The Homeless Problem

Chief Livingstone (center) Phillip O'Connell (right)

Last night's Public Forum On Homelessness attracted a standing room only crowd to the Town Room including two Town Managers and an Assistant Town Manager, two Public Safety Chiefs, department heads, Town Meeting members, social service workers, the clergy, and of course some of the homeless who call our streets home.

 Incoming Town Manager Paul Bockelman (blue shirt)

The final speaker -- homeless downtown poster boy Phillip O'Connell -- became borderline disruptive, criticizing the outreach efforts as all show and no substance.  He went so far as to compare the treatment of the homeless as being, "worse than a Jim Crow negro in the Jim Crow south."

Umm, exaggerate much?

But it did cause a stir among the crowd.  And reinforced the image of the homeless in Amherst as being disruptive.

Some Public Works Perspective

Shumway Street Project:  Water/Sewer = $553,487 and Repaving = $199, 827

When you consider that an average Little League ballplayer could hit a baseball the length of Shumway Street and the cost to renovate that little stretch of concrete is over three quarters of a million dollars, it kind of demonstrates that $17 million in road repair backlog is not all that earth shaking.

And Amherst does have 133 miles of roadways.

Vince O'Connor, everybody's favorite activist, is collecting signatures for the Fall Town Meeting to sabotage the new DPW Facility in favor of road repair. 

But the money for a new DPW building or Fire Station or new Mega School,  each of which is tens of millions of dollars, does not come out of operating budgets.

 Click to enlarge/read

Already insiders are betting the Select Board will place a $35 million Debt Exclusion Override on the November 8th ballot for the new mega school.  If that Override should fail it's not like extra money will then be put into the school budget for new books, teachers or playground repairs.

The Finance Committee is taking up the serious issue of the four major capital building projects with an eye towards affordability, timing and educational outreach to the general public.

Scuttling the DPW building project now would only delay the inevitable.  And make it more expensive to restart in the not too distant future.

Hot day for this kind of work

Hold Your Fire

Dog lovers should take heart in a three Judge Appeals Court ruling today that upheld District Court Judge Jacklyn Connly's guilty finding for "cruelty to an animal" after a Hatfield resident shot a neighbor's sheepdog that had wandered onto his property.

The man essentially said the violent act was necessary to protect his wife, who has multiple sclerosis, from stepping on dog feces. 

And that the shot to the dogs hindquarters from a 22 caliber air powered pellet gun was only meant to "sting" her and scare her away.

   Dog Cruelty

Of course if I had been the prosecutor I would have asked the perp to borrow the gun in question and let me shoot him in the ass from 50 feet to ascertain whether it was cruel or not.

Another School Committee Fiasco?

Joint School Committees in open session

Joint School Committees in closed session

After a contentious ten minutes in open session where member Trevor Baptiste lamented "I've had my full of threats, and would prefer any threats happen in open session," the joint meeting of the Regional, Amherst and Pelham School Committees retreated into Executive Session for what we were told would be about "an hour."

Almost THREE HOURS later they came out of Executive Session and the open session continued for only another twenty minutes before adjournment.

 Attorney Tom Columb (who replaced retired Ginny Tate) attended both open and closed sessions

Regional School Committee Chair Laura Kent (the head honcho chair of the three committee chairs present) specifically said they were NOT discussing School Superintendent Maria Geryk's evaluation and that would be done in open session as required by state Open Meeting Law.

So what the Hell did they discuss for almost three hours with their attorney Tom Columb present?

Maria Geryk's current contract has another two full years left on it (with an automatic extension of one addition year), so obviously they were not simply talking about a routine contract renewal.

   Maria Geryk ARPS Superintendent contract by Larry Kelley on Scribd

And, it would have been a gross violation of Open Meeting Law if they did discuss the recent controversy of the "stay away" order Ms. Geryk arbitrarily issued against parent Aisha Hiza back in March, which has caused an avalanche of bad press.

Either way the combined School Committees meet again on Monday for a "retreat" but will discuss in open session the twice delayed evaluation of Superintendent Maria Geryk.  Providing of course she shows up for that meeting.

Former School Committee member Amilcar Shabazz waited 3 hours to comment

Since Ms. Geryk has to be present for such a discussion and she was notably absent last night, the School Committees could not have discussed her evaluation anyway even if they had come out of Executive Session much earlier.

But hey, at least I discovered art while wandering the halls of the High School: 

Almost There

Groff Park Wading Pool is filled with water

One of only two remaining wading pools in Amherst remains closed this hot afternoon but this morning it was being filled with cool clean water and life guard accessories were at the ready.

Unfortunately the best I could get out of town officials when I asked if it would be open for families this coming weekend was a not so concrete, "Maybe."

One h-u-g-e advantage of the spray park that will replace this 50+ year old wading pool is it does not require a lifeguard so it will save substantially on overhead costs.  

New Top Economic Cop In Town

Tim O'Brien, new Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director

The Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce, after a 3.5 month search, has appointed a new Executive Director, but since they are pretty good at writing press releases I'll let them tell the story:

 Click to enlarge/read

A Lorax With Bite

Big Y is requesting removal of these Arborvitaes for better visibility

The Amherst Shade Tree Committee is working on a new by-law they hope the Select Board will place on the November Town Meeting Warrant to update rules and regulations concerning public trees or those growing in the public way, which often extends 20' or more from public roads.

The bylaw would allow the Tree Warden to fine unauthorized removal or purposely vandalizing a tree in the public way $500, on top of the somewhat steep per inch replacement cost.

The bylaw would also loosen restrictions somewhat by increasing the size of trees from the current 1.5" to 5" in diameter that trips a tree review by the Tree Warden.

And they are attempting to come up with a "hardship" scenario where the Tree Warden could exempt a homeowner from paying the tree replacement costs for removal of a healthy tree, such as the little old lady who needs to remove a tree from fouling up a sewer line.

Removal of a tree in dangerous decline would still be allowed at no replacement costs and if located on town property, carried out by the DPW.

The Amherst Shade Tree Committee would still be an "advisory" group to the Tree Warden and the Select Board would still hear appeals of the Tree Warden's decision as they maintain ultimate authority over the public ways.

New bright yellow flyers are attached to trees involved in a public removal hearing

These four on Kendrick Park will go to make room for a new roundablut

This entire island will be removed for new roundabout