Mega School Or Bust

Amherst School Committee last night

Unsurprisingly the Amherst School Committee after two hours of public hearing -- more than half of it criticism from the general public -- voted 4-1 in favor of the administration's  preferred "Grade Reconfiguration 2-6" model that will create a 750 student two-wing school and turn Crocker Farm Elementary School into a pre K-1st Grade early childhood education superstore.



Interestingly this 'separate but equal' concept of twin schools under one roof is the result of concerns over equity for students of color, low-income and single-parent families (and combinations thereof) that make up a sizable percentage of the Amherst public school population.

Crowd of 40 attended, many of them critical of mega-school

The only School Committee member who had not telegraphed her vote last week was Kathleen Traphaghan.  In her presentation she extensively cited her 14-year-old son as a main source for information for this epic decision, which is sort of like a smoking enthusiast justifying their bad habit by citing their grandfather who smoked two-packs a day since teen years and lived to be 93.

Traphagen also criticized the local hometown newspaper for pre-coverage of this "agonizing" decision as being "flippant," making it seem that cost was not a factor.  "We live in this town like everybody else", she said with a sigh. 

Costs will come in between $61.2 and $66.3 million depending on Wildwood School Building Committee pick

Black sheep member of the 5-member School Committee Vira Douangmany Cage played her usual watchdog role, questioning the process as a violation of Open Meeting Law, since the agenda posted on the town website did not clearly show a vote would be taken.

 Agenda posted on town website does not clearly indicate a vote would be taken

ASC Chair Katherine Appy responded that the agenda was clear on the school website and this was pretty much the way they always did things.

Last year, after a number of posting snafus that cancelled meetings at the last minute, the Regional School Committee voted to allow posting of meetings and agendas on the ARPS Regional website rather than relying on hard copy postings in all four towns. The state does allow this, but only for regional entities, which the Amherst School Committee is not.

 Former Amherst School Committee member Andy Churchill spoke in favor of reconfiguration

Crocker Farm Principal Derek Shea spoke in favor of making his school preK-1st Grade

The Wildwood School Building Committee will discuss the School Committee decision tomorrow night as they have the final authority with the Massachusetts School Building Authority for a single project that will receive between 50 and 55% reimbursement from the state.

According to Assistant Superintendent Mike Morris (also chair of the Wildwood School Building Committee):

"There will be discussion of the options at the SBC meeting tomorrow and a vote at the 2/2 SBC meeting on the Preferred Schematic Report (a submission to the MSBA that includes this choice).  As mentioned at last Wednesday's meeting and community forum, another design option (W11) that is very similar to W5 but made for the 750 student building will be presented, so there are four potential building designs to consider (W11, W10, W7, FR5)."

 Forever activist Vince O'Connor predicts disaster for the Reconfiguration scenario

O'Connor's preferred choise is twice as expensive

Vince O'Connor, who championed the most expensive concept of using the MSBA to deal with Wildwood only and have the town go it alone renewing Fort River,  exposed a conspiracy theory that town officials wish to close down Fort River so it could be used as the new Department of Public Works building, another mega-building-project on the immediate horizon.

O'Connor also predicted the MSBA will not even approve the Reconfiguration model since it does not have overwhelming public support.  And even if it does make it to the floor of Town Meeting for a debt exclusion Override vote, it will fail like the elementary school Override did back in 1992.

With Amherst property tax rates already in the top ten statewide, the $200+ added to the average tax bill by a debt exclusion Override for another 30 years to finance this mega-school is going to be a very tough sell.  School officials are putting all their eggs in this one expensive basket.

Indeed the die is now cast, the Rubicon has been crossed.  Let's hope School Superintendent Maria Geryk fares a tad better than Julius Caesar.

Mike Morris and Maria Geryk listening to critical public comments

Kathleen Traphagen not happy with most recent Gazette story as well

Skating On Thin Ice

Cleared skating rink may not be safe for a few more days

One (college aged) young man is lucky to be alive after he plunged through thin ice on Puffer's Pond yesterday after playing hockey with friends.

 Hockey gloves left behind on Puffer's Pond

AFD responded in force but no extrication was required as he managed to get out of the freezing water and make it to shore under his own power.

Although his hockey gloves were left behind, and firefighters deemed the ice unsafe for anyone to retrieve them.

AFD does of course train for ice water rescue.  Last year they had to cancel a drill because the ice on Puffer's Pond was too thick.  

I'll Be (another) Roundabout

Triangle/E. Pleasant intersection (underlined island will go away)

Green indicates proposed grassy area, maroon indicates concrete pavers and/or brick

DPW Chief Guilford Mooring brought the latest plans for the roundabout at Triangle and East Pleasant Street near the new Kendrick Place mixed use building to the Public Works Committee on Thursday night.

This would make the 9th time it has appeared on their agenda over the past two years.

 Public Works Committee meeting (1/14/16)

PWC audience

Major tweaks include a new system of (5) crosswalks that avoid going through the center of the roundabout, removal of a small island over on the side closest to UMass so a "slip lane" can allow for PVTA buses and trucks to make the turn.  It also allows for the sidewalk to be brought down from the current top of a steep hill to grade level.

 Sidewalk on left will be brought down to street level (tree and island in center will go)

A half dozen citizens -- mostly neighbors -- showed up to voice their concerns, which seemed to center on pedestrian safety.  Both Mooring and PWC Chair Christine Gray-Mullen pointed out that roundabouts are safer than signalized intersections.

Vince O'Connor was also concerned about the space provided in the roundabout for a car to stop for pedestrians and he would like it large enough to accommodate a PVTA bus.  Mr. O'Connor was also concerned about dedicated bike lanes all the way through the roundabout.

Mooring pointed out that cyclists could simply act as regular vehicles in the roundabout or use "chicken lanes" i.e. the sidewalks.

The PWC recommended the crosswalk in front of Kendrick Place be moved about 20 feet into the middle of the slip lane, halfway between E. Pleasant and Triangle Street. 

The PWC will vote their recommendation to the Select Board at their next meeting in February, and if all goes well construction could start in the upcoming construction season.

 UMass Eastman Lane/N. Pleasant roundabout is considered a great success

When Products Compete, They Get Better

The sun is setting on our current form of government

The race for Charter Commission illustrates perfectly the problem with Amherst Town Meeting:  20 candidates have thus far taken out nomination papers for the nine open seats, or  2.2 candidates per seat while Town Meeting has only 30 candidates for 80 open seats, or .375 candidates per seat.

So how's a voter to decide who to elect to this critically important body that will decide the fate of Amherst town government for the rest of the century?

Well first of all it should be easy to nix the ones who did not sign the charter petition that brought it to the March 29 ballot in the first place:

Out of the 20 potential Charter Commission candidates that would include Janet McGowan, Gerry Weiss, Meg Gage, Maurianne Adams, Jennifer McKenna, Robert Greeney, Diana Stein, Leslie Saulsberry, and Chris Riddle (Although an Amherst For All Steering Committee member confirms Mr. Riddle signed a sheet but may have been disqualified for being illegible or some other technical reason).

In other words, Town Meeting Loyalists need not apply.  And the initial strategy to protect that inept antiquated form of government was to naively hope enough signatures would not be collected.

That of course did not pan out as Amherst For All collected the 3,215 signatures in a historically record breaking three months.

So the first two questions that should be asked of all the candidates who successfully hand in their nomination papers by February 9 with 50 signatures is did you sign the petition to bring about the Commission you are now running for, and do you support Amherst Town Meeting?

If they answer No & Yes you have your answer:  Choose someone else.

Practice Makes Perfect

AFD Engines 3 & 4, Rescue 1 on scene Amherst College Dakin House for training

Besides paying the town $120,000 for ambulance and fire protection services this past year, Amherst College also allows AFD to train at the abandoned Dakin House next to the College owned Amherst Golf Course.

Since the Student Call Force has a few new members and the UMass campus is pretty busy today with students moving in, AFD decided to use the Dakin House for hands on training: Pulling hose lines and practicing rescues (using full turn out gear/air tanks) inside the once ornate house.

 Structure to left was off limits to training because it's in such bad shape

No, unfortunately they did not actually torch the two story house.

Although someday soon Amherst College will have to raze all the structures as they are increasingly becoming a safety hazard, even though our assessor still values the property at $677,200.

In 2015 AFD had its busiest year ever with Amherst College accounting for  4% of their total calls.

Deja Vu Destruction

 Triangle of land is a "wetland resource area" (Connecticut River on left)

So this unfortunate incident of clear cutting trees without permission and then saying it was all a terrible misunderstanding reminds me of the regrettable incident at UMass a few years back when a contractor demolished the historic old Trolley Station thinking it was all approved.

Trolley Station on North Pleasant Street, built 1911 demolished 2012

Or the Thomas Becket affair when old King Henry asked a little too loudly, "Who will rid me of the meddlesome priest?" And some of his henchmen did so, thinking they were doing the King a favor.

Pretty much the first thing you see when entering Hadley coming off the Calvin Coolidge Bridge is this swath of property with nothing on it now but an abandoned gas station.  And until recently the next thing you saw was the rotting remains of the Aqua Vitae restaurant.

It looked pretty lousy three months ago, and today with the clear cut trees scattered about horizontally, it still looks pretty lousy.  Although removing the old Aqua Vitae building was a huge step in the right direction.

I'm told there were at least a half-dozen trees that were in good shape and did not deserve to die.

Hadley has a right to be pissed over Pride President Robert Bolduc ignoring a Conservation Commission order to leave the darn trees alone.  Don't mess with a volunteer commission in a tight knit farm community like Hadley.

So assess a fine on Mr. Bolduc for a couple thousand per healthy tree whacked, make him replant a bunch more (some of them sizable) to replace the slaughtered ones, and allow the site to be cleaned up and construction of something nicer to commence.

It is as after all, Hadley's front yard. 

Sorry About That Vince

Sandra Burgess (left) Vince O'Connor, Mary Wentworth (right) at 2/20/15 Hearing

Forever activists Vince O'Connor and Mary Wentworth used the Select Board Monday night Public Comment period to air their complaint about a challenge they filed with the Town Clerk last year concerning problematic signatures on Phoebe Hazzard's School Committee nomination papers.

Town Clerk Sandra Burgess ruled the complaint was filed a half hour after the deadline, and after two hearings the Board of Registrars agreed, thus dismissing the case.

But in researching deadlines for the Charter revision question which has now made the ballot the Town Clerk discovered she had erred and the deadline was not 48 hours after the Town Clerk's deadline for accepting nomination papers but a full two weeks later after the Board of Registrars had certified them.

Oops.

This was back in late September early October, soon after Town Manager John Musante suddenly passed away. 

After informing Interim Town Manager Dave Ziomek and Select Board Chair Alisa Brewer and discovering there  is no provision in state law that covers this, she informed Mr. O'Connor of her mistake.  And Vince appeared to take it well. 

 Mary Wentworth & Vince O'Connor at the 1/11/16 Select Board meeting

But now, two months later, he appeared with Ms. Wentworth at the Select Board meeting to complain about it.  Ms. Wentworth was a tad confused saying it was the State Ethics Division who had ruled there was a violation, but that is not the case.

The mistake was discovered by the person who made the mistake and she owned up to it.  Now Mr. O'Connor and Ms. Wentworth want a public apology.

Considering what the School Committee will be deciding next week, Phoebe Hazzard probably wishes their challenge last year was successful.