Attention To Detail

Chestnut Court on the northern outskirts of Amherst town center

Residents of Chestnut Court brought their complaints to a Board of Commissioners meeting last week (10/5/15) about outside renovations done during the summer that left a lot to be desired with some of the final details, like landscaping.

 Rocks in a large bald patch of lawn 10/6/15

Interestingly the Department of Housing & Community Development had given Precise Paving a "Notice To Proceed" on May 7, 2015 for the project, which had a 90 day completion date built in. 

The contractor did not actually start until July 13, 2015 but was still under contract to complete the project by August 5, 2015.

The loam used appeared substandard with too many rocks and pebbles and the grass seed was planted in a haphazard hit-or-miss manner.

 Bigger rocks and globs of seed 10/6/15

AHA Director Denise LeDuc had complained to the contractor a few days before the residents appeared at the meeting.   She was pretty much told to go pound sand.

But after sending photographs of the lousy workmanship to the architect and telling them she would be withholding payment on the $300,000 contract, a worker showed up the very next day to rerake the lawn areas to remove the abundance of rocks and then he hydroseeded the entire area.

 Although they could have been a little more precise with the application 10/9/15

Oldest rule in the book:  If you wish to get someone's attention, threaten their pocketbook.

 AHA Commissioner Peter Jessop and Director Denise LeDuc at sight visit Friday 10/9/15

A Clear & Present Danger?

 UMass Southwest Towers.  JQA in the middle

Last week 22-year-old Zachary Simeone from Dalton Massachusetts threatened to come to UMass, assault/murder his former girlfriend, crash his truck into John Quincy Adams Tower and shoot up the campus.

 Zach Simeone and his truck

All at a time when gun violence on college campuses is paramount in people's minds.

 Click to enlarge/read

He was arrested by Dalton PD after being alerted by UMPD and originally found by Judge Patricia Poehler too dangerous for release, either on his own personal recognizance or via bail.

   Judge Poehler Dangerous decree

Simeone admitted he was dangerous

This morning a new deal -- "Joint Proposal RE Conditions Of Release" -- was struck at Hampshire Superior Court allowing his release under many, many conditions.

Let's hope it works.

   Zach Simeone Conditons for Release by Larry Kelley

Most of the retweets came from UMass students

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