Deleterious Downtown Delay

Cowles Lane down to areas west of Kendrick Park

Looks like the Planning Board will backtrack on the zoning article tweak designed to increase the density of our downtown with potential customers for our starving small businesses.

 South Prospect Street behind Amherst Cinema building

The main sponsor/architect -- Business Improvement District -- has requested the zoning article be withdrawn for the upcoming Town Meeting, although they were quick to add "We would like an assurance from the Zoning Subcommittee they will continue to work on this important article and keep it a priority for Fall Town Meeting."

Click to enlarge/read

Simply put the article would have allowed in the B-L District (limited business) mixed use buildings on less than 20,000 square feet of property to have residential units, thus increasing potential customers in the heart of the downtown.

 Area north of Triangle Street

Currently three B-L districts all over the downtown would be impacted as well as Amherst College owned property on Dickinson Street and additional property along University Drive.

   Amherst Zoning Change Memo

B-L districts circled in red

Blue Lives Matter

I'm sure it's not unheard of for a roofer, electrician or logger to die their first day on the job.  But that is what is called an accident. 

What happened to Ashley Guindon on her first day as a police officer is called murder.

And it has been been happening all too often of late.

 RIP officer Guindon, your brothers and sisters have it covered from here

Blarney Blowover Epilogue

UMass Amherst:  A city unto itself (inside our little town)

Yes for the second consecutive year the combined efforts of town and UMass officials won the day, squashing any large scale uncivil gatherings of college aged groups clad in green before they could spin out of control.

Much in the same way they retired the Hobart Hoedown.

Mainly due to increased police presence directly at the flash point sites.  Since Hobart only involved one street and Blarney encompassed almost a dozen, APD called in their brother and sister officers from all over the area.

The thin blue line was as wide as it will ever get in our little college town.

Of course the problem is you can't rely on that sort of backup every weekend between now and graduation.  And as the weather warms, all it takes is one really nice Saturday combined with last second promotion on social media and a new -- yet to be named -- storm is unleashed.

 Or maybe the Saturday morning  peace marchers brought us good luck

Town & UMass declare victory

#####

Editor's note: While I'm honored to have Turtle Boy Sports trumpet to his purported massive readership that I single-handedly killed the Blarney Blowout, it does at least underscore the value of an unwavering light being shined on a particular pernicious problem.  

I can only hope that beacon outlasts the rowdy behavior it focuses on. 

Turtle Boy's previous attempt to "bury me."  (Notice he used the same photos borrowed from local media)

Blarney Blowout 2016

Morning briefing 7:15 AM  100+ police vehicles and AFD on scene

 #####

Parking ban prevented extra thousands from attending

8:25 AM:

Townhouse quads in North Amherst are quiet as police are blockading both entrances 

Police blocking entrance to Townhouse Apartments

Parking lots near Southwest still have plenty of room

 Ch 22 with their hard to miss camera

High Noon:

UMPD at Mullins Center concert:  "Still under 1,000 patrons and we have more leaving than coming." #blarneyblowout

— Larry Kelley (@amherstac) March 5, 2016

2:30 PM:

Townhouse quads quiet like a church mouse, although party activity in the front yards along Meadow Street

PD blockade was extremely effective 

PD blockade at Puffton Village, another usual flashpoint

 State Police Helicopter Air 1 flew lazy loops all morning into early afternoon 

 AFD responding for the 2nd time to 11 Phillips Street for a false fire alarm

APD K9 "Dash" assisted with party control on Shumway Street and College Street

Police broke up noisy gathering on Amity Street near town ctr

 
8:00 PM:  Good night Blarney:

6:30 AM The Morning After:

 Meadow Street

Phillips Street

 Fearing Street

Can You Hear Me Now?

Mass Emergency Management Agency communications repeater at APD HQ

When you're going to have dozens of different local and state police agencies descending on our little college town for tomorrow's Blarney Blowover, they need to be able to communicate with each other on their existing equipment.

Enter this high-tech MEMA communications gizmo, which will allow everybody to keep in close communications.

This repeater will patch a VHF tactical channel, a UHF tactical channel, and an 800MhZ tactical channel into one easily shared channel.

This enables everyone to hear transmissions on that main frequency but still have access to their own normal channels.

Not that there's going to be a heck of a lot to talk about.

On A Wing & A Prayer

Wildwood is limping through the winter with only one functional boiler

Yesterday's disclosure by Town/Schools Facilities Director Ron Bonohowicz at the Joint Capital Planning Committee meeting reminded me of those stories you read a generation or two later about how close we came to a major catastrophe and only by shear luck survived.

Three years ago Town Meeting approved spending $400,000 for two new boilers at Wildwood Elementary School that were requiring constant maintenance.  The two boilers were originally installed at time of construction circa 1970.

But the new boilers were never installed because the Mass School Building Authority invited the town to do a $1 million study to help lead to a new or renovated elementary school with 60% state funding.

The town repurposed the $400K boiler expenditure to cover our share of the Wildwood school feasibility study, that has now grown into a $65+ million twin schools under one roof scenario.

Mr. Bohonowicz is requesting $20,000 to repair one of the boilers that is now shut down due to significant problems that has kept it idle all winter.

The dead boiler is somewhat redundant, but was designed to assist the other boiler during a sustained cold stretch, which is certainly not uncommon in New England.

Fortunately the Arctic stretch we had in mid-February that burst pipes all over town occurred over a long weekend when Wildwood only needed minimum heating (55 degrees) rather than operational temperatures (68-72 degrees).

Failure of the second boiler at Wildwood would result in no school for as long as it takes to fix the unit.  And parts are hard to come by.  A complete catastrophic failure would take months to replace.

In the meantime they could bring in a temporary furnace and connect it like a generator, or borrow one of the three heating units at the Middle School.  Although that would require permission of the Regional School Committee.

All of which is disruptive to the education process at Wildwood Elementary School.  So let's hope the town appropriates the $20k in repairs.   And that spring comes early.

More Housing

 Amherst Office Park new mixed use building opened in October with 17 apartments

In addition to paving the way for new student housing on appropriately named University Drive, the Amherst Planning Board also approved a group home on Henry Street and two additional apartments in the new Amherst Office Park building in South Amherst.

A few neighbors did come to express concerns about the group home and questioned if rural Henry Street was a good location.  Since the project is allowed by right in any zoning district in town the Planning Board had almost no say in the matter.

The one family house will be occupied by five elderly residents and two staff members will be on site 24/7.  Because of the Dover Amendment they are exempt from the town bylaw restricting one family homes to no more than four unrelated occupants.

The Planning Board did suggest trees or bushes to screen the 6 car parking lot.  The vote to affirm site plan review was unanimous.

 362 Henry Street, North Amherst:  foundation is already in

The Building Commissioner had already issued a foundation permit knowing Planning Board approval was guaranteed and that has already been installed.  ServiceNet has signed a 25 year lease with builder Raymond Goulet.

Their final Public Hearing was the shortest of the night and it occurred at the end of the meeting without a single spectator left in the audience.  Ron LaVerdiere requested permission to turn excess storage space into two one-bedroom apartments with one of them handicapped accessible.

Since the endeavor required no external changes to the building and LaVerdiere reported current parking, unlike town center, is underutilized so there's plenty of parking for the additional two units, the Planning Board quickly gave their unanimous consent.

 Amherst Office Park has plenty of parking (photo taken 9:15 AM Wednesday)