DUI DIshonor Roll

 

Every two minutes, a person is injured in a drunk driving crash

Somewhat surprisingly -- considering how busy our little college town was over the weekend -- APD took "only" three drivers off the road for "allegedly" driving with impaired enough sensibilities to be a threat to the general public, aka drunk driving.

Since all three took the legally admissible -- borderline infallible -- Breathalyzer Test back at APD headquarters, their chances of being declared innocent by a "jury of their peers" is pretty much zero.

If you refuse the BT it's an automatic loss of license for six months;  if you take it and it shows you're drunk (.08 threshold) it's a loss of license for only 45 days but with associated costs of $2,587.

So what's an impaired driver to do?

Unfortunately if you refuse the BT that is not admissible in court as evidence, so a prosecutor must rely on he-said-she-said testimony of the arresting officer.  And some DUI attorneys specialize in picking apart trained police officers.

If declared innocent by a jury the attorney simply petitions the Registry of Motor Vehicles to instantly reinstate the license.  Eureka.  At least until their client does it again and slaughters an innocent family enroute to a wedding.

Although the state Supreme Judicial Court struck a blow for common sense public safety on Thursday by upholding the concept that a prosecutor can enter into evidence a failed BT because the driver couldn't follow the simple rules for a proper BT.

   Breath Test Screw Up

Simple that is if you're sober. 

In other words it sends the message to a potential jury that the driver was, you know, impaired.  Drunk.  Dangerous.  Deadly.

In Eastern Hampshire District Court this morning all three defendents were arraigned before Judge Patricia Poehler and had their cases continued.

Ryan Gardner, age 25

Click to enlarge/read

 Boon Gibson, age 25

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Michael Bilodeau, age 20

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A Litany of Open Meeting Complaints

Regional School Committee:  the hits just keep on coming

Michael Hootstein, a watchdog with sharp teeth and a sharper legal mind, filed yet another Open Meeting Law complaint against our beleaguered and dwindling Amherst Pelham Regional School Committee that at the very least should get the attention of bureaucrats at the Attorney General's office.

 Attorney Tom Colomb

Perhaps it's time for the state simply to come in an take over administrative oversight of our discombobulated Regional Schools -- aka receivership.

   More OML Complaints

OML complaint in Google Documents (click this link)

Fight Fire With Fire

More than a few tailgaters did not make it to the game

 Weather was a plus

Since yesterday's tailgate for the 1st UMass football home game went so well. maybe the powers that be should consider replicating the party this coming March to mitigate the Blarney Blowout.

Which of course they pretty much do anyway with an expensive concert at the Mullins Center.  So maybe allow tailgating there, or hold the concert at the McGuirk Stadium.

 Future scene from the Walking Dead

Seems the camaraderie of cars, youthful exuberance, the outdoors, and of course alcohol can be mixed in such a way so as not to lead to a wildfire of mayhem.

Drought Dilemma

Amherst Regional High School late this afternoon

Water to drink, flush toilets and fight fires ... or water to keep athletic fields green and soft?

With the water crisis getting anything but better, and with the current concern being a closure of our #1 employer, UMass/AMHERST, do we really want to relax water protocols now in favor of athletics?

Click to enlarge/read

Cable Contract Conundrum

Amherst Select Board will accept or deny multi-million deal on September 26

The standoff between the town and Comcast for the right to provide 7,000 Amherst residents with more TV channels than they can possibly use escalated a notch on Monday night with new Town Manager Paul Bockelman reporting to the Select Board that Comcast's "final offer" for a ten year contract renewal had gotten a tad better.

The Cable Advisory Committee and Temporary Town Manager Peter Hochenbleikner had negotiated an offer from Comcast that increased the one time capital payment from $450,000 ten years ago to $950,000 now and an additional $10,000 per year in iNet maintenance in years 4 through ten ($70K) paid to the town.

Or a total offer of of just over one million with $950K available for Amherst Media.

The asking price from the CAC -- with much input from our local cable access provider Amherst Media -- was for a one time payment of $2.2 million.  Therein lies the battle.

But now the counter offer to avoid a denial of license renewal and expensive time consuming appeal hearing process has escalated to $1.125 million and $25,000 per year years 4 through ten on iNet maintenance.

Or a total offer of $950K for Amherst Media (because now the $175K in iNet maintenance is included in the $1.125 million)

Either way the one time capital payment comes out of the pockets of the 7,000 subscribers.

But the Select Board still fell short of accepting the deal and put off that final decision until their September 26th meeting, which is the final chance to approve/deny the renewal which expires October 15th.

In the meantime they asked the Cable Advisory Committee for their opinion on the counteroffer so that Town Manager Paul Bockelman can decide whether to return to the negotiation table or not.

 CAC and Amherst Media (and a Gazette reporter) this morning

This morning the Cable Advisory Committee voted unanimously to ask the Town Manager to seek $1.6625 million in one time capital -- although that includes the $175K paid over seven years for iNet maintenance -- an increase of $500,000 and the guarantee that three PEG channels (Amherst Media) be brought up to HD status.

At the very end of the three hour meeting (scheduled for only two) Amherst Media Director Jim Lescault distributed correspondence that indicated how arduous those closed door negotiation sessions were with charges of homophobia against the town hired attorney by Comcast's negotiator and his physical bullying of ACA Chair Dee Shabazz.

   Complaint To Comcast

Blockbuster Party

North Pleasant Street from Amity to Triangle Street became a no vehicle zone

 

One good thing about our lack of rainy weather is it makes for a perfect backdrop for outdoor activities -- especially on a large scale.  And in our little college town things don't get much larger than the annual Block Party.

DPW used fleet of large vehicles to close off streets

Thousands of residents converged on a safely closed off downtown to partake of our culture, cuisine and camaraderie.

AFD will miss having such a Central location (but that's about all they'll miss)

Great job by Business Improvement District and Chamber of Commerce as well as their partners AFD, APD and our DPW.

 St. Brigid's would love to see this crowd on Sunday

Birdie the 2nd had a blast.

 Caught in the act by Kevin Collins

Red Alert!

Today's bad news

Atkins Reservoir this morning now two-thirds depleted

Conservation is good, and we're doing a good job with it. BUT WE NEED RAIN.

Desperate times call for desperate measures: Friday is a full-moon with zero chance of rain. Let's have a giant rain dance on the Town Common. 

Maybe we can get the Native Americans who are fired up about the solar farm in Shutesbury to come perform.

And we can get the UMass cheerleading squad for extra motivation and the Power and Class of New England UMass Marching Band to play a few sad Irish songs to move Mother Nature to tears, along with a few kegs of beer for (de)hydration.

Game on!