Amherstworks Gets To Work

The main open space is big enough to fly a drone

The new shared co-worker space where entrepreneurs will huddle opened for business today in the former First National Bank building, a downtown icon for almost 100 years.

Back in the day bricks and mortar banks like First National were drivers of the economy.

These days it's the Internet, and with one gigabit WiFi at Amherstworks and coffee from Amherst Coffee, building a better mousetrap has never been easier.

The vault conference room

 Meetings will certainly be secure

Halloween Hangover

AFD on scene Townehouse for college aged woman with face laceration from headbutt

I kind of figured Halloween weekend would not be the time to see an improvement in the drunk meter index and sure enough it was not.

In fact, even with the "impact shift" on duty we ran out of ambulances as all five were out (mostly for intoxicated college students) and Belchertown FD had to respond via mutual aid.

Amherst College was one for three with ETOH EMS runs, Hampshire College three of seven and our proud flagship of higher education UMass/AMHERST a whopping 13 of 22.

AFD Halloween Runs by Larry Kelley on Scribd

Drug Rip Off Gone Bad

Patrick Bemben was knocked out by the residents of the house he invaded

Patrick Bemben intake photo courtesy APD

So not overly surprising but no less shocking, the home invasion hatchet incident from late Saturday night on South East Street turned out to be a drug raid gone wrong.  And no, not a planned police drug raid but four would be Ninjas who wanted to rip off the alleged drug dealers.

In Eastern Hamsphire District Court today Judge Thomas Estes upheld the Commonwealth's request Patrick Bemben, age 25, be designated too dangerous to release on bail.

Even though his parents and girlfriend were in attendance the Judge agreed with ADA Bob Opsitnik and Mr. Bemben will be held in jail until his trial.

Play Ball!

Potwine Lane Fields Saturday:  No soccer for you!

Saturday was a local sports lovers delight as UMass and Amherst College played home football games and amazingly UMass won while Amherst College lost (probably due to bad karma from "taking a knee" during the national anthem a while back),

Amherst College lost

The premier town soccer fields at Potwine Lane in South Amherst however, were all dressed up with nowhere to go as the Saturday games were rescheduled to other fields because neighbors continue to have problems with traffic on game day.

UMass won (must have been the flag)

Considering the town spent $500,000 in Community Preservation Funds to develop the "soccer fields" ten years ago you have to wonder if the CPA committee might ask for our tax money back if the utilization is cut back to keep the NIMBYs happy.

Scary Saturday

Townehouse Apartments East Quad 4:30 PM Saturday

Townehouse Quad Sunday morning

In addition to dealing with the usual large exuberant crowd gathered at Townhouse Apartments quad area, drunk drivers, noise complaints and fist fights Amherst police and Massachusetts State Police also investigated a hatchet assault on South East Street that required AFD transport to Baystate critical care unit in Springfield.

 Very large police presence on S. East Street since 1:00 AM

Chief Livingstone confirms an arrest was made (Patrick Bemben) and that eerily similar to the shooting death two weeks ago at Southpoint Apartments this was not a random act of violence, so the neighborhood need net be concerned about their security.

DA statement (Click to enlarge/read)

The rented house seemed to be specifically targeted by the four perps who were dressed in all black, used walkie talkies to communicate with one another and were armed with a hatchet and knife.  

Police spent hours looking for the other attackers using the MSP Air Wing and a K9 unit.  AFD also  used one of their thermal imaging cameras to search the wooded area.

MSP Air 1

Sayonara CAC

Town Manager Paul Bockelman and Select Board member Andy Steinberg attended final CAC meeting this Friday morning

After 36 public meetings, 7 private negotiation sessions, 2 public forums and countless hours reading draft after draft of a complicated contract the Cable Advisory Committee voted unanimously this morning to dissolve.

But like a phoenix (or zombie) they will revive in about eight years when the ten year contract with Comcast is a couple years shy of expiring.

Chair Dee Shabazz thanked her fellow committee members saying she could not have lasted this long as Chair without them, especially in light of the "negativity" of Comcast.

Town Manager Paul Bockelman followed up saying, "You were a stabilizing force over the course of four Town Managers."

Steinberg thanked them on behalf of the entire Select Board saying he now, "Really regrets we didn’t get more involved earlier.  But we were busy hiring a new Town Manager.  Amherst did however get extraordinary amount of capital ($1.125 million), more so than any other municipality in the state."

Negotiations are done with Comcast but now the town will negotiate a new ten year contract with Amherst Media who normally gets the entire 5% cut of revenues annually (about $300,000) as well as the one time capital amount ($1.125 million).

The stickler this time around will be the iNet, which the town relies on for all its data, phones, Internet and therefor is a benefit to every taxpayer in town rather than just the cable subscribers who benefit by it for their cable TV.

Select Board Chair Alisa Brewer made it clear the town would be keeping some of that $1.125 million in order to build a new iNet, which Comcast says we have to do within three years.  Early projections for that cost are in the $200,000 range.  

Ten Year High

The Special Town Meeting starting November 14 has 23 articles on the warrant -- the most in ten years -- including controversial zoning articles and of course the $66,339,000 debt exclusion for the new Mega School.  Zoning and Debt Exclusion require a challenging two-thirds vote to pass.

Thus it's a pretty safe bet the number of cold dark nights 150 or so Town Meeting members will have to trudge to the Middle School Auditorium will be in the neighborhood of 5 (as it was in 2007 with a 20 article warrant).

Jerry Guidera's three zoning articles to make it reasonably easier to do commercial development on the immediate outskirts of the downtown will bring out the NIMBY crowds in full force.

And the Planning Board's attempt yet again at "Inclusionary Zoning" -- requiring larger housing developments to have 10% of the units affordable -- will also be controversial as some view it as anti business and others think it's not anti business enough.

The Fire Station $75,000 for phase 1 feasibility and site selection should fly through as the average age of Town Meeting is ancient and therefor they understand how vital AFD is for Emergency Medical Services (as well as fires of course).

But the $350,000 for phase 2 of the new DPW building schematic design and construction cost estimate will certainly not get the same smooth sailing, especially if the Mega School mega million debt exclusion passes earlier in Town Meeting.

With the Charter Commission starting to align Town Meeting in the crosshairs for possible extinction at least members will be on their best behavior (which is not saying much.)

   11/14/16 Amherst Special Town Meeting Warrant by Larry Kelley on Scribd