Mayor It Is!

All nine Amherst Charter Commissioners present (one by remote participation)

After spending almost an hour discussing a compromise proposal made by Meg Gage to salvage Town Meeting --  although downsizing it from 240 to 60 -- the Amherst Charter Commission stuck to their guns about replacing Town Meeting with a 13 member Council and then after a brief discussion voted 6-3 to support a (strong) Mayor in place of an unelected Town Manager.

In 2003 the Mayor/Council/Manager proposal to replace Select Board/Town Manager/Town Meeting failed by only 14 votes almost exclusively because the Mayor was a weak ceremonial figurehead.

Two weeks ago the Charter Commission heard from Northampton Mayor Dave Narkewicz who assured them professional management comes from putting together a strong team of department heads under the direction of one leader, where the buck always stops.

Mayor Dave Narkewicz (ctr), Mike Sullivan (rt)

When asked by Charter Chair Andy Churchill for any parting advice Mayor Narkewicz replied, "Make roles very clear.  Don't come up with a diluted mish-mash.  Know where the buck stops.  Don't go with a fake Mayor."

Tonight the Amherst Charter Commission took that advice to heart and made a huge step forward towards real genuine change, one that voters will embrace.

DUI Dishonor Roll

 

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

Surprisingly Amherst PD did not make a single arrest for drunk driving last (Superbowl) weekend. 

Maybe everybody was too engrossed in the Superbowl drama to overindulge but you would have thought the celebrations from the stunning outcome would have resulted in a few folks making that major error in judgment.

UMass Police, however, did make two arrests. 

And since both of the perps took the legally admissible Breathalyzer test the likelihood of them beating the charge is about the same as the Patriots 4th quarter comeback.

Finn McCool, age 21, stands before Judge Thomas Estes

Click to enlarge/read

 Matthew Pham, age 20

Click to enlarge/read

Ninjas Gone Bad

Stephanos Georgiadis appears before Judge O'Grady

The judicial system is slowly but surely grinding its way to justice in the violent home invasion that somewhat shocked Amherst on October 30th last year.

 Click to enlarge/read

I say "somewhat" because it came soon after an even more shocking incident, a handgun murder that occurred at Southpoint apartments on October 15th, which is not all that far from the house that was invaded on South East Street.

Three of the perps have now been apprehended, so it's only a matter of time before the 4th is brought to justice.  Score one for the l-o-n-g arm of the law.

Didn't have my external microphone so turn up your volume

One Miracle Per Season

'Twill be a cold day in Hell when a Referendum vote overrides Town Meeting

What are the odds of Amherst voters supporting a measure that would increase their already extraordinary high property taxes by another few hundred dollars per year on a controversial building project now needing a two-thirds super majority?

About as likely as the Patriots last quarter comeback from a 28-3 deficit.

 About 1,700 signatures submitted to Town Clerk yesterday vs 7,000 who voted no on November 8th

But Mega School supporters do not have a Tom Brady leading their team.  In fact main wine-&-cheese cheerleader School Committee Chair Katherine Appy has already announced she will not be running for reelection.

 Crowd of about 50 (less than 1% of town voters) turned out last night for SC meeting

Her going away present was getting the School Committee to vote last night 4-1 against withdrawing the Mega School project from the MSBA process which now kills the prospects of reapplying this year with a Statement Of Interest to get back in the pipeline for a new improved project with real majority support.

The only thing that ever wins in Amherst by a two-thirds margin is a Democrat for President running against the Devil, err, Republican and perhaps a pot resolution.  In fact no Override ballot question over the past 30 years has passed (and about half have failed) by a two-thirds margin.

Now the rancor will continue until March 28th and in the end it will all be in vain.  Town officials fiddle while Amherst burns.

Amherst EMS: A New Normal

AFD provides ambulances to Amherst, Hadley, Leverett, Pelham & Shutesbury

This past weekend was not nearly as crazy as last weekend when AFD had to rely on NINE outside ambulances via mutual aid but three outside ambulances were required.  So still not acceptable.

Interestingly the difference in total calls was only seven less going from 56 down to 49 but it was the timing of the calls, which is the problem with ETOH (overly drunk) incidents as they tend to come in clusters.

   AFD Superbowl Weekend by Larry Kelley on Scribd

And staffing last weekend was only 8 compared to 11 this weekend.  Thus demonstrating proper staffing makes all the difference.

Celebrate, Celebrate, Dance To The Music

Southwest concourse last night just after Patriots stunning comeback victory

Perhaps this a good sign for looking forward to March and what town officials refer to as, "The event that shall not be named."  Yes, thousands of UMass students can gather in unbridled celebration without riot gear clad police and pepper spray being required for dispersal.

Of course I do have to wonder if the game had ended differently in those final mesmerizing minutes of play and a large angry crowd had formed instead of the jubilant crowd, what the outcome might have been.



But all's well that ends well.  No arrests, only a few medical calls and no bad press for our flagship University.  Let's hope the BLARNEY BLOWOUT goes equally as well.

Fireground East Pleasant Street

Area units on scene with AFD Super Bowl Sunday morning

South Hadley E4 providing station coverage at Central Station this morning

As is the case with any major structure fire AFD required a little help from their friends, specifically: Northampton Fire Department, Pelham Fire Department, Hadley Fire Department, South Hadley District 2 Fire Department, Belchertown Ambulance, and South County Ambulance.

Fortunately this morning the smoke detectors did their job and all three residents home at the time made it to safety, although the structure's top floor sustained heavy damage and those below probably a fair amount of water damage.

But what if this awful event had occurred a week -- minus a few hours -- earlier?  AFD was so overwhelmed last weekend by medical calls (mostly alcohol related at UMass) that NINE mutual aid ambulances from surrounding departments were required to cover the calamity!

Since AFD is in ready mode for the Super Bowl we had 10 on duty and thus were able to muster a decent initial response, which can make a life or death difference.

Either way area departments would have responded because the emergency response system state-wide for fire/EMS is always spread ultra thin. 



And when the Beast comes calling it takes a combined effort of on-duty personnel area wide and our off-duty firefighters to meet the challenge.

This time, we won.