One Third Of The Way There

To guarantee the Charter question placement on the ballot requires 3,215 voter signatures 

The advantage of Charter change enthusiasts -- aka Amherst For All -- knowing our town well enough to know that antiquated Town Meeting needs to go, is they also know all the popular spots to stake out and let the voters come to them for signature acquisition.

Although I'm told they are also doing the old fashioned neighborhood canvas, something individual politicians (and police) have been doing for generations.

Clare Bertrand and Niels la Cour collecting signatures under their very own tent at Farmers Market

On Saturday a crew was stationed on the Town Common during the Amherst Farmers Market, which also coincided with the UMass Homecoming Parade through town center.

As of close of business today Town Clerk Sandra Burgess confirms her office has certified 1,121 signatures -- or more than one third of the way to target goal.

For the Charter question to appears on the upcoming spring local election ballot proponents must hand in all the required signatures by December 21st .

Thus I'm comfortable predicting Christmas will be a tad more merry this year.

And Another One Gone

All Things Local, 104 North Pleasant Street

Just shy of its second anniversary All Things Local is calling it quits.  For the oldest reason in the book:  spending more than you take in.

The all natural food co-op opened in late November, 2013 in the former location of the Souper Bowl restaurant, who also went out of business due to the same formula.

And so it goes.

We had a good run, Amherst. Thanks for all the support along the way. Go Pats!

— All Things Local (@ATL_Amherst) October 19, 2015

Busy, Brisk Saturday In Our College Town

AFD following UMass Marching Band down North Pleasant Street

Sam The Minuteman

Amherst is always busy when our institutes of higher education are in routine session but even more so today with the largest of the three -- UMass -- celebrating homecoming weekend.

AFD responding to UMass Cance Dorm on Fearing Street for an ETOH (intoxicated) male student.  Great way to start the day.

— Larry Kelley (@amherstac) October 17, 2015

McGuirk Stadium attracted thousands of college football fans (although not nearly enough to satisfy the BIG budget cost of a Division 1 program) many of them warming up for the 3:30 PM game with  tailgating that started at 12:30 PM.

 Amherst A Better Chance Fall Foliage 5K walk/run

The Homecoming Parade, lead by the always motivating UMass Marching Band, wound its way through Amherst town center around 10:45 AM not long after the A Better Chance Fall Foliage 5K race kicked off from our main green.



And as usual Amherst Farmers Market attracted the usual crowd to the heart of our downtown.

Amherst For All took advantage of the crowded downtown to collect voter signatures, surpassing the 1,000 mark toward the 3,215 needed

AFD performed a rescue at Bare Mountain on the top of The Notch in deep South Amherst just before noon, although they did not require the Technical Rescue Team to extricate the injured hiker.

 APD & AFD on scene Bare Mountain 11:55 AM

 McGuirk Stadium 2:45 PM

Fearing Street 3:45 PM (heading towards downtown Amherst from the stadium

Funky clouds over UMass McGuirk Stadium 6:00 PM

As usual AFD was also kept busy dealing with students who consumed too much alcohol, aka ETOH:

 Or what Chief Nelson describes as "Not a quiet a weekend".

Playing Hardball

34,525 sq ft UMass Campus Center hotel competes with private sector hotels in the Valley

In an effort to coerce the town into signing a new multi-year "strategic partnership agreement," aka Payment In Lieu Of Taxes that is long overdue, UMass -- our beloved flagship institute of higher education -- is taking a hard line approach:  withholding payment of a local option room tax everybody else pays, including tax exempt Amherst College.

But in so doing they are most certainly biting the hand that feeds them.  Over the past 30 years there's not been a  bigger legislative cheerleader for UMass/Amherst than Stan Rosenberg, who also just happens to be an Amherst resident.

And currently Stan holds the powerful position of Massachusetts Senate President.

Stan went out of his way back in 2009 to draft legislation specifically to close the loophole that allowed the Campus Center Hotel to dodge our 6% local option tax.

In an email to his staff Stan wrote:

"I want to make sure that we insert language into the bill that effectively says that hotels that are located on college campuses or operated by any other form of nonprofit/education organizations are subject to room occupancy excise. 

This is extremely important as I have been trying to get UMass to the right thing and apply this tax for a very long time voluntarily and they have refused.  This is wrong and I don not want to miss the chance to fix this finally now that we have a chance to do it."

Currently UMass pays the town $455,000 PILOT for AFD ambulance and fire protection.  AFD and 911 Dispatch has a annual budget of $5 million with about 25% of their total runs involving UMass students, so that alone should be well over $1 million in reimbursements.

In addition 56 children living in tax exempt UMass "family housing" attend our public schools, which have a high average cost of education just over $20,000 per student, so that alone should be well over $1 million in reimbursements.

In fact the previous 5 year "strategic partnership agreement" that expired June 30, 2012 specifically stated that if the town closes down Marks Meadow Elementary School the University would come back to the bargaining table and reopen the agreement to consider a cash contribution for educational services. 

Note to UMass:  When you play hardball, sometimes you get beaned in the head.

 UMass is the town's largest employer and #2 landowner behind Amherst College

Legal (technicality) finding in favor of UMass

Amherst Elementary School Closings?

108,000 sq ft Wildwood Elementary School built 1970 and 197,000 sq ft Middle School above center built 1969

The Amherst School Committee will hear school administrators "education plan" on Tuesday night that will set the future of Amherst Public Schools for the next 30 or 40 years.

The School Committee will not vote on that recommendation until their November 3rd meeting, and there is one "community forum" before that, on October 26.

 Wildwood Building Committee met last night at Middle School

That plan could very well consist of closing down Fort River Elementary School and merging/redistricting all the students into Crocker Farm Elementary School and a new mega-sized elementary school building to replace Wildwood Elementary School.

 Overhead presented yesterday to Wildwood Building Committee

Letter from concerned parents:

Click to enlarge/read

Fort River Elementary School

Wait Until Next Year

Simple Gifts Farm, aka North Amherst Community Farm.  Pine Street on right

What some neighbors have dubbed "The Forever Project" -- the Pine Street renovation -- a major east/west thoroughfare just north of UMass, our #1 employer, continues to live up to the name.

The $4 million project will not be totally completed by Thanksgiving the drop dead date for construction projects because asphalt plants close for the season.

Since tax money (both Agricultural Preservation Restriction and Community Preservation Act) assisted in purchasing/preserving the North Amherst Community Farm it took a little longer to get permission to intrude on their land for the sidewalk and crosswalk construction.

By the time permission was obtained the squash had already been planted so now the construction project will have to wait until next year.  Don't want to mess with a farmer's squash crop.

The road itself, however, will be completed by first snowfall.

Another project that is starting to join the realm of forever projects is the intersection of Triangle/East Pleasant at the up and coming north end of downtown.

Guilford Mooring out of the hot seat at last night's PWC meeting

Last night the Public Works Committee discussed the item (along with a bevy of concerned neighbors) for the 8th time over the past 1.5 years.

Intersection of Triangle and East Pleasant Streets will go the way of roundabout

The Committee continues to wholeheartedly support the idea of a roundabout but have not yet seen a detailed enough plan to vote on it.  Neighbors have continually expressed concern about pedestrian/bicycle safety and the town losing its "small town character" via a roundabout.

The Public Works Committee will, probably, vote in favor of the project at their next meeting in November.  The PWC is only an advisory committee appointed by the Select Board, who has final say over "the public way."

Click to enlarge/read

 7/10/14 vote was taken before the town acquired $1.5 million state grant for construction work near the intersection

DUI Dishonor Roll

Of the 1,149 traffic deaths among children ages 0 to 14 years in 2013, 200 (17%) involved an alcohol-impaired driver

Amherst police arrested four impaired drivers over the long holiday weekend, three of them due to alcohol and the remaining one for driving under the influence of drugs.

And not a single one was a UMass student!

Yes Amherst being a college town, the long weekends usually stimulates a mass exodus of our college aged youth.

Interestingly two of the DUI arrests were coming from downtown bars when they were intercepted by police, one from Stackers Pub and the other from The Spoke.

Kind of makes you wonder if the bars get a tad more desperate for business when the students are gone and serve those who should be shut off.

In Eastern Hampshire District Court on Tuesday two of the four took a standard plea deal the Commonwealth offers to first time offenders.  A 24D disposition will cost them $650 in fines/fees, loss of license for 45 days and one year with DUI charge "continued without a finding," aka probation.

But it does save them a couple thousand in legal fees and with a legally admissible Breathalyzer test as evidence against them, the chances of beating the charge is nothing if not slim.

Alex Forrest, age 26, stands before Judge Payne after making a 24D disposition plea

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Cayla Sicard, age 30, had public defender assigned and her case continued to next month

Cayla Sicard was arrested late Sunday afternoon after hitting another vehicle on busy Rt 9 in East Amherst. She also had her two year old son in the vehicle with her at the time.

Her legally admissible breath test came in at .18 more than twice the legal limit.

And as you can see from the video she failed miserably the 9 step walk and turn test.



Ms. Sicard  was released on her own recognizance to appear next month for pre-trial, but she will be subject to random alcohol screenings via the probation department until then.

Allan Tremblay, age 24, also had a pubic defender assigned to him and he will return next month for a pre trial on the charge of OUI drugs