A $100 Million Here, A $100 Million There

The attendance peaked at 35

The town probably set a new record for number of meeting participants with a joint meeting of 5 boards/committees and town staff: Select Board, Finance Committee, School Committee, Jones Library Trustees, DPW/Fire Station Study Committee.

And before the digital dust settled the final tally for all four building projects presented came to $100 million in town money, or one tenth of a BILLION.

The purpose of the meeting was to briefly pitch their individual projects and then hear about how the town might finance all of them.

With total town savings in Free Cash and Stabilization at around $12 million only the Fire Station could be immediately paid for out of savings alone. But unfortunately the South Fire Station is scheduled to be the last of the four projects to break ground.

The $67 million Mega School is already scheduled to go first on the November 8 ballot with a debt exclusion that will cost town taxpayers about half that total amount.

And the other project funded via a $12 million debt exclusion with be the $32 million Jones Library expansion with the state paying $15 million and private donations covering $5 million.

The $50 million or so from those two debt exclusions, if passed, will cost the average single family homeowner $500 per year.  Amherst already is in the top ten in the state for high property tax rates.

The DPW/Fire Station Study Committee will come to Town Meeting in November with a request for $350,000 in "schematic design" for the DPW project and $75,000 for the "feasibility and site design" of the new Fire Station. 

We Have The Technology

UMass owns BIG tank (1.5 million gallons), the town owns little one (475K gallons)

The Amherst water supply system is a fine tuned operation that efficiently delivers vital water to homes, businesses and our institutes of higher education.  The problem occurs when there is not enough water being replenished via Mother Nature.

A sophisticated monitoring system feeds into a control station at the DPW to automatically adjust water tower levels and almost like a thermostat will signal industrial wells to kick in accordingly to keep up with demand.

 Holding Rudy in reserve

At the moment that demand is just under the 3.5 millions gallons per day the town set as a benchmark for dealing with the drought, although peak day hit 3.7 mgd on Wednesday, September 7th.

Last year peak day was September 6th with 4.2 millions gallons used, so we're still ahead of the game.

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Atkins Reservoir is going off line on September 21st joining Hawley and Hills reservoirs which are also in hibernation, thus leaving the town relying solely on our wells.  It takes three or four days to properly shut down Atkins and another three or four to fire it back up.

Atkins and Centennial will be off line as of September 21

We did this once last winter for a month or so -- but not while UMass was in session -- and for a more extended period way back in the early 1980s.

Four of the five wells are tied into the DPW monitoring station for electronic control but (backup) Well 5 is not and has to be fired up and adjusted by hand.  And after 5-7 days it needs to be shut down for a while to rest.  But well 5 is the only one with a name: "Rudy".

Probably because after the brief hiatus he comes off the bench, kicks back on, and delivers the 500,000 gallons per day that could be a make or break difference in the very near future.  Go Rudy!

 Rudy:  The little well that could

Conservation: Don't Stop!

Atkins Reservoir today. 75 of 200 million gallons remain (37.5%)

Atkins Treatment Plant goes off line September 21st meaning we will  have zero reservoirs in use

With Atkins Reservoir now down 8' 11" and fast approaching the all time low of minus 10' it's time to double down on the water ban.  Our other two reservoirs in Pelham are completely off-line and will stay that way for at least another six weeks.

 Pelham Reservoir currently off line

Hills Reservoir currently off line

Click to enlarge photos or graphs

 That red splotch keeps growing and heading our way

Even if consumption peaks at  4.2 mgd (like last year) the wells  alone can handle it (unless Wells 3 or 4 go down)

Atkins sandbar 8/21/16

Atkins sandbar 9/12/16

Lost Weekends

AFD at UMass horse barn fire September 4th

   AFD Weekend Run Summary 9-9-2016

While substance abuse calls to the campuses take up about 10% of AFD total emergency runs spread out over an entire year the percentage goes WAY up on weekends, which is peak period for binge drinking.

For instance in this weekend report Amherst College is at 100%, Hampshire College 60% and UMass 56%. 

And each drunk run ties up an ambulance for at least an hour meaning they are not available for any other serious emergency.

Time for our colleges and FLAGSHIP University to double down on this problem.

9/11/16

Amherst College

UMass/Amherst

BigY Amherst/Hadley

Amherst Town center 

 AFD North Station

Tunnel to Tower race Sylvan Dorm ground view

125 foot view

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.

 Click to enlarge/read