Unfair Profits?

27 Kendrick Place (Not to be confused with apartment building of same name)

A little less than two years ago then Finance Director Sandy Pooler purchased the little house at 27 Kendrick Place for $5,000 over the minimum asking bid of $220,000.

The house was left to the Amherst Housing Authority by former Select Board member and 30+ year  UMass German language professor Eva Schiffer.   And according to her last will and testament the house should be sold to a town employee at 60% of its market value (at the time appraised at $307,000).

When that did not work out the AHA went to probate Judge Linda Fidnick who ruled it was okay to simply sell the house outright as long as the proceeds went towards assisting low-income families. 

After the sudden death of Town Manager John Musante, when the town was still reeling from his loss, Mr. Pooler announced he was leaving for a job in his hometown.  Fair enough.  Who does not like working for their hometown?

But now the property he purchased for the bargain basement price of $225,000 is on the market for $350,000.  Thus even if he put $20,000 into the house over the past two years, a pretty healthy $100,000 profit wouldn't you say?

Ms.  Schiffer would not be pleased.

If And When You Rebuild It

Amherst:  27.7 square miles, 133 miles of roadway

The Select Board, keepers of the public way, received a technical briefing from the Department of Public Works last night and the take away was pretty sobering.  To repair all the roads in town this  year would cost almost $30 million.

But the current plan is to spend only $1.5 million this year and another $2.2 million over the next four years.  Or a total of just under $4 million over five years.  The state will do Belchertown Road (Rt9) to the tune of $1.8 million in 2019.

 Pavement Condition Index (1-100) higher number is better

Thus bringing the total backlog down to "only" $22.5 million or so.  Except of course for the additional repair work that will be generated by normal wear and tear over the next five years.

 Consultant (StreetScan)  used hi tech van with ground penetrating radar, microphones, cameras to scan roads

The Select Board also voted to approve a roundabout for Triangle/East Pleasant Street that will certainly be well over $1 million to construct but DPW Chief Guilford Mooring ducked the question about financing the project.

And it was also pointed out that North Amherst Village Center intersection will simultaneously be fighting for funding as well.


Who would have thought pavement could generate such excitement?

 Did your road make the list?

No Spring Break For AFD

Only call last weekend to higher education institutes was for gas leak at Valentine Hall

Yes with Spring Break sending the vast majority of college aged youth off to warmer climate zones the number of runs for Amherst Fire Department to our institutes of higher education fell to almost zero.

AFD Spring Break Runs

But, as is usually the case, one of the other five towns they serve stepped up to fill the gap. In this case Hadley, where emergency calls were over four times what they were last week (note two of them for "overdose").

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!