A Viable 2nd Emergency Exit

Rolling Green Apartments, East Amherst

Disability Access Advisory Committee Chair Gerry Weiss summed up the public safety situation with two simple questions, one to his committee, "How safe would you feel if your main safety feature in a fire was an intercom?"; and then the 2nd directed to Dominic Marinelli, an accessibility consultant, "How far from a burning building would you like to be?"

Mr Marinelli consults for Beacon Industries who purchased Rolling Green Apartments last year for $30 million and was engaging in a conference call this morning with the committee.  

Amherst contributed $1.25 million in Community Preservation Act money towards that purchase in order to keep all 204 units on the Subsidized Housing Inventory, even though only 41 of the units are actually (slightly) below market rate.

At the time Amherst had an SHI of 10.8% so the loss of Rolling Green would have put us well under the 10% threshold, and then subject to a Ch40B development.

But now Beacon Industries wishes to do major renovations at the property costing 30% of assessed value, thus Americans with Disability Act standards kick in.  They were already turned down for a variance by the Massachusetts Architectural Access Board and are currently trying to get the blessing of the Disability Access Committee for a second attempt.

Since Rolling Green does not have any 3 or 4 bedroom units on single floor flat ground (all of them are townhouses) the committee had no major concerns about keeping the accessible units to 1 and 2 bedroom.

The major, major concern was a viable second means of egress from those units, and that's where the sparks started to fly.

The 2nd means of egress was not fully handicapped accessible but would -- stated Mr. Marinelli enthusiastically -- bring the tenant to a "landing" just outside the building as an "area of refuge".  The tenant could then use the intercom to contact help.

 DAAC Chair Gerry Weiss (top center) Senior Planner Nate Malloy (bottom right)

But when asked by town planner Nate Molloy how big was that landing, the response drew disbelief:  30" by 48".  NEXT TO A BURNING BUILDING.

Marinelli instantly said, "I can try to get whatever size you want.  How big do you want it?"

That's when Mr. Weiss asked him "How far from a burning building would you like to be?".  And a few other members murmured, "In a wheelchair!"

The Disability Access Advisory Committee decided they would contact AFD Chief Tim Nelson for his recommendations and talk with Mr Marinelli again at their next meeting.

Rolling Green Apartments 1/23/13  (photo: Steven O'Toole)

That Rolling Green fire was fatal

Home Is Where The Alcohol Is

AFD North Station, overlooking UMass

If UMass needs alcohol to sell the football team then perhaps they should think twice about how viable the game is as a stand alone enterprise.

Homecoming weekend should be about more than just alcohol.

 Lot 22 was ground zero for tailgating

McGuirk Stadium 6:00 PM Saturday

AFD Homecoming runs

17 out of 27 "emergency" runs (63%) to UMass were for excessive alcohol intake, aka ETOH

DUI Dishonor Roll

Sean Moran, age 24, arraigned before Judge John Payne

Amherst police arrested three (relatively) young men over the "Homecoming" weekend.  All of them were charged with drunk driving, and all three told Judge Payne they would be hiring their own attorney so he continued their cases until next month.

Two of the three -- Sean Moran and Kevin Nadeau -- refused to take the Breathalyzer test which could be a sign that they have been down this road before.  And Mr. Moran, after hitting a crowded PVTA bus, also assaulted a police officer.

Click to enlarge/read

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Kevin Nadeau also had problems piloting his vehicle.  In fact, he rolled it over on Sunderland Road, North Amherst.  Fortunately no residents were walking about in zombie herds as college aged youth sometimes do.

Kevin Nadeau, age 26, stands before Judge John Payne

Refusing the Breathalyzer results in automatic loss of license for 180 days

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Anthony Cardullo, age 22, arraigned before Judge Payne

Anthony Cardullo blew through a stop sign on South East Street on to Main Street and was arrested for that failure to stop, as well as for operating under the influence of alcohol which of course contributed to his bad driving.

Mr. Cardullo did take the legally admissible breathalyzer back at APD headquarters with the results of .12 or 1.5 times the legal limit.

Tellingly, Assistant District Attorney Bob Opsitnik confirms he has never lost a drunk driving case over the past year that has gone to trial where a legally admissible breathalyzer was in play.

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