Digital Time

APD on scene Fort River School 11:45 ish

I was on my way to Eastern Hampshire District Court in Belchertown to pick up documents relating to a very scary story from last weekend when I first heard the call and knew simply because Dispatch was addressing it to multiple patrol units and the shift supervisor (X1) that it was not going to be a routine event.

Fort River Elementary School went into "shelter in place" mode due to reports of an intruder.  Although the original call did mention a possible weapon involved I chose not to report that.  And I used the slightly less scary term "lockdown" in my original Tweet/Facebook post.

When I arrived on the scene about 5 minutes later three APD cruisers were scattered about the area but two school employees were out front doing routine lawn maintenance.  So far so good.

Since the school was locked down officers were having trouble getting in, as apparently a key fob was not working properly.  At one point an officer told Dispatch that if school officials did not come to open the door they would have to "breach it."  That too I chose not to report.

Fortunately a moment later someone opened the door for them.

Within minutes APD had answered my original Tweet saying no intruder found.

@amherstac no intruder at this time found at fort river school

— AmherstMApolice (@AmherstMApolice) October 9, 2015

Follow @AmherstMApolice on Twitter to stay informed

I had gone from Twitter over to Facebook to file a quick report and then got distracted by questions and comments, so I did not see the original APD response tweet to me for a few minutes.

But by then I had already figured out things were under control and stated that fairly quickly in a follow up post.

As I was leaving the scene I saw Chief Livingstone coming out the main entry and he confirmed "Everything is fine."  And that was one statement I was happy to post on Facebook and Twitter.

By that time some of the responding units had already left Fort River School and headed to all the other schools in town just to be extra safe.

School Superintendent Maria Geryk, within 45 minutes of the original start of the incident, issued a robocall reassuring parents there was "no threat to the school."

Amherst officials are getting better at combining transparency with modern means of communication.

click to enlarge/read

Expensive Swap

Amherst Regional Middle School, currently holding 7 & 8 grades

The Joint Capital Planning Committee -- made up of members from Town, Schools, Library, and Finance Committee -- unanimously recommended approval of Article 9, to spend $150,000 to carve out a spot (4,000 sq ft) at the Regional Middle School for the town's Leisure Services & Supplemental Education, aka Recreation Department.

They also unanimously supported Article 8 which would "repurpose" the $150K from money already approved by Town Meeting to rehab the East Street School.   In 2014 $700,000 was appropriated to renovate the former school so LSSE could relocate there,  but bids came in much too high -- mainly for ADA improvements.

 JCPC:  Schools, Library, Select Board, Finance Committee

That renovation plan, after completing roof work, has been put on hold with about $565,000 remaining.

 East Street School:  Expensive White Elephant?

The Amherst Regional Public Schools are considering merging Middle School students (grades 6-8) into the High School thus freeing up the building for other activities.  Greenfield Community College has expressed an interest in using it as a satellite school.

LSSE currently uses the Bangs Community Center as their home base but that spot is being taken by Community Health Center a satellite operation of the Hilltown Community Health Center.  The program will bring medical and dental services to those without health insurance.

JCPC also unanimously supported spending $26,000 for electronic voting hand sets to bring antiquated Town Meeting into the 21st century.  Finance Director Sandy Pooler confirmed town officials had set aside $27,000 in monies from the previous Fiscal Year.

Town Meeting, which starts November 2,  is the final authority on all spending but they usually follow the advice of JCPC.

Mandi Jo Hanneke (right) from Town Meeting Electronic Voting Studey Committee pitches the JCPC on time saving and accountability attributes of newfangled voting devices.  Later that night the Finance Committee also endorsed spending the $26K

Don't Do Drugs

 APD K9 Unit:  Dash (the shorter one) and Officer Clark

Not only do you party hardy types have to get by a pretty savvy crew of front line Amherst police officers on the late night weekends -- especially in neighborhoods near UMass -- but they also have a secret weapon:  Dash.

Click to enlarge/read

Don't mess with Dash.

Patrick O'Malley, age 21, arraigned before Judge John Payne.  Case continued so he could consult a lawyer

Better This Time

 Agawam FD on scene Mullins Center last night enroute to CDH

Thanks to a requirement from Amherst Fire Chief Tim Nelson that the Mullins Center hire outside contractors to be on site (well, close by at North Station anyway) there were no serious problems last night with ambulance supply-and-demand at the Mullins Center.

Agawam and Easthampton FD ambulances were able to handle the medical transports to Cooley Dickinson Hospital, all of them alcohol related.   "About what we expected" according to Chief Nelson.

AFD responding to the Mullins Center for vomiting drunk college aged female urinating herself.

— Larry Kelley (@amherstac) October 8, 2015

A good thing of course since we are talking about potentially life and death scenarios for the rest of us living in town, where a quick arriving ambulance can make all the difference in the world.

Although you would be amazed at some of the ambulance calls Dispatch deals with.

Mullins Center Command, staffed by AFD personnel, saw a total of 15 concert goers last night with four of them requiring transport. Nothing compared to last month's concert.

The next test of our Emergency Medical System will come on Halloween: Another Mullins Center show and with the holiday falling on a weekend the college aged zombie hoards will be out in full strength looking to party.

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."