Pretty In White

Jada lined up with Miss Emily's famous white dress

Call me a history geek but I couldn't think of a better way of spending Fathers Day than walking around Amherst town center with my girls, having lunch at the Taste of Amherst, and then hanging out at the Amherst History Museum.

I am always a little amazed to be able to amble up close to the last remaining article of clothing worn by our most famous resident, Emily Dickinson: A simple white dress.

Like Miss Emily must have appeared at first glance all those years ago. Simple on the outside, but pricelessly complicated on the inside.

And I'm even more amazed the Strong House History Museum, one of the oldest wood structures in Amherst, has no sprinkler system in case of a catastrophic fire.

Town Meeting recently approved $390,000 for just such systems at The Evergreens and First Congregational Church which are of course historical treasures.

Amherst College owns both The Evergreens and the Dickinson Homestead and they matched the $190,000 Town Meeting approved for The Evergreens ultra fancy fire suppression system.

The Dickinson Museum has a copy of the white dress on display but the original remains at the nearby Strong House.

The proposed Jones Library expansion renovation will create 1,000 square feet of new climate controlled, sprinklered space for the neighboring Amherst History Museum to use for public display, which I would assume means the priceless white dress.

Hopefully before the unthinkable should happen.

Kira at age 14 is already taller than Miss Emily

An Interesting Question

The one question I would love someone to ask our half-dozen candidates for Ellen Story's 3rd Hampshire District state rep seat is how they plan to vote on the recreational marijuana ballot question this coming November?

3rd Hampshire District candidates debate last night

Interestingly at Monday night's Select Board hearing on the 4th request for a medical marijuana dispensary "Letter of Support", which took FOREVER, Happy Valley freely admitted they would love to pursue that market demographic.

But they were quick to point out their business plan showed they would be quite profitable with just the medical market (estimated at $10 million) as long as the Select Board issued them a Letter of Support like they did the other three.

Having made an effort to cover APD weekend arrests for drunk driving and OUI/drugs I have watched hundreds of arraignments and plea deals.

By far the main weapon used as evidence by the Commonwealth -- which borders on infallible -- to bring perps to a quick settlement (Ch24D deal) is the Breathalyzer Test for blood alcohol levels.

And thus far, there's no simple reliable such equivalent for marijuana.

Drone On

Downtown Amherst from 396 feet

The long awaited FAA rules for professional use of small unmanned aircraft systems aka drones will go into effect in late August.  The major concession that created a collective sigh of relief among us responsible users is loosening the silly requirement that operators have a commercial pilots license.

But additional training and certification in aeronautics is required, which is probably not a bad thing depending on cost of certification and degree of difficulty with the syllabus.

The other rules are pretty much the same as announced last year when registration was first required:  keep it under 400 feet, in visual sight and do not fly directly over large crowds.

Maybe when drones go mainstream -- if indeed they haven't already -- people will relax and realize what wonderful tools they can be.

My Facebook page threw up one of those "memories from last year" this morning as I was working on this article that showed me hand catching my baby after a photo shoot in North Amherst center done at the request of outgoing Planner Jeff Bagg (who took the photo).

Drone shoot for Planning Dept public hearing on North Amherst center realignment

A couple of weeks ago I covered the spectacular fire at Alpine Commons and specifically asked Assistant Chief Stromgren if it was okay to put my eye in the sky.

He not only gave me permission but brought it to the attention of Chief Nelson who came over and requested I get a better view of the roof, which was then belching smoke and flames from a fire that had too big a head start.

 Engine 2 (top) has high capacity water cannon at end of 75' ladder

Demonstrating his vast experience Chief Nelson almost instantly ascertained "the roof is gone" and pulled his firefighters out of the building.  Not much later a section of the roof collapsed.

He then sent me over to Engine 2 to show my live feed from above to better direct the 1,000 gallon per minute water attack.

Like any tool they can be misused.  When an irresponsible user crashed a Phantom 2 on the White House lawn the company upgraded their firmware to geofence Washington D.C. as they previously had done will all commercial airports so their drones will not even fly.

And their drones have a built in fail safe so if the battery gets too low or the transmitter control signal is lost it will use GPS to return to the original take off point, land and shut off.  Sort of like an intelligent boomerang.

So when you see someone controlling a drone on public property covering a public event do not come up to them and challenge them about a license or registration.  Chances are they have one.

I often wonder if those same people go up to a person who just parked their car at a public meter and ask them if they have a license to drive?

 Sweetser Park Amherst Community Band concert shot from APD front lawn

Last week I had two gentlemen challenge me while covering two different public events in the downtown, one of which I used the front lawn of the police station as my launch pad/control space.

"Are you registered to use that thing", he snarled.  "Yes", I responded.  "Do the police know you use that damn thing?"  "Yes" I responded.  He stormed off, obviously disappointed.

 Interim Chamber Director Jerry Guidera caught me covering The Taste of Amherst

Although I have to admit negative interactions with the general public are probably only one-in-ten, but those other nine enthusiastically asking questions while my bird is in the air are equally distracting. 

Leaving A Good Taste

Taste of Amherst looked good from any angle

According to Interim Chamber of Commerce Director Jerry Guidera this year's Taste of Amherst was about the best ever due to a combination of wonderful weather and a fine tuned array of offerings from all the food vendors as well as a live music and things for the young or young at heart.

Or maybe is was the full page ad in Hampshire Life using a cool background photo:

Either way, best of all (also weather related) our historic Town Common did not take a beating.

Town Common this morning

More Trouble In Paradise

Antonio's Pizza, 31 North Pleasant Street, downtown Amherst

Yesterday was a bad day for local iconic restaurants.

Rafters slid closer to the abyss after our Select Board approved a "Letter of Support" for yet another medical marijuana dispensary that wants to locate on their grave and legal notice was published in the venerable Daily Hampshire Gazette of an upcoming auction for the building that houses Antonio's.

Double Yikes.

Anyone who knows anything about downtown Amherst knows Antonio's is The-Little-Train-That-Could of restaurants, even slaying a McDonald's that dared to open up next door.

Bruno Matarazzo, the hardest working man in Amherst prior to his untimely death, opened the business back in the early 1990s when the concept of pizza by the slice was pretty much untried.

According to assessor records the building was purchased from his wife Barbara in 2003 by Reves Amherst Pizza Property LLC.  And that company has since expanded Bruno's winning concept to Belchertown, Easthampton, Worcester, Providence R.I. and College Station, Texas.

Rafters: Up In Smoke?

Rafters Sports Bar & Restaurant

After 1.5 hours of sometimes agonizing deliberation the Amherst Select Board, keepers of the public way and front line pot dispensary czars, voted 4-0-1 to issue a "Letter of Support" to Happy Valley Ventures, the 4th such approval (out of 4 requests) in just the last five months.

But this one was different.  W-A-Y different.

The other three involved locations that are currently unoccupied, whereas Happy Valley is buying and tearing down a local institution, Rafters Sports Bar.

Although their lawyer pointed out that the $2 million Purchase & Sale agreement (almost three times assessed value) could be matched by Rafters as they have a "right of first refusal" in the current lease.

And their C.E.O. complained that by trying to force them to address the Rafters dilemma "changes the bar" and puts them at a competitive disadvantage compared to the other three companies which is probably a restraint of trade violation.

Insert:  CEO Edward Lauth (right) & his attorney, former state senator Andrea Nuciforo

Temporary Town Manager Pete Hechenbleikner advised the SB "Any redevelopment has impact on local business.  It's best to set aside this particular business and simply ask is this a good plan for this particular site.  If so, support it; if not don’t."

To which Chair Alisa Brewer responded, "It feels irresponsible."

But in the end (at 10:30 PM) they grudgingly took the vote and possibly sealed the fate of a local long-time,  responsible -- some would argue beloved --  small business.

Rafters sits on corner lot University Drive & Amity Street at  a main gateway to UMass

Fire Station/DPW Plan B

Fort River Elementary School

The current working plan involving three of the four upcoming major building projects is a bit like playing dominoes (or musical chairs):  The new DPW to be located at the town owned Fort River School, freeing up their former location for the new South Fire Station.

 Current DPW is located in 100 year old former Trolley building

Only problem is the Fort River School is still a (mostly) functional elementary school.

Should the $35 million or so Debt Exclusion Override for the new $65+ million Mega School pass Town Meeting this Fall and the voters at the November election the grand plan will be on its way.

Although it will take a few years before the new school is completed in two phases and construction can commence with the new DPW and then the new Fire Station.

But if those best laid plans fail to pass the first major hurdle of an Override vote this Fall both the DPW and Fire Station will have to find new site locations.  The DPW already did a feasibility study that concluded the Fort River School site was #1 but they also identified at least two other adequate sites:

 1) Ball Lane, North Amherst (former Matuszko Trucking)

2) Town land between Belchertown Road and Gull pond

Although the South Fire Station project is only now preparing to undertake a formal feasibility study, at least two sites have been mentioned as a possible location that falls within state guidelines for distance away from town center (so decrepit Central Station could be closed):

1) Slobody property behind South Town Commons, Pomeroy Village South Amherst

2) Town owned South Amherst Alternative High School, South East Street

Thus this coming Town Meeting will be critical in setting the stage for all four building projects which, all told, will cost over $100 million in town funding and should last a minimum of fifty years.

And Town Meeting will be under a microscope as the Charter Commission could propose a new Mayor/Council government, abandoning the 258 year old institution.