DPW: No Place Like New Home

Current DPW cannot shelter much of their fleet

The long awaited new DPW Facility Planning Study will be presented to the Select Board on Monday night.  Main headline of course will be the $37 million price tag. Ouch!

DPW Chief Guilford Mooring points out this is still a preliminary plan with healthy contingencies built in, so prices should drop as the plan gets closer to breaking ground.

 Fort River School is the preferred site for new DPW

The town is currently in the throes of birthing four major costly building projects:  a new $65 million elementary school, a Jones Library expansion/renovation with published reports as high as $40 million, a new forever talked about South Fire Station which certainly will cost more than the $12 millions Joint Capital Planning Committee has used as a placeholder for years, and this DPW refresh at around $37 million.

The state will reimburse half the School and Library construction costs but even then we're looking at $50 million in town funds.  And there's no state reimbursement for DPW, so now we're up to $87 million; and the Fire Station can't be much cheaper than a DPW facility, so new we're well over $100 million.

Or one-tenth of a billion.  Yeah, that's real money.

Drink The Water

DPW is regrading the old landfill to improve drainage

The Water Supply Protection Committee met this morning and unanimously supported a statement/memo to DPW Chief Guilford Mooring declaring Amherst water is safe to drink despite rumblings from neighbors of the old landfill who hired a private environmental firm -- Roux Associates -- to provide ammunition in their war to prevent a municipal solar project.

   Amherst water is fine

 Water Supply Protection Committee

Concerned neighbors

The town recently signed an agreement with SunEdison for a 2.8 megawatt solar array on that wide open parcel and neighbors fear it will increase the probability of the landfill cap failing and creating an environmental disaster.

Plus it will make it harder for dog walking.

A Reasonable Balance?

Kendrick Place continues to draw fire

Despite the objections from both the Chamber of Commerce and Business Improvement District the Amherst Planning Board voted unanimously 5-0 with two abstentions last night to recommend a zoning article to Town Meeting that would better define what constitutes a "mixed use" building.

 Amherst Planning Board

The more restrictive aspects compared to current bylaw is the residential make up of the building would limit 4 bedroom units to no more than 25% of total units (for fear of student rentals by the bedroom) and the first floor must be 60% commercial vs the current vague rule that seems to allow an ATM or gumball machine to suffice. 

Vince O'Connor spoke in favor of the article, specifically citing Kendrick Place as an example of what should be avoided in the future.  And he lamented the loss of the Carriage Shops, which was entirely small business commercial shops, to be replaced by One East Pleasant, which is mostly residential.

 Vince O'Connor:  "Given the latitude for mixed use buildings there should be a better definition."

Although it remains to be seen if these new regulations if passed by Town Meeting (requires a two thirds vote) would apply to One East Pleasant Street, the companion project -- although much larger -- to Kendrick Place. Developers of those two projects,  Kyle Wilson  and David Williams, were in the audience last night but did not speak. 

Last year Town Meeting voted down a citizens petition article that was far more restrictive in defining what constitutes a mixed use building, so this Planning Board article is considered a good faith compromise. 

Kind of like fighting fire with fire. 

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!