Prime Parking Rehab

Amity Street lot yesterday afternoon, Jones Library top center

Amherst Town Meeting, which starts November 2,  will be asked to spend $200,000 to completely renovate one of the busiest parking lots in town, the 33 space Amity Street surface lot.


The centrally located lot is contiguous with the Amherst Cinema, with the Jones Library directly across the street.  A 2007 parking study found it was 96.5% full between the hours of 11:00 AM until 6:00 PM.

Of course what Amherst really needs to do is increase the supply of parking in the downtown, which doesn't come cheap.

There's been increasing talk about building a parking garage behind the CVS, which was the original preferred location back when the town ended up constructing the tiny Boltwood Walk Garage on the other side of North Pleasant Street.

  CVS parking and town owned lot would require Town Meeting zoning change for a garage

A Lasting Legacy

It's fitting the first expenditure out of the $200,000+  Eva Schiffer fund, established when her gifted home on Kendrick Place was sold to benefit Amherst Housing Authority lower income clients, will be a charitable donation in the name of beloved Town Manger John Musante, who died unexpectedly on an otherwise glorious Sunday morning a few weeks back.

 27 Kendrick Place sold for $225,000 netting the AHA $209,000

The home was eventually purchased in an open bidding process by Finance Director Sandy Pooler who was Town Manager Musante's first appointment almost five years ago after he replaced Larry Shaffer.

Connie Kruger, at the Board of Commissioners meeting on Monday, who also worked closely with Mr. Musante in her other role as a Select Board member, liked the idea of a donation to the Amherst Community Center.  That project was one of his last major endeavors.

Since the community health facility will be locating in the nearby Bangs Community Center, chances are many AHA tenants will be using its services.  Kruger deemed that, "resonate with what we do."

But she also suggested the money go towards something tangible like a dental chair that would be long lasting and could hold a plaque attributing the donation in his honor.

The Board did not come up with a final amount, leaving that until their next meeting, but did unanimously pass a motion "to contribute in John Musante's name to the Community Health Center with funds coming from Eva Schiffer account."

AHA Commissioner Peter Jessop confirmed, "I think Eva would approve."

Denise LeDuc Director, Judy Brooks Chair, Laura Quinn, Connie Kruger, Peter Jessop

Regionalization Snoozer

Only a half dozen parents participated in last night's public forum

Last night's public forum in Amherst -- the first of four in our public school Region -- does not bode well for those who champion public involvement in major bureaucratic/governmental decisions.

In this case the expansion of the current grades 7-12 public education empire that combined the little towns of Pelham, Leverett, Shutesbury with the not so little town of Amherst over sixty years ago.

Thirty people came to the Regional High School library for the not overly well advertised event, but the vast majority were town or school officials.  Only six spectators who came to the microphone with questions -- four from Amherst -- identified themselves as parents.

 Town Moderator Jim Pistrang, Sandy Pooler, Katherine Appy, Alisa Brewer

Town Finance Director Sandy Pooler was forthright about the dollar aspect of the decision saying, "There's no significant financial impact one way or the other. Finances shouldn't drive this decision."

 About half the $600K "savings" comes from Amherst medicaid money

And like any good public speaker he closed on the same theme:  "This is not a financial decision for the town of Amherst, it's an educational decision."

The usual theme of unifying education was the pitch promoted by school officials, although some in the audience worried about too much conformity.

And the time saved by only having to file one report with the state for the Region rather than the current three (at about 1,000 pages per year per report).

Select Board Chair Alisa Brewer tried to handle the governance issue but like that Facebook relationship status, "It's complicated."  Amherst would have 7 elected members on the newly expanded 13 member Regional School Committee, with the other three towns each having two representatives.

But all voters in all four towns would get to vote on all 13 members.   One Shutesbury official wondered how it would make a Shutesbury representative feel when he/she were elected with over 90% input from voters outside of Shutesbury.

And town official Marylou Theilman pointed out a town could decide not to join the expanded Region (but as long as they vote yes to reopening the Regional Agreement the expansion can still happen) and therefor their representative would still have a say over elementary schools even though they do not have a financial stake in the matter.

Town Meeting member, parent and Regionalization watch dog Janet McGowan sent an email earlier in the day to the School Committee requesting officials hold another public meeting in November with better advance information distribution. 

Simply put, when education is your product the smarter approach is indeed transparency.

Vince O'Connor:  "It's depressing to go to meetings like this and see how ineffective public officials are at getting parents of color to attend."

DUI Dishonor Roll

Ryan West, age 20, stands before Judge John Payne. Case continued to October 19 

Considering he took both the PBT (Portable Breath Test), which is not admissible in Court, AND the chemical Breath Test back at APD headquarters, which is admissible in Court, Mr. West should save himself steep legal fees and simply take the standard state plea deal offer of a 1st time offender 24D disposition.

Click to enlarge/read

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.