A Heavenly Sign

March 29 election this year is on same date as 11 years ago

I was rummaging around my basement over the weekend looking through boxes in storage untouched  for many years when I stumbled across one containing remnants of the past two Charter campaigns.

While there were two votes on the Mayor/Council/Manager form of government, the first losing by an agonizing 14 votes and the second two years later by 252, only one Charter Commission was ever formed as the 2nd vote was simply a do over

For the first go round the state required 15% of the registered voters to sign a petition calling for a Charter Commission which at the time came to 2,600 signatures, but to revote the exact same Charter a second time required 10%.

Either way pretty much all the signatures were collected single-handed by the most determined man in the history of Amherst, Stan Durnakowski.

Stan went on to be elected as one of the nine Charter Commission members and worked hard to convince fellow Commissioners we needed a strong Mayor & City Council, pretty much mirroring our good neighbor to the west, Northampton.

That concept lost by a 5-4 vote and the Commission endorsed a weak Mayor, Council and Town Manager.  At the time Barry Del Castilho was a popular Town Manager and the Commission probably thought it best to keep him around.

 Time for a change!  More so than just daylight savings

But this coming March 29 is a blank slate.  Voters get to approve the formation of a Charter Commission with nine new members who never served before.

Voting yes on Question One is only half the battle.  Choose your 9 Commissioners wisely:

Stan will be watching!

No Balcony For You!

Orchard Hill balconies are now off limits

Because they could be misused by misguided college aged youth, UMass has decided to seal off access to 43 (of 44) balconies in the Orchard Hill residential complex.

Quoted in the Massachusetts Daily (except Friday) Collegian, PR spinmeister Ed Blaguszewski confirms the Nanny move was related to the recent tragic deaths of two students from falls, even though one of those occurred in New York City.

"Given  the significant public attention and media coverage that followed, Enku Gelaye  and the student affairs staff became concerned about vulnerable students who might be affected."

So if the darn media did not put a spotlight on those tragic events and whip up public concern, UMass would have not have thought about locking the balconies?

Kind of like nothing was done about the Blarney Blowout until the national media covered the chaos unleashed in 2014, even though it was steadily escalating in 2012 and 2013.

Maybe UMass should also ban cars on campus as they cause far more damage than the stationary balconies that have been there forever without much of a body count to their credit.

Sunday Construction Update

Hampshire College 17,500 sq ft R.W. Kern Center, a "living building"

8,500 sq ft Hitchcock Center, a drone's throw from R.W. Kern Center, also a "living building"

Amherst College Greenway Dorms

Olympia Place: non tradition luxury dorms near UMass on the tax rolls

UMass Integrated Design Building

UMass Physical Sciences building just getting started

And I would be remiss if I did not mention all these nifty new buildings will be protected by overworked understaffed Amherst Fire Department.

Signs Of Spring & Coming Development

Electric Company will use Kendrick Park as a staging area

The DPW was out at Kendrick Park this week trimming trees to make way for the heavy equipment Eversource will be using to underground all the unsightly power lines and cables in the north end of downtown.

Amherst received a $1.5 million Mass Works grant for the project and Governor Patrick even came calling to deliver the good news in person.

 North end of downtown will benefit by burying utility lines

Of course conspiracy theorists will say it was all an inside job to assist Archipelago Investments with improving the street appeal of their new five-story mixed-use building with expensive apartments making up the lion's share of the facility.

A few years ago the town was twice turned down for a $4 million Mass Works grant to rehabilitate Pine Street in North Amherst.

Town Meeting had voted down a pro-development Form Based Zoning article leading the state to believe we did not deserve a significant infusion of money to assist with collateral development issues, i.e. infrastructure improvements.

   Kendrick Place was bitterly opposed by usual NIMBY/BANANA contingent

So in a sense Kendrick Place probably did lead to the acquisition of the grant.  Not to mention One East Pleasant now preparing for construction at the former Carriage Shops just down the road.

 Roundabout proposed for Triangle/East Pleasant intersection

On Monday night the Select Board will approve a roundabout design for Triangle/East Pleasant Streets in the shadow of Kendrick Place, and a gateway to our #1 employer, UMass.

 Hope will move to a safer pasture across the street

Realignment Park (bottom center/left)

The Select Board, as "keepers of the public way" will also approve the relocation of Hope the Cow from in front of the slated-for-destruction Carriage Shops to Realignment Park across the street.

Hold on to your hard hats, good things are happening.  Finally!

South Amherst Preservation

63 acre Hoerle Farm will acquire Agricultural Preservation Restriction

I can probably count on one hand -- after sticking it in a snowblower-- how many times Amherst Town Meeting has turned down an open space farmland preservation article, so it's a safe bet the 63 acre Hoerle Farm article already approved by the Community Preservation Act Committee will easily pass.

The land is currently in an agricultural protection program that generates almost no taxes so it's not like the revenue to the the town will decrease any.  Moving up to the APR program only protects it all the more from being sold off for development.

And the state is paying 90% of the cost.

Of course one of the BIG problems in Amherst is the skewed tax base where half of all property in town is owned by tax exempts -- Amherst College, UMass and Hampshire College being the top three -- and the town's Conservation program coming in at #4.

About the only thing that trumps (if I dare use that word) open space preservation is historical preservation.

Five years ago, in order to save the privately owned Kimball House, the town paid the state $286,000 (with CPA money naturally) and swapped another larger parcel of land to get property out of the APR program so the property behind the Kimball House could be developed.

 Kimball House, North East Street

Although in that case the owner built the most expensive house in Amherst, so all in all a net property tax gain.

Either way, it was all done with CPA money -- the manna that falls from the heavens -- so nobody cares.

Jones Library Expansion Hurdles

Strong House to rear and west of Jones Library

It's been a bad week for the Amherst Historical Society, owner of the Strong House Museum adjacent to the Jones Library, and by extension a not so great week for the Library.

On Monday in a marathon 3.5 hour meeting the Community Preservation Act Committee failed to fund an $18,000 request from the Historical Society to fund needed legal work to "clear the deed" of the Strong House which came to them donated -- but with a do not disturb provision.

Without being able to legally break the will they would not be able to sell property at the rear and east of the Strong House for the Jones Library expansion.

Additionally,  at tonight's Trustees Meeting they learned from Jones Library Director Sharon Sharry the selling of the land would make the Strong House "non conforming" in the current R-G (residential) zoning.

Thus the Historical Society will now be requesting a zoning change at a Special Town Meeting to occur in the middle of the regular Spring Town Meeting to change the zoning to B-G (business).

This of course requires a two-thirds vote.

 Former long time Gazette/Bulletin house & gardens columnist Cheryl Wilson reads statement of concern about gardens

To make matters worse the first 25 minutes of the meeting was taken up by concerned members of the Amherst Garden Club and other patrons over the fate of the Kinsey Garden and the Strong House 18th Century Garden, which seem to sit in the way of the proposed expansion.

 Jones Library Trustees (President, Austin Sarat on right)

The Trustees did vote unanimously to allow Chair Austin Sarat to issue a statement of support for a zoning change after the Historical Society meets on Tuesday and issues their zoning change request to the Amherst Planning Board.

   Jones Library MOU with History Museum

Furthermore the Trustees also unanimously supported a Memorandum Of Understanding with the Historical Society concerning the possible purchase of the property.

 Strong House front yard all the way to Amity Street not part of the sale

Updating Amherst History

The older section of historic West Cemetery

Despite mild concerns from the town attorney the Community Preservation Act Committee voted unanimously (with one abstention) to recommend to Town Meeting the $5,000 historical preservation request for a new headstone to mark the burial area in West Cemetery of Christopher Thompson, who served in the all black 5th cavalry with his son Charles during the Civil War.

Records indicate Christopher is buried in sacred West Cemetery, but since there's no headstone it's hard to know the exact whereabouts of his final resting place.

Retired Amherst College professor Bob Romer, who spearheaded the request, assumes he is located in or near the Thompson family plot so that's where the new granite headstone will go -- near his son Charles.

Interestingly about 20 black Amherst residents fought for the North during the great conflict with the Thompson family accounting for 25% of that (Christopher, his three brothers and son Charles.)

To appease the town attorney the CPAC found the expenditure helps to "rehabilitate" the cemetery and makes it "functional for its intended use."