That Didn't Take Long

Atkins Reservoir is down 50%

On Monday night the Amherst Select Board voted to give the Town Manager authority to escalate the "voluntary" water restrictions to "mandatory".  And today he did just that, starting Friday August 19.

My drone will be working overtime on enforcement.

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Don't Drink & Drive

MADD:  About one-third of all drunk driving arrests are repeat offenders

The two APD routine arrests over the weekend for Driving Under the Influence illustrate perfectly why the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on Monday reaffirmed the common sense notion that perps who have been detained for DUI have no right of counsel prior to administration of the Breathalyzer.

DUI Attorney Not Mandatory

In Massachusetts, an "implied consent" state, you do have the right to say "No" but that will result in a loss of license for six months.  And you do have the right to a phone call within one hour of being escorted into the police station.

Since the Breathalzyer test is time sensitive and DUI attorneys are not always available in the dead of night, requiring police departments to forgo this invaluable tool would result in far too many guilty parties going free.

With any one of them potentially going on to change forever the lives of an innocent family.

 Rafael Garcia, age 21 (APD intake photo)

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 Joshua Silver, age 27

Another late night incident

A Shining Example

During the Town Manager's report last night Dave Ziomek extolled the recent stand out performance of native son Michael Hixon who won an olympic silver medal, and the hearts and minds of many townies.

Amherst has the lowest median age in the state

Select Board Chair Alisa Brewer said the board had received a request to have a good old fashioned parade to congratulate Hixon, but she was concerned about such an undertaking -- especially at this time of year when the entire world seems to be on vacation.

Connie Kruger suggested a proclamation at least, with some sort of ceremony.  Mr. Ziomek said he would contact Hixon's parents to see when he may be back from Rio and available.

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Its been a tough year in our little college town.  Beloved Town Manager John Musante passed away suddenly on September 20, and our other top employee, School Superintendent Maria Geryk, is leaving under a toxic cloud of secrecy and suspicion.

Amherst, in spite of its independent spirit, is a company town and that company is higher education.

Michael Hixon represents everything that is right with our college aged youth.  And even more, what is righteous about our country.

Fight The Power

CAC Chair Dee Shabazz tells Select Board current contract offer is "disappointing"

The anti-corporate stand up for the little guy (and gal) attitude New Englanders are famous for was on full display at last nights' lengthy Select Board meeting as our executive branch voted unanimously to fight the current Comcast ten year cable franchise renewal offer and to send a message to Berkshire Gas to end the current moratorium on new gas hook ups that hurts our downtown.

To the cheers of the Cable Advisory Committee in the audience the SB instructed the Town Manager to tell Comcast the town is unhappy with the current final offer because the one time $950,000 capital allotment is too low and not bringing HD to our local cable access channels is unacceptable.



In the 2006 contract Comcast allocated $450,000 (or $538,000 in today's dollars) in one time capital allowance but much of the infrastructure equipment was already dated and now needs to be replaced.

Amherst Media requested $2.2 million and at yesterday's CAC meeting Director Jim Lescault said even with the draconian cuts to reach the new $950K target he is still shy $230,000.

The capital monies in question are "pass along" costs to the 7,000 Amherst Comcast customers and at $950K would amount to $1.24 monthly which is an increase of 36 cents from the current 86 cents per month.

The contract expires in mid-October but the Select Board has a September 26th drop-dead deadline to officially respond to the current Comcast offer.

Amherst now relies on the Comcast iNet infrastructure for telephones and Internet, so if the system should go dark in October it will send the town back into the stone age.

OML Complaints Piling Up

Maria Geryk is seeking $309,000 to buy out last two years of her contract

The Amherst Pelham Regional School Committee is planning to go into executive session on Wednesday for the 5th consecutive meeting, only this time to approve the minutes from the previous four session so they can be released to the general public, and to discuss the Open Meeting Law complaint filed by Michael Hootstein on August 1st.

Well now they will have even more to discuss concerning that complaint because Mr. Hootstein has filed yet another seeking an overturn of their 4-3 vote last week to pay Superintendent Maria Geryk $309,000.

Furthermore, he is requesting the Attorney General fine RSC Chair Laura Kent and Amherst School Committee Chair Katherine Appy $1,000 for willfully and knowingly violating the Open Meeting Law.

 In addition he seeks release of an email from Maria Geryk distributed but retrieved by attorney Tom Columb, an associate of attorney Giny Tate, at the first executive session July 13 meeting where she presented her demands with assistance from Giny Tate who is the Regional School Committee's legal counsel.

   Another Public School OML Complaint

Conservation Now

Atkins Reservoir is down 4 feet

UPDATE:  The Select Board voted unanimously to give the Town Manager authority to implement mandatory water restrictions should the drought worsen before they meet again on August 29.

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The Amherst Select Board, acting as the town's Water Commissioners, will consider stepping up their game on Monday when it comes to water conservation in the dog days of August by making the current "voluntary" controls "mandatory".

 July rainfall is down 40% from the ten year average

One problem is the the day after they enacted the advisory ban it rained.  Not nearly enough precipitation to do much of anything other then create an impression that Mother Nature was suddenly on our side.

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As the DPW chief points out the "voluntary water restrictions have helped with only 7 of the last 16 days."

And with our #1 demographic -- college aged youth -- about to descend on our sleepy little town, it would be nice to ensure that when a faucet is turned the water still flows.

 Atkins Reservoir this morning

Consonance & Dissonance

 Today's Gazette (almost keeping up)

This morning's hometown newspaper front page says it all: The catastrophic implosion of Maria Geryk's 5.5 year reign as Superintendent of the venerable Amherst Regional Public Schools dominating above-and-below the fold with two dirty laundry stories on the right side, while the historic Olympic silver medal win of hometown boy and recent ARHS graduate Micheal Hixon shares the left side.

Maria Geryk before the fall


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No mention of the $309K buyout coming out of the schools budget