Echos Of A Distant Battle

March 29 election could have best annual election voter turn out in 11 years

When I realized today's local election was on the same date as 11 years ago when the Mayor/Council/Manager government failed for the 2nd time I started getting that deja vu vibe, which grew more overpowering with the controversy that arose yesterday over the School Committee race.

Rereading all the emails that ricocheted around the Internet leading up to epic showdown only reminded me how much work went into the effort -- collecting the thousands of signatures, the more than 50 meetings of the Charter Commission over a year-and-a-half, and the public relations campaign to support passage of the new form of government.

While I'm confident the Charter Question will pass handily tomorrow I was also pretty confident this time eleven years ago that the new government proposed by that Charter Commission would pass, which obviously it did not. 

If the Charter question does not pass tomorrow, abandon hope all ye who enter here.

##### 

Bev & Stan Durnakowski (SnBDurn) and I formed our own political action committee "Mayor Council Yes" since we were unhappy with the Charter Commission for choosing not to go with a Mayor/Council (voting 5-4 against it) and eventually coming up with a Mayor/Council/Manager.

In other words, we kind of held our noses and worked for passage, figuring it was still w-a-y better than our current Town Meeting form of government.

The regular pro-Charter folks formed "Charter Now", which we jokingly referred to as the "Charterista's."  And the opposition formed "TownMeetingWorks.org" as they have done again in the current campaign.

Jim Pitts was Vice Chair of the Charter Commission and strongly believed in the strong Mayor/Council model that was narrowly rejected by the Commission. His 3/30/05 memo to Bev and Stan the day after the defeat moved me to tears.  

Twice. 

   Amherst Charter Chatter 2005

Proposed Charter lost April 1, 2003 by 14 votes and by 252 votes on March 29, 2005.

Bullet Vote?

Vince O'Connor at a recent School Committee meeting

Yes it makes plenty of sense to tell your followers to use only one of their allotted votes in a race where two seats are open and three candidates are running as we now have in the only town wide contest on the March 29 ballot, School Committee.

But it's also considered a tad improper, since the ballot clearly says "vote for not more than two."  In other words, cast two votes.

The term is "bullet vote" and it's usually a tactic that's advertised via email, phone, or private message.  So I was a little surprised a sitting School Committee member and candidate for the state legislature would come right out and endorse the tactic on her public Facebook page.

Click to enlarge/read

In fact I find it kind of surprising a School Committee member would take a public stand on candidates at all, since she will be working with two of them in the very near future and it could very well be the two she told her supporters NOT to vote for.

As for me I advise the exact opposite:  Vote anyone but Vince for School Committee (Kent & Ordonez) and -- more important -- Hell YES to the only question on the bottom of the ballot:  "Shall a commission be elected to frame a charter for Amherst?"

Desecration!

Graves immediately adjacent to Dickinson family plot

On my usual walk through Amherst town center I was chagrined to find these two toppled gravestones that probably could cast a shadow on the Dickinson family plot if the sun were out and they were still standing.

So I stopped at Town Hall on the way home to show the damage to local historian & Senior Town Planner Jonathan Tucker, and he confirmed this was recent damage.

Which of course reminded me of my Facebook photo quick update a couple days ago of the perimeter fence at the Emily Dickinson Homestead that was also most recently pushed over in the same manner.

 Damage occurred sometime late Tuesday into Wednesday early morning

Amherst police responded to West Cemetery last weekend for reports of homeless folks using it as their personal playground/bar and leaving behind a major mess that had to be cleaned up by the DPW.

This is getting out of hand.

UPDATE (Sunday afternoon):

 AFD & APD on scene West Cemetery after reports of "2 homeless men sleeping on Emily Dickinson's grave." One transported to CDH the other moved along

   West Cemetery Improvements Timeline

Town Meeting: War & Peace?

257th Annual Town Meeting 2015:  30 articles (8 of them citizens petitions), 8 sessions

With 44 articles scheduled as of last night, get ready for a l-o-n-g -- possibly record breaking -- Annual Town Meeting, which starts May 2nd.

Click to enlarge/read

Maybe not #1 for number of articles over the last 10 years, as that distinction goes to 2008 with 47 articles.  And not even #2 since 2013 had 45.  But a solid, above average,  #3.

Over the past ten years the average number of articles on the warrant comes to 37, with the average number of sessions required to deal with that clocking in at 9 sessions.

In other words nine full nights for 150 or so Town Meeting members who bother to show up and a dozen or more town employees who pretty much have to show up.

But the BIG difference is in 2008 only five of the 47 articles were "citizens petitions" and in 2013 eight of the 45 articles fit that category.

This upcoming Town Meeting will have, ugh, a very unlucky 13.

 General Petition = "Citizens Petition"

And the problem with citizens petitions is they are usually put on the warrant (with only 10 signatures required) by do-gooders who wish to pontificate for as l-o-n-g as possible in front of the microphone.

God help us.

Library Expansion Preliminary Cost

Jones Library 48,000 square feet about half of it original and historic

The Jones Library Design Subcommittee heard a presentation this morning from their architects Finegold Alexander about the preliminary -- and everybody was careful to accent "preliminary" -- plans for the expansion/renovation of the current 48,000 square foot facility that dominates the western part of downtown.

Jones Library Design Subcommittee (10 people were in the audience concerned about gardens in back where expansion will go)

The "dream vision" would have been 110,000 square feet (more than doubling in size) and cost $53.8 million, the cheapest alternative of renovation only for existing facility came to $20 million, and the "sweet spot" in between -- and highly favored design concept -- of a 65,000 square foot building came to $31.9 million.

 Wider purple to rear indicates expansion footprint if Strong House property involved

That concept (Option 2) does require the purchase of property from the Strong House History Museum next door, and that price does not reflect whatever that cost will be if Town Meeting approves a needed zoning change to allow the land deal.

The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, who suggested a 75,000 square foot target, will cover 41% of the eligible costs which the architects  calculated at $12 million, thus the town share comes to $19.7 million.

Earlier this week in a presentation to the Select Board, a new DPW facility concept  was unveiled at a "preliminary" cost of $37 million. 

And a couple months ago the Wildwood School Building Committee chose a "preliminary" design for a new elementary school that combines two schools in one for a total cost of $65 million, with town share coming to $30 million or so.

Nothing concrete concerning the new South Fire Station however, although it gets lots of lip service.

AFD Central Station, built 1929, is embarrassingly cramped

Up In Smoke

Last February

About a year after the Amherst Board of Health increased the legal age to purchase tobacco products in town from 18 up to 21, the Wild Side Smoke shop in town center is no more.   Becoming just another empty downtown storefront.

 This morning

At least this one we can't blame on the stellar UMass food service program, which seems to keep students on campus and away from our downtown restaurants.  

 Branch on College Street is still open

Zoning Ping Pong

Strong House (left) Jones Library (center)

Proposed property sale (red box)

Last week Jones Library Director Sharon Sharry and Selectman Jim Wald went before the Planning Board just to give them a heads up about a rezoning of the Strong House History Museum from  (R-G) Residential to (B-G) Business.

 Jim Wald and Sharon Sharry appear before Amherst Planning Board last week

This would allow the less than affluent History Museum to sell side and back property to the Jones Library for their expansion/renovation.  Without the zoning change they could not sell any of their property because it would leave their facility "non conforming" according to residential zoning code.

On Monday night the Select Board briefly discussed the issue and heard that a "covenant" could become part of the article to ensure the property does not someday sell to another entity and become some other commercial enterprise.

Connie Kruger was concerned that would simply "muddy the water" and she pointed out the real problem is some people do not want the Jones Library to expand.  And a zoning article does require a challenging two-thirds vote of Town Meeting to pass.

 Jones Library is an economic engine for the downtown

A Jones Library representative is now scheduled to appear at the April 4 Select Board meeting to request the zoning issue be placed on the warrant.  The Select Board is signing the warrant that night but there's still time to add this article with a simple majority vote.

Since Town Meeting does not start until May 2 that allows enough time for the Planning Board to call a state mandated public hearing on the matter and issue their recommendation/report.

Then all it has to do is survive that zoning gauntlet know as Town Meeting.