Downtown Gains A New Business

 35 South Pleasant Street, heart of downtown Amherst

Londonwest, which will be selling "specialty food products, sports memorabilia, gift-ware" and house a small cafe that serves coffee, tea, and soft drinks goes before the Select Board tomorrow night for approval to serve beer and wine.

In addition to being the town's Sewer Commissioners, Select Board members are also Liquor Commissioners.  The "Wine and Malt on premises" permit costs $1,000 annually, but since there are none available they will seek an "all alcohol license" that costs $3,500.  

The location, in the heart of downtown Amherst, has been vacant since September when Art Alive died and prior to that it was 35 South Cycle, a spin class studio.

Amherst has seen in increase in empty storefronts over the past few years, so it's nice to now see one coming alive.

UPDATE:  Tuesday night.  

 The Select Board continued the Hearing to May 11th due to concerns about how the retail portion of the store would be kept separate from where the alcohol is served, training of staff, and where the alcohol would be stored.

Chair Alisa Brewer was particularly concerned and at one point chastised the rest of the Select Board for not sharing that concern.

Party Potential Part 2

Crowd of 1,000 behind 17 Hobart Lane Sunday 3:30 PM like leaves on a tree

Townhouse Apartments Sunday 3:15 PM

The party scene on Sunday shifted from the west quad at Townhouse Apartments in North Amherst to Hobart Lane somewhat around the corner off North Pleasant Street.

As they did the previous day Amherst police made individual arrests for "liquor law violations" (open container and underage drinking) but pretty much let the crowd, who were gathered on private property, have their day in the sun.

 Mill River Recreation area Sunday afternoon

Police also responded a number of times to the Mill River Recreation area for noise and parking complaints from a large student related gathering that had a permit to use the town property.

The Spring Concert at the Mullins Center Sunday night was designed to keep students on campus so they would not be a burden on town first responders.

But the two extra outside detail ambulances that Chief Nelson requires of them were not enough to handle the slew of substance abuse cases, five of which happened within an hour.

All told Mullins Center Command had 30 patient contacts, with 8 transported to Cooley Dickinson Hospital (three by AFD and five by special detail ambulances) and another patron taken into Protective Custody by UMPD.

Although, sadly, these numbers were pretty much in the predicted range.

Monday Morning aftermath:

17 Hobart Lane

North Pleasant Street across from Hobart Lane

Mill River Recreation Area parking lot

 Townhouse Apartments (from Saturday)

There's a reason they call it @ZOOMASS 🔥 pic.twitter.com/6EGarnPt5l

— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) April 18, 2016

Townhouse Apartments late Saturday afternoon

First Responders Day

Ironically enough our first responders are busy as usual on this day dedicated to them by the stroke of Governor Charlie Baker's pen.  Such is life for the dedicated men and women who have chosen to perform public service in a college town.

 APD station back lot

The folks who freely run into danger while everyone else is sprinting away, who see things not meant to be seen in an effort to help any and all citizens, even those who don't always appreciate them until suddenly they're needed.

 AFD Central Station

Thin red & blue lines, that stand squarely between chaos and order.

Party Potential

Townehouse Apartments 2:30 PM

Townehouse Apartments 5:30 PM

In the span of just a few hours the crowd of college aged youth at the westernmost green space at Townhouse Apartments in North Amherst grew from a couple dozen to a couple thousand.  Fair enough, considering the beautiful spring weather and this being a l-o-n-g holiday weekend.

But when you mix that large a crowd in an enclosed area with copious amounts of alcohol, there's bound to be trouble.

Townehouse Apartments 6:30 PM: plenty of debris available

Around 6:30 PM a 911 call came in reporting a debris fire in the middle of the large crowd.  AFD responded and staged until APD, who had already put a mutual aid call to Hadley and Northampton, could secure the area.

 Townehouse Apartments 7:00 PM: clean up in aisle 5

And secure it they did, even though outnumbered hundreds to one.

 Sunday afternoon, the following day

At the 2013 Blarney Blowout, the year before the one that made national news but still compelling enough to be my "Story of the Year",  AFD had to respond to the middle of the crowd for an ETOH (alcohol poisoning) college aged female.

They were greeted with a hail of ice, cans and bottles (some of them full), thus APD was forced to wade in to break things up, resulting in six arrests.

The following year was even worse with 58 arrests resulting in enough national publicity to give the town and UMass a black eye and a renewed sense of purpose about killing the Blarney Blowout.

And in 2015 and 2016 with the assistance of 225 police officers, stern messaging from the University combined with a parking and overnight guest crackdown and a Mullins Center concert, the Blarney Blowout is no more.

But anytime there's nice weather late in the spring semester the potential for an (unnamed) blowout is pretty high.

Financing The Revolution

The sun could be setting on our current form of government 

The $30,000 request for tax monies to support the work of the 9-member Charter Commission over the next year smoothly straddled a major hurdle on Thursday night by garnering the unanimous support of the Finance Committee after a brief presentation from Commission Chair Andy Churchill.

 Andy Churchill (center) Chair of the Charter Commission

The Finance Committee is an independent watchdog group appointed by the Moderator charged with advising Town Meeting on any and all financial related articles.

Thus if the Charter Commission should propose a governmental restructuring that retires Town Meeting -- as the last Commission did -- the Finance Committee could be no more.

The first major outreach event by the Commission is scheduled for May 12th at the Amherst Regional Middle School where they will take public comment for two hours (7-9PM).

The fate of Town Meeting, which starts May 2nd, will be the top topic.

Banned In Pelham

Pelham Elementary School has Maria Geryk for Superintendent but is not in the Region

Over a dozen supporters of Aisha Hiza, a mother who has been banned from school grounds for advocating in behalf of her child, read a statement of support at the Regional School Committee on Tuesday night during Public Comment.

Committee Chair Trevor Baptiste tried not to let the discussion go very far because as he rightfully pointed out it's not a Regional School Committee issue (Middle or High School), but in fact a Pelham School Committee issue since the child attends Pelham Elementary School which is currently not part of the Region.

By the sounds of Attorney Tate's letter to Ms. Hiza the Pelham School Committee, which only meets once per month, will take up discussion of her complaint against Superintendent Maria Geryk at their May 4th meeting.

And since it's an Executive Session it will be hard to tell if Pelham School Committee Chair Tara Luce recuses herself, since she is employed at Amherst Crocker Farm Elementary School thus, technically, Maria Geryk is her boss.

   Parent Banned Pelham School

School Consolidation? Park it

Kathy Mazur tells RSC it's back to the drawing board on school consolidation

The Amherst Regional School Committee heard a defeatist update from HR Director Kathy Mazur, who was charged with scoping out the merging of Middle School students into the High School building, which represented a complete turn around from her optimistic presentation back in late January projecting annual cost savings of $800,000.

The High School was expanded/renovated 20 years ago and has a current capacity of 1,700 while the projected population of both High School and Middle School grades 7-12 this coming September is only 1,340.

But Ms. Mazur said after viewing comments from over 960 individuals she has changed her mind:

"There are very few grades 7-12 schools in Mass with over 1,000 kids.   It's a LOT of students.  Our cafeteria is challenged now."

Mazur said there was "great interest" from a variety of groups in reusing the building, but the Region cannot make a profit by renting out space.

The Middle School is currently used by Greenfield Community College after regular school hours and the town's Leisure Services and Supplemental Education recently moved into an unused portion of the building.