A Tad Too Secretive?

Amherst Pelham Regional School Committee will meet tonight in ARHS Library

Even before the Regional School Committee convenes this evening for the 3rd straight executive session regarding the fate of Superintendent Maria Geryk, a guardian with a grandchild in the public school system has filed an Open Meeting Law complaint over their secretive behavior.

   School Comm OPM Complaint

Clearly there are problems with the annual evaluation of the Superintendent and clearly the Open Meeting Law states, unlike lower echelon employees in the public schools, all deliberations regarding the Superintendent's job performance must take place in public.

Half A Loaf?

Amherst Media also has to find a new building soon

A bit of a firefight is brewing for Monday night's Select Board meeting as Amherst Media Director Jim Lescault is not overly happy with the ten year cable contract license renewal negotiated by our Cable Advisory Committee and Temporary Town Manager Pete Hechenbleikner with mega Death Star corporation Comcast.

Amherst Media is our Public Access provider (with three channels) bringing us town government meetings and the occasional offbeat do it yourself productions.

Ten years ago the contract provided $450,000 in a one time capital equipment funding and this year Amherst Media was looking for $2.2 million.

Amherst Media Board of Directors President Steven Brewer, husband of Select Board Chair Alisa Brewer, is also very unhappy with the proposed contract.

Steven Brewer testifying at 9/25/15 Cable Ascertainment Hearing before Select Board

Comcast is offering $950,000, or less than half the request.  But, as usual, the contract does call for a 5% cut of cable TV revenues (but not telephone or Internet) which come to about $300,000 annually. 

Busy Friday

Northampton Fire Department in South Amherst Friday 8:29 AM

If you or a loved one required an ambulance Friday morning Amherst Fire Department -- your local hometown providers -- would have relied on a neighboring professional EMS department to come to your aid. 

Hence the term "mutual aid".

In fact our friends in Northampton had to respond to a call in South Amherst from a 14-year-old who awakened with severe lower extremity pain. 

APD responded immediately (although they too were stretched at the time) and AFD's fire prevention officer  jumped in his vehicle and sped to the scene to assist until the Northampton ambulance arrived.

Unfortunately it's not all that unusual:  The needs of Amherst residents being met by a neighboring FD ambulance averages 78 times per year.

 AFD & APD on scene Northampton Road 8:10 AM for our friend Ethel

Over the next 12 hours AFD Dispatch would tone out on three separate occasions for off duty personnel or the Call Force to come in for "station coverage."

And even that only provides minimum coverage at the station, not enough to fully staff an engine in case The Beast came calling.

Why do you think they are a called a "fire department?"

Engine 1 with only 1 aboard (left) arrived to this on June 4th

Last month on a "routine" Saturday afternoon the first arriving engine at a major fire at Alpine Commons apartment building had only one firefighter aboard (the driver) and he could do virtually nothing until anther engine arrived from North Station with three aboard.

We were flat out lucky on Friday morning.  One day soon, our luck will run out.

Pot Of Gold

Amherst Medical marijuana is projected to be $10 million in annual sales

The Amherst Select Board acting as our chief executives will sign a "community host agreement" on Monday night with one of four Registered Marijuana Dispensaries  that will generate at least $90,000 in guaranteed payments and possibly twice that in a 3% take of the action, estimated to be $10 million annually.

   Amherst Pot Agreement

The contract calls for $75,000 in year one plus 3% of gross sales, and a guaranteed payment of $15,000 annually to a social service agency that focuses on Amherst.  The next two years of the contract ,where annual sales will have ramped up, calls for just the 3% cut of sales.

Of the four entities wishing to acquire the Golden Ticket to sell medicinal pot in Amherst only two have thus far gained a required Special Permit from the Zoning Board of Appeals: Mass Alternative Care at 55 University Drive and GTI Massachusetts NP Corporation at 169 Meadow Street.

Rafters has been a local landmark for 25 years proposed site for Happy Valley Ventures

Interestingly Happy Valley Ventures has not yet acquired that vital document.  And by most measures they are only business generating controversy since their operation will displace Rafters Sports Bar and Restaurant, a beloved institution for the past 25 years.

Obviously this gold rush is stimulated by not only the medical market for this all natural drug of choice, but the recreational legalization question coming up on the November 8th ballot.

In 2000 Amherst was the first community in the state to approve a non binding referendum question urging police to relax the enforcement of marijuana laws.

And in 2001 the Select Board unanimously approved a letter to state and federal authorities urging legalization as Amherst Town Meeting had done previously in 1976.

Another Great One Gone

Big trucks, bikes, kitties, birds and war planes.

Amherst lost a local legend this morning and a bad ass woman to boot.  But equal parts caring, compassionate and loyal.

Ethel Clemons-Hunt was a founding member of the July 4th Parade Committee and over the ten years we produced the patriotic family oriented event I can't remember Ethel ever missing a meeting.  Of course they were held at the VFW, one of her usual stomping grounds.

No matter how dark things became after Town Manager Larry Shaffer tried to pull our permit for not allowing protestors to march, Ethel remained upbeat and positive -- but always full of fight.

Over the past half dozen years I could always count on a thumbs up or encouraging comment when I posted a blog link to Facebook. 

And I especially coveted that when those posts were of a sensitive racial nature, usually involving incidents at Amherst Regional High School, her alma mater.

Growing up in Amherst as we did all those years ago blacks and Irish were pretty much in the same rickety boat.    Hard working townies like Ethel -- for better or worse -- made this town.

Now, with her absence, it's worse.

3rd Time The Charm?

Maria Geryk at Select Board meeting in January for Mega School update

For the 3rd consecutive time (plus two that were cancelled last minute) the Amherst Pelham Regional School Committee will meet in executive session to discuss the employment future of Superintendent Maria Geryk.

Since it is a secret meeting with no itemized posted agenda we do not know if it's Maria Geryk who wants out of the remaining two years on her contract (at $150K per year) or if it is the School Committee that wishes to terminate the entire contract or just the extra 3rd year that requires 120 day notice to terminate. 

Although I'm told this is the first time rookie Chair Laura Kent polled members in advance (legally allowed under Open Meeting Law) to ascertain whether they are available to make this meeting. 

The Regional School Committee also formerly adopted "remote participation," so even if members are on vacation they can participate by Skype, Facetime or conference call.

The Superintendent has been under fire for the past four months for issuing a "stay away order" to single parent Aisha Hiza who was pressing school officials to deal with the bullying of her seven year old daughter (and a few other children in the Pelham Elementary School).

 Aisha Hiza at June 13 Select Board meeting

Unlike the District Court system the state allows Superintendents superpowers when it comes to issuing such orders.  But with any great power comes the responsibility to use it wisely.

Let's Get Serious

Atkins Reservoir yesterday

Pelham Reservoir (Not in use at the moment)

With our immediate area in a "severe drought" and with over one-third of all communities in the state already implimenting "mandatory" water bans it's time Amherst became a tad more serious and upgraded the two-day old voluntary ban to a mandatory one (exempting farmers of course).

 Fort River barely flowing

Fort River near Groff Park

The somewhat Rube Goldberg water system we have is already in high-capacity mode three weeks before the college aged youth come flocking back to our town, which could be the bale of hay that breaks the camel's back.

UMass is immune from town edicts (you can tell which fields are irrigated)

Groff Park Wading Pool should remain exempt (Cherry Hill Golf Course, on the other hand)

No water over Puffer's Pond dam this morning

1980 UMass Water Shortage Shut Down