Drawing Fire

Sawmill will be demolished to make way for project

It didn't take long for NIMBYs to voice their public comment about Beacon Communities proposed 130 unit development in North Amherst and as usual complaints included traffic, noise, and the fear of more college aged youth moving to their neighborhood.

 NIMBYs invaded 8/29 Select Board meeting

The main suggestion was to downsize considerably the number of housing units by as much as 50%. Since the project includes a significant affordable housing component it has to be a sizable number of total units to make up for the low cost ones.

And since Amherst has an across the board housing shortage, any increase is a good thing. Beacon is using a "friendly 40B" approach to get needed concessions on height, set back and lot coverage in order to make the project work.

If the state grants them clearance they must still get approval from our Zoning Board of Appeals but unlike a normal hearing where a Special Permit requires a unanimous vote this would only require a two-thirds vote.

Yesterday the town filed a MassWorks grant proposal for $1 million to redo the funky North Amherst main intersection of Montague & Sunderland Roads with Meadow Street, North Pleasant and Pine Streets.

Sunderland and Montague Road branch off after intersection of Pine/Meadow/North Pleasant

And the state does heavily weigh future economic development before issuing the grants.

Neighbors are concerned that the town has formed an unholy alliance with Beacon and Cowls (the landowner) in order to acquire the grant and that will unduly influence the ZBA.

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A few years ago these same NIMBYs successfully shot down zoning changes that would have led to more development in North Amherst and as a result the state twice turned down our $4 million MassWorks grant to rehab Pine Street.

A King Is Born

233 North Pleasant Street (between former Carriage Shops and Kendrick Place)

The north end of downtown has a new destination spot for fine dining and you don't have to be Lebanese to appreciate their fresh offerings. 

Malek Shawarma (meaning "king" of the Shawarma sandwich) Mediterranean Cafe opened today just in time for the reawakening of our little college town.  The business is owned by Eliana Dabbous who operates a barber shop next door and her son Ali will be managing the restaurant.

 Ali Dabbous (right)

Anyone who has ever run a small business knows it's a full-time + commitment, and the odds of success are increased dramatically if you have a partner who shares your enthusiasm for serving the general public and the onerous work ethic that requires.

It also helps if you have a great product.

Beef slow cooking

Who Shot J.R.?

Amherst Pelham Regional School Committee

Well, maybe not the equal to TVs most famous cliffhanger but this confirmation that tell-all documents will be released Tuesday at the Amherst Pelham Regional School Committee should dramatically increase viewership.

Although I doubt Maria Geryk will be in attendance.

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By Any Other Name

UMass east gate entrance one month ago

UMass east gate entrance this morning (New Dirt indeed)

Ten years ago UMass Chancellor John Lombardi received pushback from some state legislators in Boston for his prolific use of the term "flagship" with UMass/Amherst because it could hurt the feelings of the state's other four UMass campuses.

But in his typical Harry Truman style he basically told them to go to Hell.

Now UMass Chancellor Subbaswamy has gone so far as branding the moniker on expensive new signage, once again risking disfavor with some in Boston.

But far worse than that, by removing the name "Amherst" from those expensive new signs it will most certainly piss off the locals.

Like WTF UMass, do we embarrass you?

If you really want to be a city onto yourself then get your own damn Fire Department. Overburdened AFD spends 20% of it's time dealing with on campus incidents and oftentimes locals have to wait for an ambulance because they are all tied up dealing with substance abuse patients from your "flagship" location.

And better yet, get your own damn Water/Sewer Department so the 30% of OUR system you consume can be held in reserve for the local taxpayers who spent tens of millions constructing it.

Or start an elementary/middle/high school for the 56 kids who attend ours from your tax exempt housing that cost Amherst taxpayers over $1 million annually.

In other words, as Harry Truman would probably say, "Go to Hell!"

 Geeze, maybe they will change their Twitter handle to "UMassFlagship"

Getting Serious!

Large electronic billboard Rt 9 Amherst/Hadley line

A new lawn sign to join all the political ones

This morning our scientifically minded Amherst Water Supply Protection Committee heard a sobering report from DPW Chief Guilford Mooring and Assistant Town Manager Dave Ziomek updating them on the current water crisis, err, concerns.

 Water Supply Protection Committee, Dave Ziomek, Guilford Mooring

Click to enlarge photos/graphs

 Quickly heading towards previous lowest year, October of 1982

While Atkins Reservoir is easy to measure, the even more important wells at the moment are not.

So a pressure gage will be installed at two locations to give weekly reports on the static level of the water table to measure whether the wells can continue to produce water at current rates.

 Atkins Reservoir 8/24

With one reservoir unusable except for the fire department refilling their tankers and Atkins headed towards a shut down the wells will be our only means of survival.  And yes the town did rely exclusively on them at one point for a couple months back in the early 1980s.

The state has kept measurements on some wells for about 35 years and the closest one to Amherst in Pelham now measures the lowest in that entire 35 year history.

UMass is making plans for Armageddon by ensuring a bottled water supply could be made quickly available and switching to paper plates in case dishwasher units are eliminated.

Amherst College has set their air conditioning units 5 degrees warmer and the town is tapping the 380,000 gallons of water remaining in the two outdoor pools for routine tree and shrub watering at a rate of 1,000 gallons per day.

Water usage went down after the mandatory ban but is starting to creep back up

With our resident population about to double the peak water consumption day is coming up fast. Last year it occurred on September 6th at 4.2 million gallons.

This year town officials are hoping to keep it to 3.5 million gallons, although it seems to hard to believe since UMass traditionally consumed about 30% of the water supply.

 Even if consumption peaks at or a little over 4.2 mgd the wells can handle it

Barring any unforeseen catastrophes, like a monumental structure fire or a C5A crashing into the Lawrence Swamp and taking out Well 4, we should survive the long Labor Day weekend and the first few days of our little college town operating with all our beloved institutes of higher education in session.

The real question is what happens in late September, October and November if Mother Nature continues to deny us routine rainfall?

 The Ghost of Christmas future?

Not A Bad Nest Egg

Select Board August 29 New Town Manager Paul Bockelman's 1st SB meeting

Comptroller Sonia Aldrich updated the Select Board and new Town Manager Paul Bockelman on Monday night about the current financial shape of the town and it was a good to great report.

The town closed out FY16 with a surplus of $1.7 million from a total budget of $72.5 million, which included a $295,000 payment from UMass on the Hotel/Motel tax representing 21 months or almost two years worth.

UMass played hardball and bullied the town into signing a lousy 3.5 year "Strategic Agreement" with the caveat they would pay the Campus Center Hotel tax retroactively after they had ceased paying it due to a legal loophole.

The town now has $6.9 million in Stabilization, a savings account that requires a two thirds vote of Town Meeting to appropriate. 

And Free Cash, which only requires a majority vote to spend, once all the grants come in will be anywhere from $4.4 to  $4.9 million so total reserves could end up close to $12 million. 

Which sounds like a lot.  But not so much when you consider the four major building projects coming up that will require over $100 million in local tax dollars. 

The first of which, the new $65 million Mega School Override, comes up on the November 8th ballot.

DUI Dishonor Roll

MADD:  2014 drivers between ages 21-24 had highest percentage fatal crashes (30%)

Unfortunately it's a safe bet this coming weekend will have many times over the number of impaired drivers on the road, not only because our beloved students are back but also because it's a major holiday with one extra night to party hardy.

Jake Nolan, age 24, arrested by APD

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Alec Grater Cafiero, age 22, arrested by UMPD