Last Chance To Early Vote

Pro (green) and anti (red) new mega school signs created a gauntlet for student voters to negotiate

Friday at Town Hall is the last opportunity for Amherst registered voters to do the their civic duty in a most convient manner i.e. not standing in a long line. 

 Line at Student Union was consistent all day long

Today was the final day for UMass early voting and it was a pretty impressive turnout: 640 voters. Amherst Town Hall precinct handled 360. 

I couldn't help but notice advocates for and against ballot Question 5 -- the $67 million mega school -- were standing on the Student Union stairs, well within the 150 foot distance that is supposed to be maintained for campaign materials.

The Town Clerk said that rule does not apply for early voting although inside the Student Union a sign warned against campaigning "within the voting area."

Last chance Amherst Town Hall Friday 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM

DUI Dishonor Roll

 

In 2014, three times as many males were arrested for drunk driving as females

Considering how many drunk runs AFD had over the Halloween weekend I was actually a little surprised there were not more drunk driving arrests. 

In all Amherst "only" had three total, two of them APD and the other one by UMPD.  All three took the legally admissible breath test and the results were not even close.

Only one however, Steven Ferry, came to an immediate pleas deal with the Commonwealth, a standard 24D disposition. 

 Steven Ferry, age 22, stands before Judge Thomas Estes

Click to enlarge/read

Judge Estes was uncomfortable with him making such a quick decision so he assigned him a public defender who did not talk him out of it.  Probably a good thing, with a BAC three times the legal limit.

So an hour later he came back before Judge Estes. After the Judge accepted his signed plea -- aka "green sheet" -- he asked the standard question of "where did you have your last drink."   Mr. Ferry responded "Mission Cantina" in South Amherst. 

 Luke Toomey, age 22

 

Luke Wallace decided to hire his own private attorney and Keith Diaz had a public defender assigned to him.  Both will return to District Court next month. 

 

Keith Diaz, age 20

 

Fireground: Tamarack Drive

Fire appears to have started upstairs westernmost side of building

Fortunately there were no injures today but the house at Tamarack Drive appears to be a total loss.  Unfortunately two dogs did perish in the conflagration. 

 APD was also on scene in force to assist

The box alarm was struck around noon and only minutes after Assistant Chief Lindsay Stromgren arrived on the scene he requested a second alarm which brought mutual aid from Northampton, Hadley, South Hadley, Pelham and Belchertown EMS.

 Probably around 25,000 gallons of water was used

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

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Chief Nelson on the scene

And yes, B2 got a little too close to a tree and required rescue (but she's fine).

 Engine 1 and Engine 2 were first on the scene

I Hate Fire!

UMass is a safe campus.  But you can never be too safe with fire

And you should too. 

But that doesn't mean you should not prepare for it. 

Click to enlarge/read

Please join the Amherst Fire Department, UMass Environmental Health & Safety, Dunn & Phillips Law firm and two victims who survived a devastating fire to learn simply strategies to survive should the Beast come calling.

Ninja #Fail Police Report

Patrick Bemben, only one of four home invaders arrested (so far)

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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