October 21, Shutesbury on November 18.  Pelham has yet to schedule theirs.

The presentation will, naturally, rely on a Powerpoint presentation.  Superintendent Maria Geryk said the goal is "to make the presentations as short as possible and spend as much time as possible answering questions." 

Regional School Committee members will also be on hand to answer questions as well, although a quorum is not necessary.

Interestingly presenters will include Sandy Pooler the town's Finance Director, not Sean Mangano the School District's top finance guy; and Select Board Chair Alisa Brewer (the town's highest elected official), who was formerly a School Committee member.  And Town Meeting moderator Jim Pistrang will moderate.

Lets hope all the town/school officials don't outnumber the audience. 

A Place To Call Home

Amherst Media lease extended through January 1, 2017

Eversource has agreed to extend the lease for Amherst Media at their 246 College Street 1st floor location yet again so our local cable access media provider can continue to operate thru January 1, 2017.

The Electric Company had wanted to take back their building a few years ago but allowed them to stay through December 31 this year.

Although at the moment it looks like their rent will almost double from the current $1,740/month up to $2,913/month.  Plus the cost of oil heating this winter. 

Amherst Media purchased land (2 lots) around the corner on Main Street from Barbara Guidera for $340,000 and Amherst Town Meeting took the arduous step of rezoning the property to allow for commercial operations so a new building could be constructed.

Original plans were for her son Jerry Guidary to build a new structure for Amherst Media with their long term lease/committement in hand, but that project had trouble getting financing.  

 Historic Hills House top center.  Amherst Media property in red

The $3.5 million capital fundraising campaign for the new 10,000 square foot building never materialized, so now Amherst Media has the land but have pretty much given up on the idea of constructing a new building.  

Which all comes at a fairly bad time as over the next year the town is in negotiations with Comcast for the ten year license renewal of cable TV, a deal that generated almost $7 million for the cable giant last year.

Amherst Media is funded by a 5% cut of cable TV revenues (but not phone or Internet users) from about 7,000 Comcast subscribers which last year came to $317,000 and this year is expected to be around $305,000.  

In addition Amherst Media is starting to do more fundraising (about $5,000 this year) and they have a just under 150 members who pay $15 per year.  

But, obviously, the Comcast funding is the motherlode. 

Pay The Piper

UMass is by far the town's largest employer

These days -- or most any over the past 35 years -- it's not often I find myself in agreement with forever activist Vince O'Connor, but on this particular issue he's dead on correct.  There, I said it.  Step one in any good multi-step program.

UMass currently pays the town under $500K as a Payment In Lieu Of Taxes courtesy of a "5 year strategic agreement" signed w-a-y back in 2007.  Thus it expired over three years ago but has been extended annually ever since.

I'm told by a reliable source that a new multi year agreement had been on Town Manager John Musante's desk for many, many months now.

His unfortunate passing two weeks ago today could obviously delay even longer the ratification of that new agreement -- if indeed it is worth ratifying.

Because if the amount is under $1 million per year -- which it probably is since Mr. Musante seemed not overly interested in jumping on it even though he had come under pressure of late by the Select Board to get an agreement resigned -- I would tell UMass to go fly a drone, err, kite.

With a Public Safety budget of $10 million and our police and fire/EMTs dealing with UMass students on and off campus amounting to 25% of our emergency services utilization, that alone comes to $2.5 million the town should be reimbursed.

 Amherst FY16 (ends June 30, 2016) budget

And with UMass grad students sending their children to our public schools (56 total, times our high $20K per year average cost to educate) that comes to another $1 million plus per year.

If UMass were smart -- and they are after all a "higher education" enterprise -- they would seek to cut a new five year deal as soon as possible.

Because if Representative Kulik's bill passes to force tax-exempts to pay 25% of their assessed value, and Amherst and Hampshire College end up paying for more than UMass there will be hell to pay.

This year Amherst College paid the town $130,000 -- up from the previous year's $90,000 -- for AFD fire/EMS services while Hampshire College paid us a BIG fat zero.

Location, Location, Location

Ladder 1 and Engine 2 with aerials extended about 75 feet up

About the only thing I'm going to miss with Central Station when the town FINALLY gets around to building a new fire station in South Amherst is the great access the general public has to the department in their heart of the downtown location.

Like today's successful annual Open House, which always coincides with "Fire Prevention Week."  And that's just one of the great things about our local department:  They would much rather not have your business when it comes to fire.



And a little training can go a long way should the unimaginable ever happen in your home, office or school.  AFD also gets out of their office and takes fire safety training to our schools with the highly successful SAFE (Student Awareness of Fire Education program).

 Demonstrating extraction techniques

Of course the other huge problem the town needs to address is the inadequate staffing levels that all too often requires mutual aid supplementation from a surrounding department and frequent requests for off duty firefighters to report in for "station coverage."

Smokey Bear and Jada

Or, maybe we could just draft Smokey Bear.

Click to enlarge photo

 Why we need an adequate full-time profession FD. Those who fail to learn from history ...

A Matter Of Student Safety

Attorney Tom Reidy and Cliff Laraway appear before ZBA last night, Chair Mark Parent (ctr)

Sometimes the difference between life and death is measured in mere seconds -- especially when dealing with The Beast otherwise known as  fire.

A cluttered escape route, narrow stairway, or -- God forbid -- a door locked from the outside that doesn't allow opening from within, could quickly spell death of a most unimaginable kind.

Would you trust your life to this fire escape?

At last night's Special Permit hearing for 382 North Pleasant Street, which most people probably think of as a fraternity (which apparently it still is),  Zoning Board of Appeals Chair Mark Parent clearly stated, "My concern is about safety, that's what is driving this.  Some kids do crazy stuff and we need to protect them from themselves."

A September 29 Site Visit turned up "living rooms" with doors on them, and at least ten rooms with external locks on them (which as a joke someone could lock the person in), as well as a bevy of extra mattresses in storage.

A Tad Too Many Tenants

Mr. Parent told the petitioner and his attorney, "It is very clear to me this site is occupied by at least 10 people consistently. No question it's more than the 8 allowed.  We need to come up with conditions that rectify that."

The town of Amherst has a zoning bylaw that restricts occupancy to no more than four unrelated housemates per one family unit.

Owner Cliff Laraway is requesting a Special Permit to allow the structure to be a two family, non owner occupied structure (for up to 8 unrelated tenants).  But the layout of the former fraternity, with so many rooms, makes it hard to enforce only eight of them be bedrooms.

Building Commissioner Rob Morra stated, "There have to be significant structural changes, like taking out a wall vs simply removing a door".

The Amherst Fire Department, having done car counts over the month of September, considers it a "rooming house" with 10 or more tenants, thus requiring an expensive ($39,000) sprinkler system.

 Click to enlarge/read

The Special Permit hearing was continued to November 5th so the ZBA could request an AFD representative attend.

The petitioner was sternly instructed to come back with floor plans that show eight and only eight bedrooms as well as physical changes in place to keep the other numerous available rooms from conveniently be used as additional bedrooms.

Building Commissioner Rob Morra did not waste any time taking enforcement steps to ensure the current population of the building goes down to only eight:

   Amherst 382 N Pleasant violations

Almost There

Amherst Office Park's new 30,000 square foot mixed-use building, an exciting new addition to the South Amherst Village Center will open November 1st, joining Kendrick Place and Presidential Apartments as providers of additional, badly needed housing in town.

In this case 17 total units -- the vast majority of them one-bedroom (15) and the remaining two, two-bedroom.  The residential portion of the building occupies the upper two floors and are now fully rented, while the ground floor commercial space is 75% leased.

Balconies offer scenic views to the east and west

Mixed-use buildings like this are a blessing to nearby local small businesses by providing a bevy of potential customers, all within walking distance.