And Then There Were 30

With liberty and justice for all

Amherst will remember the saddest day of our -- or any other -- generation this Sunday with the 15th annual 9/11 ceremony at North Fire Station.

The commemorative flags and the BIG flag in town center came down on Tuesday after being up for Labor Day but returned this morning for the sad Sunday anniversary.

And for the first time in history, the commemorative flags number the original 30 that were purchased back in the summer of 2001.

29 of them went up in town center in the middle of August that year on an absolutely gorgeous summer morning but immediately created controversy because they made our little college town look to patriotically festive.

On the night of September 10th -- the Eve of Destruction -- after hearing a UMass professor brand our flag "A symbol of terrorism and death and fear and destruction and repression," the Select Board decided to allow them up for only six holidays annually.

The next morning the world changed, but Amherst did not.

But last year, under the leadership of Chair Alisa Brewer, the Select Board finally came to their senses and unanimously added 9/11 to the annual days the commemorative flags can fly, for as long as the Republic stands.

A less responsive Select Board circa 2012

Old Chapel, UMass Amherst

Charter Commission Chugging Along

Charter Commission interviewing Mike Ward, Tanya Stepaskuk from Collins Center

The 9 member Amherst Charter Commission met again last night with the main order of business to hear from potential consultants for the long slog ahead. 

A team from the Collins Center UMass Boston gave a 20 minute presentation that demonstrated a wealth of experience with helping to craft new Charters. 

And next week they will hear from Bernie Lynch and Lauren Goldberg, two independent consultants who will be making a joint proposal to the Commission for the job.  Goldberg works for Kopelman & Paige our official town legal counsel and Mr. Lynch did the most recent search for a new Town Manager.

Former Temporary Town Manager Pete Hechenbleikner did not put in for the consulting job because he used up the allowed amount of time working as our Town Manager and any further income would negatively impact his retirement. 

The Charter Commission is currently on a major "listening tour" reaching out to the general public in every way possible to collect feedback on what makes our town work and how can they can craft a new government to make it work better.

On their Charter page on the town website citizens can sign up to a list serve and follow them on Facebook.

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DUI Dishonor Roll

Drunk driving involvement in fatal crashes in 2014 was almost four times higher at night than during the day

Amherst police arrested three drivers on the charge of drunk driving over the long weekend and all three of them failed the legally admissible Breathalyzer test back at the station. And a legally admissible BT doesn't lie.

 Shealee Engen, age 21, stands before Judge Estes

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 Devin McCormick, age 24

 Brennan McKenna, age 26 took a Ch24D disposition 

Well At Least It Wasn't A Drone

Youri Thernelan, age 20

In addition to an Amherst College panty thief and a would be rapist posing as an Uber driver, UMPD also arrested a UMass student for surreptitiously photographing a young woman taking a shower.  Of course he probably should have shut off his flash if he really wanted to be stealthy.

Youri Thernelan was arraigned in Eastern Hampshire District Court Tuesday, released on his own recognizance, but must stay away from the victim (who was not identified in court documents).

Click to enlarge/read (all three)

Finally: Secret Documents Revealed

Regional School Committee meeting September 7

After a nitpicking hour and a half that seemed like FOREVER the Amherst Pelham Regional School Committee voted 5-3 to release the executive session minutes spanning almost 15 hours of behind closed doors meetings, culminating in a $309,000 payout to former Superintendent Maria Geryk. 

But then member Vira Douangmany Cage changed her mind and switched to "abstain." Either way clearly Ms. Cage, Stephen Sullivan and Trevor Baptiste were unhappy with the release of the minutes and associated documents.

The key puzzle piece missing, however, are the Pelham School Committee minutes of the executive session that Maria Geryk used in her initial demand letter claiming breach of contract and defamation of character, which led to "emotional distress".

Mr. Baptiste said her characterization of what went on in that meeting was wrong, and she uses that to trash his good name as well as Dan Robb and Vira Douangmany Cage.

But at least we now know most of the real story:  Maria Geryk panicked after issuing a stay away order on March 17 to Aisha Hiza  without due process, realized after the May 5th Pelham School Committee meeting that she would not get away with it, so then desperately decided to hit the road in a new Mercedes.

And who better to know how to game the system than someone who once led that system?

This is a pretty good intro to the documents package below

   Secret Documents Dump

Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head

Atkins Reservoir September 4th, down 8' 5" with 80 of 200 million gallons remaining (40% of capacity)

Quabbin Reservoir September 6th, now at 85% of capacity

Proving that nothing brings folks together like the threat of catastrophe the UMass community and their host community the town of AMHERST managed to conserve vital water supplies at an impressive rate.

Although yes, beer consumption was probably up a tad.

 Townehouse Apartments 9/4:  Not much water being consumed here

Last year peak usage occurred on September 6th, a Sunday, with 4.2 millions gallons of water consumed.  This year, with the water ban in effect, town officials were hoping to keep it to 3.5 million gallons.

But we managed to keep this year's peak to only 3 million gallons of water.

UMass bathroom

Way to go UMass!

 Atkins Reservoir sandbar 8/21

Same Atkins Reservoir sandbar 9/4

Sometimes A Gorilla Is Just A Gorilla

So I almost feel like I should send this to Snopes to check out if it is real or not.  But I do follow a lot of kids on social media and I do know there's a sort of morbid fascination with Harambe these days, so maybe it's legit.

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 Those damn "micro aggressions"

If so:   Yikes!