The Best Laid Plans

Town Meeting redirected the preliminary path hatched by town officials to deal with four major building projects by turning down the two-for-one $67 million Mega School that would have orphaned Fort River, a preferred site for the new DPW thus allowing the new South Fire Station to occupy their former (really) old site next to my house.

Fort River Elementary School

Last night Town Meeting added more delay by voting down the $350,000 for Schematic Design of the DPW a kind of stage 2 process, but did approve $75,000 for South Fire Station stage 1 study.  But if that study shows the DPW site to be the best choice for the new Fire Station then that confirms the additional delay of a at least a year.

 Current DPW is located in 100 year old former Trolley building

And the town has already squandered 50 years delaying the new South Fire Station.

Preliminary figures bandied about for the new Fire Station are in the $12 million range and the new DPW three times that with no state reimbursement.   The Jones Library expansion/renovation in the $32 million range with the state paying $15 million, private donations of $5 million, and a taxpayer Debt Exclusion Override of $12 million.

And the just torpedoed $67 Mega School was to be 50% state funded the other half a Debt Exclusion Override.

AFD Central Station a sardine can for expensive equipment

If the town really wanted to score points with some of us curmudgeons they would tap our $12 million in stashed away reserves and light a fire under the new Fire Station process.

With that vital necessity out of the way the other projects stand a better chance because the town would have demonstrated it knows how to set priorities. (For a change.)

Sour Grapes

Amherst School Committee 11/15/16

Rather than accept the losing vote as an indication that something was not right with the exceedingly expensive building project, three-fifths of the School Committee chose to bitterly blame Town Meeting for not upholding the "will of the people" from last week's ballot vote.

But you have to wonder if those three are math challenged since the two votes mirrored each other almost identically ... except for the outcome.

In 1968 President Johnson beat challenger Gene McCarthy by 7% in the New Hampshire primary but not nearly the margin he should have won by.  So he quit the race.

A 50.47% margin is fine when only a majority is required but still, to quote Eric Nakajima, "indicates the town is deeply divided."  But when that same measure required 66.67% a razor thin majority is NOT EVEN CLOSE.

In fact even the "popular vote" last Tuesday they are so quick to cite the question DID NOT GET A MAJORITY.  Out of the 15,089 votes cast 1,571 (10.4%) left the Mega School question blank.  So the overall vote carried by only 45.21% in favor to 44.38% against or less than a majority.

Perhaps Mr. Nakajima is showing his experience with elections.  He told his fellow committee members that he voted for the measure in Town Meeting, "but was not surprised by the result".

And now it's time to move forward to address those two buildings shortcomings in a manner that will win broad support.

"Everyone in town owns the solution."

Marla reads SASS statement.  Select Board Chair Alisa Brewer sits behind her.  Rockwell Town Meeting iconic illustration top right

Marla Goldberg-Jamate read a statement to the Committee during public comment from the winning side, Save Amherst Small Schools:

Click to enlarge/read

Acting Superintendent Mike Morris told the Committee he has ten days to ask the state for an extension but will not since Town Meeting, "Emphatically said no."

And he would start the process to reapply to the MSBA as soon as possible but would do so under the "core program" and not the "accelerated repair program" since both buildings needs extensive work.

Since Wildwood has been updated more over the recent past it may very well be Fort River that will now step up to the plate for MSBA funding.  Fort River is in need of a  $1+ million roof replacement while Wildwood is in need of a $400,000 new boiler.

Ironically Town Meeting appropriated the $400,000 for the Wildwood boiler a few years ago but then that money was diverted into the $1 million schematic design that came up with the just defeated Mega School.

 Vince O'Connor tells School Committee the $350,000 Town Meeting will vote on tonight for DPW schematic design should be redirected to school building issue

Just Say No

Town Meeting members had to negotiate a gauntlet of No supporters to get to auditorium

After two hours and twenty minutes of discussion Town Meeting voted no

In spite of narrow (50.8%) ballot support last week, 100% Select Board support, and a rah rah Daily Hampshire Gazette editorial, Amherst Town Meeting rejected the $66.4 million new Mega School by almost the same margin it passed on November 8.

The measure required a two thirds vote to pass since it involved borrowing but did not even muster a majority, losing 106 to 108 or 49.53% yes to 50.47% no.

The fatal flaw was not so much in the bricks and mortar construction -- the idea of twin schools under one roof -- but in the paradigm shift it would bring to neighborhood schools turning Crocker Farm into an "early childhood center" (Kindergarten and 1st grade) and building a Mega School for co-located 2-6 grades.

After the fall of former Superintendent Maria Geryk (who landed on a $300,000 cushion) the Select Board should have delayed both the ballot vote and Town Meeting article.

They have until February 2 so there's plenty of time to call another Special Town Meeting to try again, but with the stunning setback last night it's highly unlikely it would prevail.  

And The Children Shall Follow

ARHS 12:30 PM

Following suit with protests across the country about 1,000 Amherst Regional High School and Middle School students walked out of school today at 12:30 PM and marched to Amherst Town center for an anti-Trump rally on the common.  Well, many of them made it that far.

The weather was a perfect late fall day with plenty of sunshine with temperatures in the low 60s.  And plenty of Amherst police were on hand to do traffic control all along the way.

Amherst of course overwhelmingly supported Secretary Clinton by a ten to one margin over Trump 12,374 for Clinton to Trump's 1,250.

 Most of them made it to the Town Common

Although the vast majority of  these protesting students were not old enough to cast a ballot on November 8th.

But four years from now they can make their voices heard in the most American way possible.  As happened last Tuesday.

"An Extreme Form Of Dissent"

 Hampshire College flag at half staff protesting election of Donald Trump

The pernicious burning of our flag at Hampshire College does not surprise me.  At all.

What does surprise me is College President Jonathan Lash had actually endorsed lowering the flag to half staff the day before, a violation of federal flag protocol, in response to the election of Donald Trump.

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 Hampshire College Board of Trustess statement

Symbolically that misses the mark because lowering the flag to half staff is always to mourn the death of an individual or a large group due to terrorism or natural disaster.    So a better response would have been to fly the flag upside down, which symbolizes dire distress.

15 years ago, only five weeks after 9/11, a group of Hampshire College students and one professor infiltrated an "Assembly for Patriotism" at nearby Amherst College and as the rally was winding down spread a large flag on the ground, stomped on it chanting "This flag does not represent us," and then burned two small American flags.

That photo of those two small flags ablaze in the hands of a nitwit dressed in all black appeared on the front page of the Boston Globe the next day setting off a firestorm.

In response Amherst College President Tom Gerety issued a public statement that perfectly addressed the sad situation.  Then and now:

   Amherst College Flag Burning 2001 by Larry Kelley on Scribd

DUI Triple Dishonor Roll

The errant vehicle demolished a bus shelter and killed a man waiting there Sunday night

Bus Stop late this afternoon

So I often get criticized on Twitter for using thumbnails from Google images of drunk driving fatal crashes to illustrate a drunk driving post because it does not reflect the actual incidents I cover with my routine "DUI Dishonor Roll" series shedding light on weekend arrests for drunk driving.

But every now and then, sadly, a local incident occurs that drives home my point:  Drunk drivers kill!  Last year over 10,000 innocent people.

Last weekend, in addition to the three drunk drivers APD took off the road, one still at large drunk driver screamed through town center on a beautiful Sunday night and directly trampled a 55-year-man sitting on a bench waiting for a PVTA bus.

Since the perp was piloting a commercial style heavy-duty truck and the victim was sitting, he stood no chance whatsoever of surviving.

 The Death Machine

Police have impounded the vehicle, but since it was reported stolen early the next morning, it is exceedingly hard to prove who was driving it.

About to graduate UMass student Danny Haley, age 24, was slaughtered by a wrong way drunk driver on Rt 116 in Hadley in 2012.  To this day his family keeps up a memorial

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In Eastern Hampshire District Court on Monday all three APD weekend arrests had their cases continued until next month.

 Matthew Vasquez, age 27

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Kyle Kitlinski, age 21

Luis Gonzales, age 21

Salute

Amherst Town Common 11:00 AM

About 50 citizens showed up for the town ceremony on the historic North Common somewhat under the big ceremonial US flag the town flies on special occasions along with the 30 commemorative flags now flying in the downtown.

Select Board Chair Alisa Brewer gave a short measured speech about how the town needs to be accepting of veterans even if they seem somewhat different from our usual demographic.

 Select Board Chair Alisa Brewer briefly addresses the crowd

The Veterans Day ceremony/observance was revived exactly 15 years ago in the immediate wake of 9/11.

It had been at least a generation or maybe two since the town hosted a Veterans Day ceremony as back then the town was far more interested in hosting/celebrating the anti-war movement, which occasionally crossed into anti-veteran territory.

In fact the newly revived ceremony in 2001 was crashed by abrasive protesters (the invasion of Afghanistan to get Osama bin Laden had just begun) who outnumbered the more respectful celebrants who dared to show up.

Just when things were about to escalate to a riot stage, a pair of majestic A-10 warthogs screamed in from the south and flew over the heated crowd at the lowest altitude I have ever seen.

Everything came to a dead silent stop -- kind of like slapping a person who has briefly gone hysterical.  Folks on both sides came to their senses, and quietly left the field of battle. 

 Today's ceremony was nothing but respectful