Seriously?

Lord Jeffery Inn

You could tell Select Board member Jim Wald (who works for a sorta competing higher education entity) was not overly impressed with a request from Amherst College owned Lord Jeffery Inn for a 50% break on parking fees for an event next March.

After Chair Alisa Brewer breathlessly explained that the Lord Jeff had booked the event before realizing the parking rate had doubled from $5 to $10 per bag (thus reserving the space for their use only) and they were requesting a one time rollback to the old rate.

Mr Wald responded incredulously with only word, "Seriously?!"

Probably because the Lord Jeff Inn is valued at over $5 million, although to their great credit they do pay both property taxes and the town's local Hotel/Motel Tax (unlike cheapskate UMass Campus Center Hotel).

Which set the tone for the rest of the brief discussion.  The board unanimously approved setting aside the 40 spaces, but at the current $10 rate.

Last year: bagged parking meters in front of Lord Jeff for a wedding

DUI Dishonor Roll

Police took four alleged drunk drivers off the road over the weekend -- two in Amherst and two in Hadley -- and three of the four consented to a breath test, of which the results clearly shows why they were arrested.

All four were arraigned before Judge Payne in Eastern Hampshire District Court and had their cases continued over the next six weeks.

Venetia Fotopulos 

Keri Quinlan

Kathryn Agalar

Jenna Gagnon

Yeah, I'm The Taxman

Principal Assessor David Burgess

Principal Assessor David Burgess made his scintillating annual appearance before the illustrious Select Board to set the tax rate for the coming year, which is already too high and will only go higher, from $20.54 up to $21.22 per thousand.

Also as usual the SB decided not to "split" the tax rate and charge commercial property more in order to save homeowners a small amount.

For instance if the board had decided for the maximum shift allowed the tax rate for homes would drop to $20.01 (pretty much the same ridiculous rate we pay now) and commercial would skyrocket to $31.83.

Or put in more simple terms the average taxbill for an average home would go from $6,842 down to "only" $6,456 while the average commercial bill would go from $7,627 up to $11,148.  Ouch!

These out of whack numbers clearly underscore a major problem:  Amherst is overly reliant on residential property, a whopping 90% of the tax base.

The good news is recent development has spurred annual "new growth" which Mr. Burgess projects around $750,000 for the upcoming fiscal year mainly due to Olympia Oaks and Kendrick Place coming on line.

And since rents are continuing to rise in Amherst he told the Select Board large apartment complexes will "take a hit" after his next reevaluation.  With dwelling structures of 4 units or greater the assessor uses a formula that considers net operating profits so the higher the profits the higher the valuation the higher the tax burden.

Too bad he could not use that same formula with smaller (less than 4)  housing units as slumlords could then be assessed based on their cash flow rather than the crappy condition of their units -- which leads to lower assessments and maximum profits.

Phillips Street, the slummiest street in Amherst, has only 1 owner occupied home

No Grant For You!

Historic North Common in front of Town Hall 

The town is on roll with state grants lately ... as in rolling off a high cliff.

Last night Interim Town Manager Dave Ziomek informed the Select Board the $400,000 PARC grant  (Parkland Acquisitions & Renovations for Communities) rehabilitation of the historic North Town Common was denied,  for the second time now.    

The town also recently lost out on mega-million MassWorks grants for rebuilding Pine Street and the funky intersection in North Amherst.

Of course the Community Preservation Act Fund is flush with money after the town increased the surcharge rate to 3%, so town officials will probably move to tap those reserves to get the needed job done.

Ho, Ho Humbug

Select Board could suspend permit of a downtown bar causing a public disturbance

The Amherst Select Board, who are also the official state "Liquor Commissioners" for the town, heard a brief report last night from Interim Town Manager Dave Ziomek on the town's preparedness for the downtown pub crawl Santa Con, stumbling into town center on Friday.

He has "Every confidence we are as prepared as we can be.  Staffing will be up in both police and fire departments and Chief Livingstone will be on duty ... we will be prepared."

But Select Board Chair Alisa Brewer let it be known "If things go badly I want their names -- the establishments who participated -- in public.  If they created a problem I want it to be known."  She requested Mr. Ziomek provide a public post mortem at their December 14 meeting.

Connie Kruger also displayed her displeasure with the event asking Mr. Ziomek for ongoing reports the night of the event while she clearly stated, "My message is this event really is unwelcome in this town."

There was also some discussion -- and you could practically see their eyes rolling -- about how UMass Isenberg School of Management is probably not overly proud of their recent graduate turned hospitality entrepreneur.

And how perhaps the Campus & Community Coalition could have done more in response to this event -- especially after they recently opposed a beer/wine permit for a hard working small business owner on the outskirts of town center.

NPR reports

The Cost Of Competition

Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School is located next door in Hadley with a new $10 million building expansion

Besides the half hearted threat from Shutesbury to create chaos with the funding mechanism for next year's Regional Budget by voting down the current assessment method, the other -- even more stunning -- thing to come out of the Four Towns meeting on Saturday was the negative impact Charter School competition will have on next year's budget.

FY2017 Charter Tuition projected increase is $493,650 as the number of Regional students attending Charter schools escalates by 10, going from the current 93 up to 103 at an average cost of around $20,000 each.

Last year total cost of Charter/Vocational/Choice students opting out of ARPS was $2.6 million; this coming year it is projected to increase to $3.1 million.

 Kathy Mazur, Sean Mangano, Maria Geryk at Four Towns meeting

The anticipated budget gap for a level services budget next year is $460,000 which is way better than the $900,000  gap we were looking at last year around this same time.

But that entire amount could be covered if we were not losing an additional $493,650 in Charter School payouts.

Superintendent Maria Geryk freely admitted to the Four Towns meeting that "Charter Schools are the driving force for our our budget going up."  And, she added ominously,  "The Charter cap statewide may be lifted.  If so, we will suffer."

Click to enlarge/read

Budget projected to increase 3.4%.  Amherst Finance Committee recommendation to town departments is max of 2.5%

A Date That Has Lived In Infamy

USS Arizona 12/7/41

USS Arizona today

“I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (12/7/41)


“With confidence in our armed forces - with the unbounded determination of our people - we will gain the inevitable triumph - so help us God.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt (12/8/41)

Total killed at Pearl Harbor 2,402

Attack begins:  7:48 a.m.

USS Arizona explodes: 8:10 a.m.

USS Arizona:  1,177 killed in action, the highest loss of live in US naval history.