A Blessed Building

St Brigid's Church, built 1924

For the second year in a row the Amherst Select Board has declared February 1st "Amherst Irish Day aka St. Brigid's Day" a celebration of all things Irish -- the hard working folks who helped build this town back when Miss Emily was hibernating in her upstairs room.

Yes, it specifically started only last year (even though the Irish have been here since 1840s) to counteract the idiotic "Blarney Blowout", a Frat Boy slander of the Irish with particular emphasis on highly profitable alcohol sales.

Fortunately, with the assist of 225 police officers, the Blarney Blowout last March was a blow over, and will be again this year.  While the Amherst Irish Association event was a resounding success.

When St. Brigid's was first built it dominated the downtown and was one of the largest buildings in Amherst.   Then in the mid-1960s UMass started to grow exponentially with those Southwest Towers reaching for the sky.

But St Brigid's is still -- and hopefully always will be -- a stirring symbol. 

Conservation Kerfuffle

Wentworth Farm is 80+ acres of open space with Owen's pond in the middle

Last night's Conservation Commission meeting was one part awkward and another part heated as local farmer Matt Kotfila was denied a request to farm one acre of Wentworth Farm and he did not take kindly to that.  In the least.

He was particularly incensed the Commission did not contact all three of his references before a subcommittee of ConCom and Agricultural Commission decided to not recommend to the full board his Request For Proposal response saying it was "not quite ready" and just wasn't a "good fit".

 Matt Kotfila appears (briefly) before Conservation Commission last night

He gave a brief speech that was tinged with anger and closed with, "It can either be a field for dog poop or a field to grow food to help feed poor people."  The Conservation Commission then quickly voted unanimously "Not to issue the license" and will put the property back out to bid.

Mr. Kotfila stormed out of the meeting saying sternly, "You should be ashamed of yourselves!"

Housing: A Human Right

Hwei-Ling Greeney, director of Amherst Community Connections, went before the Amherst Community Preservation Act Committee last night to defend her proposal to house five "chronic homeless individuals" in apartments for three years at $83,819 per year, or a total request of $251,457.

A recent headcount concluded Amherst has 19 chronically homeless individuals within our town borders.  And on most days you can see them in the downtown panhandling, or simply hanging around with nothing to do.

 Hwei-Ling Greeney appears before Community Preservation Act Committee

Yes that $251,457 works out to $16,763 annually per person, but these days the average welfare recipient in Massachusetts cost taxpayers almost three times that.

And Ms. Greeney pointed out that in 2012 Amherst police had 775 calls related to the homeless for a budget cost of $58,000.

And AFD often has to transport overly intoxicated (or drug related) homeless individuals from the downtown to Cooley Dickinson Hospital, with a high likelihood those $1,000 trips go unpaid.

Community Connections asking price includes not just the high cost of a one bedroom apartment in Amherst, but an additional case worker who will provide individuals with metal health support services which will hopefully cut down on their involvement with APD and AFD.

The CPA Committee was not overly receptive to the request due to its high cost, untried paradigm and the concern it may not be restricted to down on their luck individuals with some solid connection to the town.

CPA Chair Mary Streeter acknowledged the great need but suggested Ms. Greeney go back to the proposed landlords and see if she can negotiate a lower rent. 

The Committee currently has $1,778,747 available but they have 14 proposals before them that add up to more than that.

In March the Committee will make their final decision over which projects to recommend to Town Meeting.  And Town Meeting almost always takes their advice.

Charter Two for One?

As of 10:05 this morning 8 candidates have returned their Charter Commission nomination papers with the requisite 50 voter signatures required.  Another 15 have taken out papers but not yet returned them.

Yes former Select Board Chair Gerry Weiss and his wife Jenifer McKenna are among those names that are now guaranteed to appear on the March 29 ballot.

Obviously married couples don't necessarily think alike, but if they have lasted that long under one roof they probably are not opposites like Oscar and Felix.

The new Charter for Amherst is going to the the most important document of our generation.

 Three newest wannabes

Let's hope voters choose 9 Charter Commissioners with a varied background, who can bring strong independent thinking to the process.

DUI Dishonor Roll

Anthony-Denson Rivera, age 25, took the Ch24D deal offered by ADA Bob Opsitnik (rt)

Yes the number of drunk driving arrests on weekends so far in 2016 has been exceedingly low, this being the first.   Which is of course a very good thing.  But the year is still young.

 Click to enlarge/read

 ADA Opsitnik confirms he has never lost a trial where a legally admissible Breath Test was used

 

Cost of a Ch24D disposition

Party House of the Weekend

21 Goldenrod Circle

No offense to my New England Patriots loving friends, but I'm pretty sure if our heroes had pulled out a last minute victory the Party House pickings would have been far more ubiquitous.

Thus the first weekend of the spring semester goes down as a relatively quiet one.  Let's hope that continues.  Especially in March.

For the you-know-what weekend.

The Bad Boys appeared before Judge Connolly and they were each assessed a $300 fine with four months probation.

No Charter Cheerleading

Amherst Select Board, the executive branch of town government

The Amherst Select Board heard from two Kopalman & Paige ("The leaders in pubic sector law") attorneys last night on the do's and dont's of all things Charter change.  Most of it common sense, which this current Board has in abundant supply.  

Prior to the March 29 election the Select Board can do nothing out of the ordinary to influence voters one way or the other on how to vote especially if expends taxpayer funds.  No use of snail mail, email list serves, extra notices on the town website, etc.

Joel Bard and Lauren Goldberg update Select Board on Charter matters

After the election the 9 member Charter Commission becomes like any other town body but with the added bonus of $5,000 in town funds, guaranteed office space and direct use of the town attorney. 

And again the same hands off rules apply with the Select Board for dealing with the more epic vote of passing the new Charter.

The Select Board can assign one of its members as liaison to the Charter Commission to attend every meeting and report back to his/her Board, and Open Meeting Law even allows for a quorum of Select Board members to attend any Charter Commission meeting as long as they do not participate in a "deliberative" manner.

The Select Board can, however, take a formal vote as to whether they support the new Charter and issue a press release.  

Interestingly the Interim Town Manager sneaked a pay raise into the upcoming FY17 budget for the Select Board going from a $300 annual haul all the way up to $1,500 (plus an extra $500 for the Chair).  

Yes, a long ways from the $9,000 Northampton City Councilors make -- but still a solid move towards a more professional government. 

Something needed now more than ever.