Lonely At The Top?

Town Manager John Musante in happier times (2013)

Interim Town Manager Dave Ziomek (center) October, 2016

Undoubtedly the sudden shocking death of John Musante left a cavernous hole to fill in town government's top position.

And for anyone having known and worked beside him for a good number of years, I can see why they would think twice about it even if it is the 2nd highest paid position in town.

I was a bit taken aback on Monday night when Select Board Chair Alisa Brewer, her voice shaking, announced that Interim Town Manager Dave Ziomek would not be seeking the job permanently so he could return to his Assistant Town Manager/Conservation Director position by January 31, 2016.

Having just sat through a two hour heated discussion over a beer/wine permit for a local convenience store in the north end of downtown I should have been more prepared for that bombshell announcement.

Because there's a distinct connection between the two issues.  The main reason Amherst Center Store was granted a controversial liquor license by a 3-2 vote is that Glenn Hamill is a mom-and-pop small business owner with a solid reputation for hands-on management.

 Glenn Hamill countering NIMBY criticism at Monday night Select Board hearing

When you own a small business there are a thousand details a day to occupy your undivided attention and not enough time during a 24 hour cycle to attend to all of them.  And if you're really lucky, you maybe get Christmas or Thanksgiving off for a very brief reprieve.

 Amherst Center Store, one of three convenience stores owned by Glenn Hamill

Although since Mr. Hamill's  new Amherst convenience store is open 24/7, probably not for him.

Running a $80+ million college town is probably almost as hard, even with the top shelf department heads currently in place.

 Assistant Chiefs Don McKay, Lindsay Stromgren (ctr) and Chief Tim Nelson

A few years ago when AFD Chief Keith Hoyle retired number two in command, Assistant Chief Lindsay Stromgren, was a shoe in to replace him.  Except he did not apply.  As with Mr. Ziomek there's personal life beyond the job, and where the buck stops eats into that all the more.

Chief Livingstone at Select Board beer/wine permit hearing Monday night:  "I have zero concerns on this particular license."

When APD Chief Charlie Scherpa retired in 2009 there was an in house competition for his replacement by two very good men, Scott Livingstone and Mike Kent. And when Mr. Kent did not get the nod he soon left the department for the Chief's job in Burlington, Mass.

So in house competition does have its draw backs.

 Ad to appear in tomorrow's Amherst Bulletin

Especially now with the Amherst For All Charter change enthusiasts fast closing in on enough signatures to bring the idea of altering our form of government to the ballot this coming spring.

The big mistake the last Charter Commission made a decade ago was to cater to the popularity of then Town Manager Barry Del Castilho by retaining that position while replacing Select Board/Town Meeting with a (weak)Mayor and Town/City Council.

 Barry Del Castilho attending John Musante's funeral service ceremony in town center

This time around it's unlikely that major mistake will be repeated, so the new Town Manager will be out of a job, or demoted.  Thus it's very likely to impact the search for a new "permanent" Town Manager coming up over the next few months.

After all, who wants to apply to be captain of the good ship Titanic? 

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Bad Boys On The Bus

PVTA is meant to provide safe transit

For many, many years now APD has assigned the weekend PVTA buses as a patrol beat unto itself.

Last weekend at least two officers rode aboard the buses to keep them from becoming the wild-wild-west, and in so doing made two arrests for stupid, disruptive behavior.  Alcohol related of course.

Not a good idea to call a police officer the N word

Jordan Le Guyader, 20, case continued to next month

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Nicholas Riselli, age 22, case continued till next month

Party House of the Weekend

45 Phillips Street

Once again a weekend that was relatively quiet compared to the bad ol' days of just two or three years past.  Our only Party House, with two arrests for Noise & Nuisance, occurred on Phillips Street the most notorious street in Amherst.

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45 Phillips Street to be exact, owned by the most notorious absentee landlord in Amherst, Stephan Gharabegian, who also owns another three houses on Phillips Street, #37,#33, and #11.

Only one house out of all nine on the street is owner occupied.  And the front bookend on North Pleasant Street is a fraternity.

Phillips Street located adjacent to UMass

In Eastern Hampshire District Court this morning both underage individuals took the standard plea deal offered by the Commonwealth: Pay one of the $300 tickets and stay out of trouble for the next four months.

Adrian Lech, age 20

Jason Rubenstein, age 20

Major Business Sold

Center For Extended Care at Amherst, 150 University Drive

The graying -- or some cynics would say decaying -- of America is a growth industry, as baby boomers head into their twilight years. And it must be pretty good when a business would suddenly be worth 400% over the current building valuation.

The Center For Extended Care at Amherst, a 122 bed sprawling long term care facility on University Drive (opposite CVS) just sold for $13 million. The town had the building valued at $3,192,700 or four times less than the property's recent selling price.

I asked assessor David Burgess if that means the valuation will go up for the new owner, and at $20,000 tax revenue per million in valuation it would add up to a significant sum should he bump the value by a few million.

Since the deal is so recent he has not interviewed the main players, but he said it's quite possible the sale number was a "corporate financing price", which for lack of a better term is phantom money.

Thus the valuation will probably not go up at all.

 The Dakin Estate, now fallen into ruins

Kind of like a dozen years ago when Amherst College purchased the Dakin Estate near their golf course for $4.3 million to prevent Barry Roberts from developing it. The assessed value did not jump at all, and today is still valued at way less than $1 million. 

Either way, it's still good to see major business deals happening in our town.

Turmoil In Public Education?

Merging Middle School into High School does not seem to be going well

The public schools can't seem to do anything right these days.

The "Hurricane Revisioning Summit" on Saturday unconvered overwhelming opposition to merging the Middle School into the High School for budgetary reasons and the Amherst School Committee recently backed away from voting on the administrations request for an expensive shiny new mega school. At least until January.

And the Regionalization expansion from grades 7-12 all the way down to kindergarten seems more and more unlikely -- especially since it only takes one town of the four to vote no.   Something Shutesbury seems destined to do.

On Halloween, appropriately enough, I published an exchange between Amherst Regional Middle School Principal Mendonsa and former teacher now parent of a child in the system Alfie Alschuler.  Since over 5,000 read the exchange I figured you would be interested in his follow up.

Let the conversation continue ...

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Showing Up

Town Meeting takes a ten minute standing vote

If as Woody Allen asserts, "80% of success is showing up" this past session of Amherst Town Meeting was almost a success as 78% of members showed up for both nights, with 53 of 240 not showing up at all, or 22%.  Another 43 missed one of the two session.

The Amherst School Committee -- all of them ex officio voting members of Town Meeting -- manged to be just the opposit of Woody's assertion as four-out-of-five (80%) did not make either session.  And the public schools do consume the lion's share of Amherst $80+ million budget.

Yes, the school budget is voted in the spring but there was an important school related capital item on this warrant: $240,000 for a new ADA compliant playground at Crocker Farm Elementary School.

One of the many nice things about a professional full-time Mayor/Council form of government is it's a lot easier to keep an eye on attendence and how they vote on the important issues of the day.

The Amherst For All Charter change enthusiasts are now at the half-way point (1,600 of 3,200) for signatures needed to get the ditch-Town-Meeting question on the ballot for next spring.

This coming weekend they will be hosting "Signature Saturday," with the ambitious goal of 500 signatures.

Something worth showing up for.

Renewing North Amherst

Pine Street yesterday looking east

Pine Street looking west

With the road rebuilding at Cowls Road and Pine Street all but done, the town will turn its attention to the somewhat trickier task of reworking the main North Amherst intersection of five roads within the blast range of a hand grenade:  North Pleasant, Meadow, Pine, Sunderland Road and Montague Road.

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North Amherst center.  Upper Y intersect of Sunderland & Montague Roads main concern

The Planning Board, Select Board (who has the ultimate authority), and Public Works Committee will host a public forum at the Bangs Community Center on December 8th to discuss the redesign of the Montague and Sunderland Roads intersection.

Even my drone was confused

 Cowls Road connects Montague and Sunderland Roads up from the funky intersection

W.D. Cowls will install sidewalk on their property to complete connection to Montague Road

The Sidewalk ended up on the south side of Cowls Road on W.D. Cowls private property to protect the two stately Norway Spruce trees at 150 Montague Road